Barrister Estelle Dehon KC makes the case for whole-life carbon assessments and outlines the regulatory, policy and legal issues that are transforming planning departments’ attitudes to demolition and retrofit
Embodied carbon costs have become a central issue in opposition to major redevelopment schemes, such as Marks & Spencer’s proposal to replace its flagship Oxford Street store with this project by Pilbrow & Partners.
Embodied carbon makes up 11% of global carbon emissions. As Alan Muse, Head of Construction Standards at RICS and ICMS lead points out, “if cement were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of carbon in the world.”
A “whole-life carbon” (WLC) report sets out the combined total of embodied and operational carbon emissions anticipated to be produced over the whole life cycle of a building. In theory, this holistic approach allows developers and designers to balance the initial environmental cost of producing a building with its longer-term performance and, hence, assess its sustainability.
To be most effective, this needs to be done very early; before any decision is made on demolition and in order to influence the various design options for a project and ensure that the most carbon effective design is chosen. If the WLC is undertaken later in the process, to justify choices that assume demolition will be undertaken or certain materials will be used, then the report will be vulnerable to allegations of greenwashing and may prompt objections and counter-reports (as has happened with developments described below).
There are a number of reasons for property owners, developers and their professional teams to consider embodied carbon in a development. First, the harmful impact of climate change on people and the planet means it is self-evident that this significant source of emissions should be the focus of urgent and serious consideration.
Second, investors and funders are driving what appears to be a step-change in ESG (Environmental and Social Governance) requirements. BREEAM ratings are increasingly no longer considered sufficient, especially by international investors whose funds require demonstrable whole-life carbon reduction. Tenants are also demanding buildings with better environmental credentials: Grosvenor has pledged £90m by 2030 for retrofitting its buildings, including the repurposing of a former ice factory built in the 1830s near Victoria for offices, shops and a rooftop restaurant. The business case is obvious, as Grosvenor’s chief executive James Raynor explained in April 2022: “[a]t the top end of the office market, we are starting to see that people will walk away from buildings that don’t offer great environmental credentials.”
The third reason is pragmatic. Embodied carbon has become a central issue in large schemes, particularly redevelopment projects. The M&S redevelopment of its Oxford Street store is a prime example. The buildings proposed for demolition were only between 36 to 90 years old and opponents challenged the embodied carbon costs of the development. Evidence of the extent of these emissions caused some Westminster Councillors to vote against the proposal leading to the decision being called in by the Secretary of State. The two-week public inquiry took place in October 2022, with embodied carbon a central issue.
High levels of embodied carbon were also instrumental in the Secretary of State’s dismissal of the appeal concerning The Tulip, a proposed 305m observation tower that was to be sited at 20 Bury Street. The decision recorded the view that the proposal was “a scheme with very high embodied energy and an unsustainable whole life-cycle” and that “the extensive measures that would be taken to minimise carbon emissions during construction would not outweigh the highly unsustainable concept of using vast quantities of reinforced concrete for the foundations.” (APP/K5030/W/20/3244984).
A paradigm shift in attitudes to demolition has reinforced the need for creative ways to revive outdated or redundant department stores. This proposal, by Nottingham practice GT3 Architects, reimagines the city’s Grade II listed 159-year-old former Debenhams store as a mixed-use development that supports Nottingham’s efforts to become carbon neutral by 2028.
Embodied carbon has also been at the centre of opposition to the proposed “London West Wall” development of part of the Barbican, which includes plans to demolish Bastion House and the Museum of London, and the “Justice Quarter” scheme, which involves replacing six historic buildings with three new ones.
