Responding to the Carbon 60 challenge

If achieving the target of reducing the UK’s carbon emissions by 60% by the year 2050 looks a daunting target, it can be made to look very much more manageable by a simple equation. 0.8⁴ = 0.4 Put into words, that simply means that if carbon emissions are reduced by 20% in four stages, the final result is carbon emissions that are just 40% of the original level — the 60% target. The main feature in this issue of Modern Building Services ‘Towards a carbon 60 future’ includes a suggestion by Dave Hampton of what those four stages could be. Using what he dubs the hidden multiplier, he suggests national energy supply becoming 20% greener, energy being used 20% more efficiently, energy being managed 20% better and ‘needs’ (his inverted commas) being reduced by 20%. Hey presto, 0.8⁴ = 0.4. That is the view of an experienced engineer with a firm of consulting engineers. We still have 45 years in hand, which is clearly not long enough for existing energy-efficient buildings to be totally replaced with new buildings with lower energy consumption as the way to meet the Carbon 60 objective. However, the recent CIBSE Carbon 60 competition suggests that this timescale is very generous and that the necessary measures do not require unreasonable levels of investment. The challenge of the competition was to reduce carbon emissions from CIBSE’s headquarters in Balham, south London by 60% using measures having a payback period within 10 years. As we report in an article in the feature, the team of young engineers from Fulcrum Consulting who won the competition perceive no difficulty in reducing carbon emissions by 60%. The challenge to them was to achieve that reduction within a reasonable payback period. The outcome is that CIBSE has a well-thought-out plan to reduce its carbon emissions within a very short (relatively) time span. Indeed, if the progamme begins promptly, the objective could be achieved with 30 years to spare. What is more, most of the ideas proposed have already been applied by members of the team on other projects. The philosophy of 0.8⁴ = 0.4 can be discerned, though not necessarily the same factors as highlighted by Dave Hampton. The first stage was to reduce the demand for energy, followed by an examination of how carbon emissions associated with energy use could be reduced. Making a one-off investment in zero-carbon supply technology was rejected as the prime approach. However, using such sources of energy once all other measures are in place would reduce carbon emissions yet more — with a final result of no less than 70%. Given the limited supply of zero-carbon and renewable energy available, that is clearly the right order in which to approach the challenge.