Sustainability & the Property Industry
The Built Environment is responsible for around two fifths of carbon emissions in Scotland and the wider UK. We are therefore a major player in the sustainability debate. The property industry now supplies offices which are 70% more energy efficient in terms of carbon emissions than the 1990 benchmark - but more needs to be done. The problem is finding the right balance between providing incentives for behaviour change and avoiding ill-targeted green tape that is counter-productive.
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What's the issue
Sustainability has been a key driver of regulation and improvements in industry practice since the 1990s. Building Regulations have been tightened and in 2010 a new Section 7 - Sustainability was added to the Scottish Government's Building Standards Technical Handbook. The truth is that whether from Brussels, London, Edinburgh or from local authorities, a plethora of initiatives have been targeted at the proeprty industry -and not always effectively.
Getting good green regulation is not always easy. The industry is an easy target and there is often little understanding of where the rights and repososnibilities lie between those who own buildings and those who use them. The SPF seeks to inform decision-makers about practical obstacles to sustainability related policies and also identify industry leading practices.
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Why is it important
The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 imposed significant new regulations on property owners of non-domestic and domestic properties. Sections 63 and 64 of the Act imposed a duty upon property owners to ensure their properties were of a sufficient (and still unknown) energy efficiency standard.
It is essential that existing properties are improved - but they must also be buildings that are used better. The fact is that 99% of the property stock in use today will be in use in 2020 - and a very high percentage of these properties will still be in use come 2050. However proeprty owners may actually have little influence over how the buildings are used and how energy is consumed. Governments in London and Edinburgh need to think through this dilemna and apply their regulations with care.
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What we're doing about it
SPF is actively engaged across a number of fronts. Our former Chairman Ken Ross OBE was our nominated representative on the Scottish Government's Sullivan Committee which reported on a Low Carbon Buildings Strategy for Scotland in December 2007. Since then we have engaged extenstively on Building Standards (2010), Climate Change Act, Energy Performance Certificates and sustainability labels among other measures.
Our members are currently represented on the sustainability labels working group, S63 Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 working party and the 20:20 Built Environment sub group.
SPF is alsos eeking toa dd to the renewables agenda from a proeprty perspective through a working party led by Douglas Taylor of Davidson Chalmers.
David Melhuish
dmelhuish@bpf.org.uk
0131 220 6353
Naomi Cunningham
dmelhuish@bpf.org.uk
0131 306 2222