The final reason is that policy change is coming (or has already arrived) and legal change is coming, soon. In March 2022, the Mayor of London issued London Plan Guidance which states that “retaining existing built structures for reuse and retrofit, in part or as a whole, should be prioritised before considering substantial demolition, as this is typically the lowest-carbon option.” There is also a clear presumption against demolition which an applicant will be required to rebut: “if substantial demolition is proposed, applicants will need to demonstrate that the benefits of demolition would clearly outweigh the benefits of retaining the existing building or parts of the structure.” In March 2023, the City of London Corporation issued planning guidance that developers will be expected to carry out a detailed review of the carbon impact of development options before submitting an application and that refurbishment should be preferred, to reduce embodied carbon emissions. Local planning authorities across the country are considering issuing similar policies.
In July 2021, five construction industry professionals proposed Part Z, an amendment to the UK Building Regulations 2010 which would require whole life carbon assessments for projects greater than 1000m2 (or 10 dwellings) starting from 2023 for buildings other than dwellings and extending to dwellings by 2025. The amendment also proposes a regulation for minimising carbon emissions for all buildings from 2027. The proposal has attracted significant support from those in the construction industry, including from the Royal Institute of British Architects, JLL, and British Land. A Bill seeking had recently been introduced in the Commons. That is a reference to The Carbon Emissions (Buildings) Bill, which seeks to enact Part Z, had its first reading on 18 March 2022, was reintroduced on 20 June 2022 and is awaiting a second reading.
The UK’s Climate Change Committee recommended in 2020 that plans needed to be developed rapidly to “support the assessment and benchmarking of whole-life carbon in buildings.” This was ratcheted up in its 2022 Progress Report to Parliament, in which it produced a set of recommendations against which it will officially measure progress to achieving compliance with the statutory carbon budgets and the 2050 net zero obligation in the Climate Change Act 2008. These included recommending that DLUHC, supported by DfT and then-BEIS, set out a plan to make an assessment of whole-life carbon and material use of public and private construction projects mandatory by 2025, to enable minimum standards to be set. The CCC recommended that: “The whole life carbon assessment should be sought at the planning stage to enable efforts to reduce embodied carbon and materials.
In September 2022, an Environmental Audit Committee Report, Building to net zero: costing carbon in construction, criticised governmental “inaction” on embodied carbon and urged the introduction of a mandatory requirement for whole life carbon assessments as “the single most significant policy the Government could introduce” which would also “incentivise greater retrofitting.”
The government’s response to the EAC Report foreshadows the likely introduction of both mandatory whole life carbon assessments and carbon emissions limits on development, both of which will promote retrofitting. The response confirms, for example, that whole life carbon assessments “are likely to have a significant role” in lowering emissions and that “a standardised method of calculation is required” such that the government would consider whether “endorsement of specific standards, methodologies or tools for assessing whole-life carbon is appropriate.” Tellingly, the response confirms the government “intends to consult in 2023” on amendments to the Building Regulations 2010 and also that it “intend[s] to review the [NPPF] to make sure it contributes to mitigation and adaptation as fully as possible.” Given that there is widespread developer and industry support for change in this area, it is one NPPF reform that may not fall foul of the current political wranglings.
In my view, whole life carbon assessments, embodied carbon limits and policies limiting demolition (perhaps through a rigid hierarchy for decision-making, akin to the cooling hierarchy) are likely to be key elements of the planning system in future. First movers in this space will likely reap significant benefits.
Estelle Dehon KC is a public law barrister at Cornerstone Barristers, with a broad practice encompassing environment and planning, data protection and human rights. She is recognised as a leading barrister specialising in climate change matters and in advising on how development can comply with net-zero carbon requirements. This year she will appear in the Supreme Court in the first case concerning downstream greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel development; in the legal challenge to the internationally controversial new coal mine in Cumbria and in a challenge by an NGO to new oil and gas licensing. She is also advising a number of local authorities on how to address climate change in their planning policies, including policies addressing embodied carbon. She was included in the 2022 ENDS Report’s inaugural Power List of the most influential environmental professionals in the UK, she won a Global Climate Leadership award at COP27 and in March 2023 was named a Woman of Influence in Planning by The Planner magazine.
