Decarbonising the built environment

At Verte we’re on a mission to decarbonise the built environment, and I’ve recently had the pleasure of attending and speaking at two industry events focused on this goal.

The first, GBCI Europe Circle held in Athens, looked at how green building certifications are advancing to accelerate decarbonisation in real estate and presented LEED v5.

A major and critical update, LEED v5 centres around three impact areas: decarbonisation, quality of life and ecological conservation and restoration. Carbon, climate resilience and social equity assessments are now prerequisites for every project and feature throughout the credits.

Key takeaways on LEED v5 from the event include:

• Achieving a Platinum rating now requires conditional requirements under certain credits.
• Carbon reduction – projects must prioritise minimising peak heating and cooling demand, effective refrigerant management, and improving energy efficiency metrics.
• Embodied carbon – v5 includes the addition of 8 new points for Whole Building Life Cycle Assessments and a prerequisite for measuring and potentially reducing embodied carbon in building structures and enclosures.
• Resiliency – there is a focus on enhancing buildings’ resilience to climate change and other extreme events.

Continuing the focus on decarbonisation in the built environment, I presented at the ASHRAE Hellenic Chapter Conference in Crete. Here my focus was how buildings can achieve Net Zero targets by reducing embodied carbon emissions, through low carbon materials and efficient construction techniques, and operational carbon emissions, through advanced design strategies and energy-efficient technologies.

Two great industry events championing the case for Net Zero buildings, which I am delighted to have been a part of.If you would like to discuss LEED certification or how to improve the energy performance of your assets, please say hello@verteltd.com – we’d love to hear from you.