UKGBC welcomes Environmental Audit Committee report

The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has welcomed the Environmental Audit Committee’s new report ‘Sustainability of the Built Environment’ which calls on the Government to stop “dragging its feet” and regulate the building industry to reduce carbon emissions from the fabric of buildings – ‘embodied carbon’, or fail to meet the UK’s climate commitments.

UKGBC’s Director of Communications, Policy & Places, Simon McWhirter comments:

“Today’s hard-hitting report from the Environmental Audit Committee should act as a wake-up call to the Government. ‘Embodied carbon’ emissions from the construction and refurbishment and demolition of buildings each year total more than aviation and shipping industries combined, yet the Government has no policies to measure and regulate this.”

Our Roadmap to decarbonise the whole of the sector shows embodied carbon emissions must be slashed by more than half in the next decade for the UK to be on track for net zero by 2050. Whilst many of our members are working hard on this, without a consistent requirement to measure and mitigate embodied carbon it is far from mainstream practice across the industry. To see progress at scale, we need national regulation.“

This is a huge untapped opportunity to cut carbon emissions and at the same time generate skilled jobs in every part of the country.”

UKGBC’s Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Roadmap for the Built Environment is referenced several times within the EAC’s report. The Roadmap details a common vision and agreed actions for achieving net zero carbon in the construction, operation and demolition of buildings and infrastructure.

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