WE CAN’T AFFORD TO JUST BUILD GREENER WE MUST BUILD LESS Johannes Novy - Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster

We can’t afford to just build greener We must build less

Johannes Novy, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster

As the built environment took centre stage1 at COP26 in November 2021, the scale and urgency of the climate crisis and of the industry’s responsibility to address it comes into focus. A recent report2 from the UN’s Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction shows that the buildings and construction sector is responsible for 38% of global CO2 emissions.

Increasing attention has been paid, in recent years, to emissions resulting from how our buildings are operated: how they are heated, cooled and lit. Those due to the production and supply of building materials and the construction itself have received less attention. And yet, they alone account for 10% of global emissions.

Much of the sector thrives on a wasteful cycle of demolition and new builds. In the UK alone, an estimated 50,000 buildings are torn down each year. Which begs the question: is building greener really the solution?

Whole-life carbon approach

Despite efforts by the likes of sustainable architecture pioneer William McDonough4 and organisations including World Green Building Council5, breaking this demolition and new-build cycle has proven difficult.

Reusing existing building stock is a complex issue. If not done sustainably, it can also cause a hike in emissions. But there are several other reasons why reuse has not become more of a default option.

Many architects have found that it was easier to make a name for themselves with glitzy new buildings than with sustainable design methods and retrofits, and, frequently, more - and quicker – money could be made by tearing down existing buildings and replacing them. Perverse financial incentives play a role alongside other factors: in the UK, for example, VAT rates6 still encourage new builds and penalise renovations.

Further there are economic incentives for those who profit from the current system – who sell construction materials, carry out demolitions or whose business model exclusively focuses on new builds, instead of reckoning with existing buildings, refurbishing them and integrating them into new schemes – to not do things differently.

The demolition and new-build construction cycle is a major source of waste. Image by Jarrett Mills on unsplash

Making heating and lighting energy efficient has long been a priority. Image by Johny Goerend on Unsplash Lastly, in architecture education and professional accreditation, as elsewhere, there has been a lack of climate literacy7. This has left architects ill-prepared8 to effectively tackle the climate crisis.

Recent initiatives show that things are changing. Architects Climate Action Network9 and Architects Declare10 launched in 2019, are just two of several alliances that aim to raise awareness within the construction industry of the climate crisis, decarbonise the sector11 and drive the shift towards renewable and green building. In addition, Architects’ Journal started the RetroFirst12 campaign in 2019, which advocates for prioritising retrofitting over demolition and new construction. As the latter campaign puts it, the greenest buildings are those that already exist.

In September, a report13 published by the Royal Academy of Engineering drew further attention to the environmental costs that the industry incurs and possible ways to address them. Central to this new way of thinking about construction is what architects and developers call a whole-life carbon approach14 .

Building greener

The whole-life approach considers a building’s entire life cycle15, from construction, occupation and renovation to repair, demolition and disposal. In a typical UK housing block, emissions attributable to construction and maintenance account for 51%16 of the building’s total carbon emissions.

Making buildings energy efficient to operate has long been a priority. But in most places, government policies for low or zero-carbon buildings still do not fully – if at all – consider the so-called hidden17 or embodied18 emissions. These result from the extraction and production of building materials, such as cement, and the construction process itself. Green-building certification schemes too have long overlooked them.

Buildings today are usually built to last notably shorter periods of time than they used to be. If the typical lifespan19 of a traditional building of stone, brick and timber saw first repairs needed after 60 years, modern buildings have deteriorated twice as fast. Significant carbon savings could be achieved by returning to more robust and adaptable construction. When the built-to-last principle20 proves impractical, however, buildings designed for a shorter lifespan can still be made more sustainable, provided a whole-life carbon approach is adopted and the components and materials used are easy to dismantle and reuse.

A surge in innovation21 in recent years has seen a rise in the use of wood and other bio-based materials22 and sustainable design principles, from the circular economy23 to the idea of “cradle-to-cradle”24 production and manufacturing, which defines waste as a resource25 and aims to perpetuate recycling.

L'Innesto26 in Milan, for example, has been promoted as a showcase for the city’s sustainability strategies, and is set to be Italy’s first zero-emissions social housing. This project ticks all kinds of boxes: construction will involve minimal soil excavation and bio-sourced building materials with lots of greenery and very little space for cars. Internal heating systems will be powered by renewable energy sources – and more.

The problem, though, is that even L'Innesto will only be fully carbon-neutral 30 years after its construction. The project, like many others, relies on carbon offsetting27 to achieve its zerocarbon credentials.

When the French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal won the Pritzker Prize this year, their victory was hailed as a turning point28. They have earned a reputation for turning down commissions29 or proving to city councils why refurbishment30 would be better – and cheaper – than building something new.

