To rebuild or to retrofit? That is the question posed by former Secretary of State Michael Gove’s intervention in planning applications for the redevelopment of M&S’ Oxford Street store and the former Museum of London building.
According to the Climate Change Committee, direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions from buildings account for 23% of the UK total.
How can we create energy-efficient, carbon neutral and climate resilient new buildings and what is needed to accelerate the decarbonisation of existing buildings?
The greenest building, so it is said, is the building that already exists and a ‘retrofit fit first, not retrofit only’ position appears to be emerging as the default, but this involves understanding which development options would have the lowest embodied carbon intensity and operational carbon emissions. Who is measuring what and how?
Friend of the podcast Katie Wray kindly convened a group of experts in this field to tackle these questions in a conversation recorded online in April 2024. Katie, Director in Real Assets Advisory team at Deloitte, spoke to Iain Shaw, Mike Keaveney and Alex Edwards. Iain is a Director at Max Fordham, Mike is a Land & Development Director at Grainger; and Alex is ESG Director at Bruntwood SciTech.
They talk about where the drivers for change in this area are coming from, how decisions around rebuild and retrofit are arrived at, and the concept of ‘value for carbon’.
Some accompanying reading.
Retrofit First: The City of London, Camden, now Westminster- who will be next?
UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard
Home | UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard (nzcbuildings.co.uk)
Climate Change and Historic Building Adaptation Historic England Advice Note DRAFT
Climate Change and Historic Building Adaptation - draft for consultation (historicengland.org.uk)
City of London Corporation’s heritage building retrofit toolkit
https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/assets/Services-Environment/Heritage-Buildings-Retrofit-Toolkit.pdf
Retrofit and Energy Efficiency in Historic Buildings
Manchester Climate Change Framework (see section on retrofit)
MANCHESTER CLIMATE CHANGE FRAMEWORK(2020-25) | 2022 UPDATE (squarespace.com)
Some accompanying listening.
Build It Up, Tear It Down by Fatboy Slim
https://youtu.be/bxHjytBY7Z8?si=k0dTMcz8CO8Im-bg
50 Shades T-Shirts!
If you have listened to Episode 45 of 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that...
'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here. You can also sign up for the 50 Shades Newsletter via the 50 Shades Blog.
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50 Shades of Planning
50 Shades of Planning was Sam Stafford’s attempt between April 2019 and October 2024 to explore the foibles of the English planning system and it's aim was to cover the breadth of the sector both in terms of topics of conversation and in terms of guests with different experiences and perspectives.
50 Shades episodes include 'Hitting The High Notes', which are a series of conversations with leading planning and property figures. The conversations take in the six milestone planning permissions or projects within a contributor’s career and for every project guests are invited to choose a piece of music that they were listening to at that time. Think Desert Island Discs, but for planners.
Sam is on Bluesky (@samuelstafford.bsky.social) and Instagram (@samuel__stafford), and his blogs can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com (from where you can also sign up for his newsletter).
The 50 Shades platforms were expressions of Sam's personal opinions, which may or may not represent the opinions of his past, present or future employers.
The 50 Shades of Planning Podcast and YouTube channels were produced in partnership with Cratus Group.
Why Fifty Shades? Well, planning is not a black and white endeavour. There are at least fifty shades in between....
