The Guardian reports that construction trends are turning away from "knock it all down and start again" to retrofitting existing buildings. This is because, in the race to reach net zero, developers are looking to reduce the impact of embodied carbon. Embodied carbon includes all of the carbon used to produce the materials for construction, together with the carbon used in executing the construction itself and so retrofitting can have a far lower footprint than a newbuild.

As an example, The Guardian article refers to Marks and Spencer's plans to demolish its Marble Arch flagship store and replace it with a new build. The article notes that it would take 2.4 million trees to offset the carbon used in the construction.

Chris Cummings (director at Savills Earth) commented that “With a brand new glass and steel building in London now, 95% to 98% of the building’s impact will be in the materials, because it’s going to be lean and be using green energy, and the grid is decarbonising.” With modern technology allowing for buildings to be run in a much more energy efficient way, attention is turning to how older buildings can be brought up to scratch (both in terms of energy efficiency and fitness for purpose). Retrofitting is the clear winner in terms of environmental impact and it appears that developers are getting on board.