Report produced by Richard Sneesby

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Contextual summary

Includes material from Provocateurs' statements supplied by:
Hilary Graves, Senior Consultant, BRE
Peter Warm, Chairman, Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB)

The expected life span of many new and existing buildings means that, perhaps unusually, issues surrounding buildings and construction can be considered over a similar time period to current climate change predictions.

Climate change will have a significant impact on the built environment during this century. There will be effects such as sea-level increases, which could threaten 1-2 million houses and 40% of industry that are near to the coast or river estuaries. As the built environment generally has an expected lifetime of 20-100+ years per building, it is important that climate change impacts are considered for building stock being built in the next few decades.

As examples, average increases in wind speed of 6% are likely to cause damage to 1 million buildings at a cost of £1-2 billion. Increasing the strength of roof fixings during new build or roof replacement can significantly reduce this damage. Dry summers in the south of England could cause a 50-100% increase in subsidence claims in vulnerable areas (which includes Bristol and parts of Hampshire, Dorset and Gloucestershire) costing £200-400 million. However, the extra cost of future-proofing buildings in these areas would be just £32 million. Drier summers will also stretch already fragile water resources in the south of England, requiring extra resources to be created or a re-education of demand. On the other hand, driving rain is likely to increase by up to 33% in London and the Home Counties in autumn/winter affecting up to 7 million dwellings. Driving rain will have major impacts on the suitability of some types of house facings and cavity-fill insulation and give a much higher risk of damp problems, especially in the autumn.

Planning and design options are available to minimise climate impacts but these will often have an increased capital cost which must be weighed against the expected lifetime of the structure and the whole life costs. Planning can help avoid problems from flood, coastal erosion and shortage of water resources, and these issues are being addressed separately in other workshops. Design can minimise wind damage, subsidence in clay soils, dampness from rain penetration and weather damage to materials. In most cases, the cost of making the necessary improvements to building stock will be much lower than the potential cost of damage. Changes to Building Regulations and Standards to address this issue are also required.

Good design can also help to reduce the need for increased air conditioning through the provision of good ventilation. Otherwise the increase in air conditioning use is expected to absorb most or all of the 12-19% energy-use savings that could be expected from the predicted warmer winters. This will, in turn, add to global warming. There is, thus, an urgent need to develop passive designs and technologies as well as more efficient air-conditioning units.

The finance industry (generally insurance at present) is currently responsible for most of the cost of repairs due to extreme weather events. This situation may change in the future, for instance there is a question as to whether certain property can be insured, and such a change could become a driver for improvement of the building stock.

Mortgage lenders and other financial institutions are likely to become much more involved in these issues and will develop a position on whether to finance buildings in the future.

In terms of practical solutions, these are much more varied. We already have simple design tools to predict and avoid problems, but are stuck with ignorance about good design (for example: insulated fabric to control heat loss) especially amongst builders (rather than architects). Better education of our present builders in principles and the practical details will help.

Some possible practical answers to better buildings include: Excellent daylighting [most office output more CO2 from lighting than heating]; Super-insulation and airtightness. [to reduce the heating load down to a minuscule level]; Using renewable energy sources: passive solar, biomass(wood), wind power, solar hot water and Photovoltaic panels; Using fossil fuels as efficiently and as well controlled as possible [where we cannot justify the use of renewables on present cost grounds]; Using energy efficient appliances; Using water efficient appliances such as low flush toilets and low water use showers.

Workshop discussion

About 20 people attended the discussion session. They were mainly from the construction and building industry and included architects, materials scientists, energy consultants, service providers (gas and electricity), researchers, academics, landscape architects and planners.

Most of the discussion centred around the statements outlined in the Context section above. Additionally there was useful, but brief discussion about building technologies as well as some very specific examples of energy saving approaches in building design and construction.

Most of the discussion concentrated upon the means of creating and developing action to ensure better practice in the future. In particular this covered areas of planning, construction practice, contractual framework, finance and insurance. A summary of the key issues is listed below together with some explanation where appropriate.

Outcomes from Group discussion

The group agreed that there was:

• A need to inform and enlighten decision making groups, especially planning committees about the impact of climate change and future implications for development. This will also involve changing existing perceptions.

The issue here rested upon the wide range of expertise and information which currently exists. It was felt that decision makers often fall into two groups. The first who are highly informed, and the second who are often ignorant or uninterested and that it was when decision had to be made by both sections together that problems occurred.

• A need to develop and provide tools which help to ensure action and assist in the decision making process.

Whilst design tools exist and are well used, decision making tools do not. Un-informed people therefore had no help in decision making and that even though they may emotionally subscribe to new ideas and principles, they lacked the skills, knowledge, evidence and language to articulate this to others.

• A need to educate the construction industry about new technologies, sustainable materials.
  
  
• A need to develop new forms of building contract which encourage and/or require developers to take responsibility for their actions over a longer period of time. This time scale must match that of climate change predictions.

Currently most building contracts allow developers to walk away 12 months after completion of the building works.

• To encourage and/or require a dialogue and decision making process between developers, designers, constructors, occupiers, financiers and insurers.

So that all of these groups are equally involved in decision making

• To demonstrate a marketing advantage arising form adopting an energy conscious approach to building design and construction. Encourage a national certification scheme for 'good' buildings.

In this way investment in good design, which may involve significantly larger capital sums, can be rewarded and repaid financially as buildings are sold, change hands or are let.

• Force a long term interest in buildings by locking individuals and companies into planning and construction decisions for a long period - especially financially.

This may involve re-writing many forms of contract, building specifications, leases, mortgages, covenants, etc.

• · Look after the existing stock of buildings (currently 25 million) and ensure that new buildings are constructed to an appropriate standard and are located in the right place.

Richard Sneesby
School of Environment
Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education
March 2001