The buildings of the future; delivered now.
Rapid decarbonisation is required to halt climate change, and the built environment has a significant role to play. Designing for net zero carbon is a collaborative process requiring input from every area of the industry, and as building services engineers, we are uniquely placed to co-ordinate that process.
The World Green Building Council, and subsequently the UK Green Building Council, have produced frameworks which set out the definitions and principles of Net Zero Carbon (NZC) buildings, and how to achieve them.
It is important to understand that NZC does not just mean net zero energy input, although energy consumption does need to be significantly reduced. A NZC building must have both low embodied and operational carbon, creating an overall low lifecycle carbon value. Energy will come from renewable sources and remaining carbon emissions must be offset – but only after all other reductions have been made.
New buildings are the low hanging fruit; by working to these frameworks from the early design stages, we can find the most sustainable solution to fit your budget and needs. Improving existing buildings is more challenging and there is no one size fits all approach, but with the range of technologies available today, solutions are there to be found.
The London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI) are leading the way with design guides which are a good starting point, and should be developed by an experienced, diligent and pragmatic design team to arrive at an optimised design for the building and development.
Our NET ZERO CARBON PROCESS
We have developed a bespoke process to achieve net zero carbon designs. The process incorporates input from all the key stakeholders and designers, which is then evaluated using advanced TM54 and lifecycle carbon modelling to understand the operational and embodied carbon emissions of the development.
ESTABLISH THE BRIEF AND PERFORMANCE TARGETS
Establish massing, orientation and other constraints
Agree building operation profiles (internal conditions)
Create base Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) model and run iterations (operation and embodied)
Optimise energy delivery (M&E Services)
HVAC
Free Cooling / Evaporative Cooling
Water Consumption
Lifts
Lighting
Smart Building Control
Vampire Loads
Optimise fabrics and passive measures
Orientation
Glazed Ratios
Glass Spec
Thermal Mass
U-Values
Air Permeability
Daylight Access
Natural Ventilation Access
Materiality
Input Energy Use Intensity (EUI), embodied carbon and operational carbon to LCA
OPTIMUM SOLUTION?
Optimise energy import and storage
Optimise onsite renewables
Optimise offsite renewables
Offset remaining carbon
Projects
Sector: Mixed Use, Education
Natural England Research Bases Lindisfarne & Lower Derwent Valley
Sector: Commercial Office
Aviary Manchester
Sector: Education
LJMU Estate Decarbonisation Plan Liverpool
Sector: Healthcare
NHS Carbon Roadmaps Leeds
Sector: Commercial Office
Reedham House Manchester
Ready to start the journey?
Sectors
“The JLL Building Consultancy Manchester team have worked with Crookes Walker Consulting for the last 15 years on a wide range of commercial property matters. Services range from technical due diligence of assets, through to designers on a large and varied scale of projects. We find Crookes Walker Consulting attentive and diligent with an eye for commercial detail.”
JONATHAN WIEDEMANN, HEAD OF BUILDING CONSULTANCY MANCHESTER, JLL
Clients