Manufacturers must act in meeting the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard

Last week marks the long-awaited debut of a major milestone in sustainable construction: the pilot launch of the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard (NZCBS).

While the UK construction industry has been moving toward a low-carbon future, a unified standard for achieving true net-zero buildings has been notably absent – until now.

That is not to say progress has not already been made.

The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), with support from key industry bodies like RIBA and CIBSE, has worked diligently to define essential terms such as net zero, embodied carbon, and operational carbon.

RICS’ Whole Life Carbon Assessment has also been a valuable resource. Now, in its second edition, it helps accurately calculate and report carbon emissions throughout a built asset’s entire lifecycle.

However, while the latter focuses on calculating and analysing a building’s whole-life carbon emissions, the NZCBS will provide much-needed metrics, benchmarks and certification criteria.

These will clearly define what it takes for a building to be certified as net zero in operational and embodied carbon. Alongside this standardised framework, the NZCBS will bring net zero certification – a critical component that, despite the industry’s push toward sustainability, has so far been missing.

Yet, looking at the bigger picture, the introduction of NZCBS alongside other sustainable design certifications like BREEAM and LEED all lead to the same conclusion: that understanding and addressing the carbon cost of building projects is no longer optional but a necessity.

While the rise of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) is helping to close the carbon data gap, offering transparent, reliable information about a product’s environmental impact, they are not yet mandated, meaning not all manufacturers provide them.

Another issue remains that in their current form, they lack the specificity needed to accurately assess carbon emissions on net zero projects, even on relatively simple systems such as windows, where component and material configuration stays roughly the same. This is because the data provided by EPDs is usually a generalised figure representing a product reference rather than a wide range of variables.

However, pinpoint accuracy is needed to achieve the highest level of accuracy worthy of a NZCBS.

Understanding and addressing the carbon cost of building projects is no longer optional but a necessity

Developers should request a detailed lifecycle carbon assessment for each product. This is a notable step change, but without this level of detail, how can developers be sure of the whole life carbon?

This shows that manufacturers must up their game when it comes to whole-life carbon transparency, and the introduction of the NZCBS should be the impetus they need to do so. Given their access to carbon data past, present, and future, manufacturers are uniquely positioned to contribute to the accuracy and reliability of carbon measurement, enabling designers to make well-informed, data-driven decisions.

Moreover, they have a duty of care to customers, and building product manufacturers must do all they can – starting with accurate and detailed carbon data for each product.

However, this is not a problem without a solution, and the will and technology are evolving to meet this demand. The introduction of Advanced EPDs or Dynamic EPDs is one such tool.

Capable of understanding each carbon variable within a design specification, including embodied carbon, operational carbon (scope one and two) and Indirect Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions (scope three), they offer a new level of carbon transparency and precision.

Access to this type of digital modelling can be invaluable, allowing construction firms to generate exact carbon data for individual products and entire developments. Ultimately, this solution allows the market to make more sustainable design choices, as it allows them to understand the carbon cost of products before they are specified.

While still in its development stage, introducing the NZCBS will mean an even greater push for carbon transparency, an area that will eventually fall on the shoulders of manufacturers. Delivering whole-life carbon data for each product will quickly become the norm rather than the exception.

The natural evolution of EPDs should also be a wake-up call to those yet to supply them – the industry is moving quickly, and those who can’t meet carbon transparency requirements risk being left behind.

Although the full implementation of the standard may take some time, the wheels are in motion, and accurate measurement of products’ lifecycle carbon is now achievable.