13th May 2022
It’s official – customers are prioritising sustainability in everyday purchases.
According to recent research from Deloitte, consumers around the country are limiting single-use plastic, switching to renewable energy, and choosing brands that are demonstrably environmentally conscious.
What does this mean for businesses? The customer is driving change, and as such we must adapt. This is especially true within the built environment – between construction and building operations, our industry is responsible for nearly 40% of the world’s carbon emissions.
It’s a damning statement, and I’m not blind to the complexities of creating a solution to this problem, especially given some of the unique characteristics of buildings and the need to preserve important aspects of historical significance within our older building stock. As someone who has worked for over 10 years in the energy sector and been a long-time employee of Welsh city councils, I understand first-hand the need to make changes at source, as well as the barriers for making those changes. However, in the context of the climate and energy crisis, the question is too important to ignore – how can we create more sustainable buildings in Wales?
Adopting a ‘Fabric First’ Approach
When it comes to environmentally friendly design, many of the measures we currently take are retrospective and not necessarily embedded in the initial design of the building. This is largely down to initial RIBA milestones for project and the requirement to work within a fixed budget, in many cases agreed years in advance. These factors often mean we are dealing with problems after the fact rather than creating sustainable buildings from the outset.
A ‘fabric first’ approach to building and design maximises the performance of the materials and components of the building during the design phase. This approach minimises the need for energy consumption, and all but eliminates the need for supplemental technology. Buildings that adopt a ‘fabric first’ approach prioritise the following:
Adopting the above design principles will reduce the designed heat load of a new building considerably. This will also influence the sizing of the heat source for the building. Smaller capacity and often less expensive low carbon heating technologies can then be considered once the initial heat demand has been reduced as much as possible through a fabric first approach.
Adopting a ‘fabric first’ approach represents a significant step toward making buildings more sustainable with less reliance on HVAC systems to keep the building at a comfortable temperature for users, with solar gain, increased insulation, natural ventilation, thermal mass optimisation and natural cooling.
Raising awareness amongst building occupants is something that will be required when a ‘fabric first’ building is handed over. This would allow users to understand the ramifications of the fabric first design principles and how the building has been designed to perform optimally.
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We’ll be in touch as soon as possible. If you’d rather call us in the meantime, please feel free to give us a call on 03301 200 151.