After two-and-a-half weeks of memorable competition, the Olympics are over, leaving many (surely most of us?) with that four year wait before our next dose of Greco-Roman wrestling. There is plenty of positive noise around sustainability at LA2028, with no new permanent venue construction. Yet, for the built environment there is no time to wait on decarbonisation. The race to Net Zero is on. Some Olympic themed reflections: 

Pacemaking 

Just out of the blocks? Mid-race? At the bell? Dipping for the line? Where is the built environment on the decarbonisation journey? For the UK, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) annual assessment of the Government’s progress in cutting emissions is a helpful reference point, looking at inter alia emissions from the built environment. The latest report is helpfully summarised by the BPF here. Perhaps fair to conclude that the UK is on the way, but needs a significant acceleration to keep pace, and the CCC sets outs various recommendations to realise this. For me, the priority on achieving Net Zero outcomes in the planning system is an important play. 

New sports

Baseball, lacrosse, flag football etc. plenty of new Olympic sports to come in LA2028. Yet for the built environment, what can we expect in 2028? Without doubt, onsite and offsite renewable energy infrastructure will have an ever important sector role. On another note, the CCC report again highlights the contribution of surface transport to UK emissions, trending above buildings (see Fig 1.3 here). Perhaps no surprise that a CCC “priority action” is “the market share of new electric cars needs to increase from 16.5% today to nearly 100%”. Whilst there is plenty of governmental (and car industry) chatter around mandatory EV targets, one thing is for sure - the EV infrastructure network will only expand, becoming an ever more prominent part of real estate (check out previous blog here). When will petrol stations make way…

Raising the bar

The industry continues to grapple with that question - what is “Net Zero”? How high do you have to jump/ vault?  On that note, we expect the UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard to launch at the end of September 2024 (you can attend the next quarterly update here). One area of interest: how the standard will apply across the built environment, different sectors in the sector race to Net Zero, heritage buildings etc. The same bar cannot apply across the board. After all, we are not all Armand Duplantis.