The RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge has been updated and reissued as Version 2 (2021). The challenge was first launched two years ago, with ambitious but achievable net zero targets for 2030, as an integral part of the RIBA’s response to the global climate emergency.
The RIBA is renewing its call to Chartered Practices to sign up to these voluntary targets: to take the lead in delivering a step change in sustainability and to submit performance data for their significant projects to the RIBA 12 months after completion.
Jess Hrivnak, Sustainable Development Adviser at the RIBA, points out that the challenge is a cross-industry endeavour: it is all about cooperation. There is no penalty or consequence for projects that miss the targets. Architects will undertake a learning journey by pursuing the targets.
Talking to clients
Complementing the relaunched RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge are two new supporting guides:
- How to talk to Clients sets out the case for participating in the challenge in a client-friendly fashion. It is a useful primer to help practices communicate with clients and includes a letter template for a client to agree with the challenge’s principles
- the Client Guide sets out the benefits of the challenge from a client’s perspective and explains, among other things, how and why they will be requested to provide anonymised energy and water usage data one year after project completion
Operational energy targets
For operational energy, the headline 2030 targets for commercial offices and new homes have been retained. But the interim 2025 targets have become more ambitious to reflect improvements in the ‘business as usual’ approach since the RIBA issued the original Climate Challenge in 2019.
The overarching principles remain:
- buildings being designed today should aim for 2025 targets as a minimum; and 2030 targets whenever possible
- targets should be reached by following a fabric-first approach; minimising energy demand; using efficient services and low carbon sources of heat and maximising onsite renewables
Domestic buildings
To put the targets for domestic buildings in context, the RIBA’s interim 2025 operational energy performance target of 60 kWh/m2/yr is broadly comparable to Passivhaus performance. This is with no fossil fuel boilers installed, in line with the Future Homes Standard and as recommended in the Committee of Climate Change’s UK housing: Fit for the future? report.
The 2030 target requires less than 35 kWh/m2/yr and remains unchanged in the updated version. This aligns with the Climate Emergency Design Guide, published by LETI (London Energy Transformation Initiative). This is an RIBA-endorsed publication with valuable tips and guidance on net zero strategies and materials usage.
As a point of comparison, if the average new-build follows a business-as-usual route, satisfying the minimum regulatory compliance, its performance would be 120 kWh/m2/yr.
New build offices and schools
The 2025 operational energy targets for new build offices now ask for less than 75 kWh/m2/yr whilst the 2030 target remains unchanged in the update at less than 55 kWh/m2/yr. Again, this aligns with LETI’s Climate Emergency Design Guide target.
These figures show the step change required when compared to the average business as usual, new build office performance outcome of 130 kWh/m2/yr.
Version 2 of the climate challenge adds targets for new build schools, which are less than 70 kWh/m2/yr for 2025 and less than 60 kWh/m2/yr for 2030. This compares to 130 kWh /m2/yr for a typical business as usual new build.
The updated challenge adds ‘good practice’ values for new build projects-in-use in 2021 for reference purposes.
Embodied carbon targets
The most notable revisions in the updated challenge are the embodied carbon targets. The new 2030 target for commercial offices is now less than 750 kgCO2e/ m2, while the new domestic target is less than 625 kg CO2e/ m2.
The new targets were decided upon after consultation between the RIBA, LETI, the UK Green Building Council, IStructE and Whole Life Carbon Network. These set out to align embodied and whole life carbon definitions and methodologies.
Embodied carbon benchmarks and data have also developed significantly over the last two years and are now regarded as more consistent. As data sharing and benchmarking across the industry continues to develop, it is acknowledged that the targets may need to evolve further.
“This alignment ensures that as the UK’s built environment sector, we now speak with one voice,” Hrivnak points out.
The challenge in use
For Craig Robertson, Head of Sustainability at AHMM, the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge targets have been an extremely useful reference. The practice produces sustainability reports for every project.
These display a project’s sustainability aspirations and successes using a graphically simple ‘rose’ diagram with a four-point traffic light system: outputs are compared to the RIBA 2030 benchmarks.
Henry Pelly, Senior Sustainability Consultant at Max Fordham points out the importance of the challenge in giving project teams clear outcomes to aim for.
“Many of the teams we work with are aiming for the 2030 targets,” Pelly has found. “The update has been really helpful to align the criteria with other industry benchmarks. And projects that have found ways to go beyond the 2030 targets can of course continue to push the boundaries of low-carbon construction."
Tickets for this year's RIBA Smart Practice Conference 2021: Stepping up to the Climate Challenge are now on sale. The two day conference will offer a wealth of practical insights and inspiration for practitioners looking to step up to the climate challenge.
The RIBA is looking for representatives of smaller practices to join a one hour focus group session on the topic of embodied carbon. The aim is to gather views and guidance needs on embodied carbon from the smaller practices who may be predominantly involved in retrofit, refurbishment or smaller scale housing projects. The sessions will be run by Jessica Haines, UCL Master’s student and Assistant Property, Development & Investment Director at Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. Sign up for the sessions online:
Text by Neal Morris. This is a Professional Feature edited by the RIBA Practice team. Send us your feedback and ideas.
RIBA Core Curriculum Topic: Sustainable architecture
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First published Thursday 1 July 2021