They remain outliers though. For the most part, building greener still involves actual construction.

Make no mistake. Green projects such as L'Innesto becoming the norm would be a big step forward. But there is no getting around the fact that three decades to carbon neutrality is a long time in the fight against climate change.

This is the industry’s inconvenient truth. The climate crisis is, in no small part, a product of our voracious appetite to build. It is not something, as climate activist Greta Thunberg has pointed out31, that we can simply build our way out of. We cannot afford to only build greener. We need to build less.

Sources:

1. https://ukcop26.org/the-conference/presidencyprogramme/ 2. https://globalabc.org/sites/default/ files/2021-10/2021%20Buildings-GSR%20-%20 Executive%20Summary%20ENG.pdf 3. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/demolishing50-000-buildings-a-year-is-a-national-disgracewbrf09952 4. www.mcdonough.com 5. www.worldgbc.org 6. https://theconversation.com/refurbishing-oldbuildings-reduces-emissions-but-outdated-tax-ratesmake-it-expensive-125892 7. https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/architecture/news/ interview-professor-fionn-stevenson 8. https://www.buildingsandcities.org/insights/ commentaries/climate-architecture-education.html 9. www.architectscan.org 10. www.architectsdeclare.com 11. https://theconversation.com/uk-plans-to-slashcarbon-emissions-68-by-2030-how-bankingbuilding-and-borrowing-can-help-151043 12. https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/ retrofirst 13. https://www.raeng.org.uk/RAE/media/ General/Policy/Net%20Zero/NEPC-Policy-Report_ Decarbonising-Construction_building-a-new-netzero-industry_20210923.pdf 14. https://theconversation.com/cities-and-climatechange-why-low-rise-buildings-are-the-future-notskyscrapers-170673 15. https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/279711810_Life-cycle_analysis_of_the_ built_environment 16. https://www.ukgbc.org/wp-content/ uploads/2019/04/Net-Zero-Carbon-Buildings-Aframework-definition.pdf 17. https://www.reutersevents.com/sustainability/ building-sector-takes-concrete-steps-addresshidden-emissions

Sustainable building materials can only go so far in reducing the sector’s emissions. Image by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash

Johannes Novy Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster

Johannes studied urban planning and urban studies in Germany, Italy and the United States and holds a PhD in Urban Planning from Columbia University, New York. His research interests cover urban and planning theory, urban (development) politics, urban tourism and leisure consumption. Previous positions he held include a guest professorship at the Brandenburg University of Technology CottbusSenftenberg (2013-2015), a visiting professorship at the Politecnico di Milano (2014) and, most recently, a lectureship at Cardiff University (20152018), where he acted as course director of the BSc Urban Planning & Development programme.

Some of his most recent publications include the co-edited volume "Protest and Resistance in the Tourist City" (Routledge, 2016) as well as the journal article "'Destination’ Berlin Revisited. From (New) Tourism towards a Pentagon of Mobility and Place Consumption” (Tourism Geographies, 2016). Novy is a member of the Berlin-based urbanist collective u-Lab, Studio für Stadt und Raumprozesse and regularly teaches at Université Paris 1 PanthéonSorbonne in Paris. In addition to teaching and research, he enjoys working as a consultant and advisor for public, private and non-profit organisations in the realms of urban and tourism development, planning, and policy.

This story is part of The Conversation’s coverage on COP26, the Glasgow climate conference, by experts from around the world.

Amid a rising tide of climate news and stories, The Conversation is here to clear the air and make sure you get information you can trust. Discover more here: https://page.theconversation.com/ cop26-glasgow-2021-climate-change-summit/

18. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/engineering-exchange/ sites/engineering-exchange/files/fact-sheetembodied-carbon-social-housing.pdf 19. https://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/ inside-the-gettys-initiative-to-save-modernarchitecture_o 20. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/ mono/10.4324/9780429346712-4/built-last-david-che shire?context=ubx&refId=d10efbfb-c188-46cd-a187f827f8fc32bb 21. https://theconversation.com/bendable-concreteand-other-co2-infused-cement-mixes-coulddramatically-cut-global-emissions-152544 22. https://www.archdaily.com/893552/8This article is published in collaboration with The Conversation: www.theconversation.com

biodegradable-materials-the-construction-industryneeds-to-know-about 23. https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/ Circular_economy 24. https://www.c2ccertified.org/get-certified/ product-certification 25. https://sustainabilityguide.eu/methods/cradleto-cradle/#:%7E:text=Cradle%20to%20Cradle%20 (C2C)%20is,right%20thing%20from%20the%20 beginning.&text=C2C%20methodology%20 builds%20on%20the,in%20a%20new%20 product%20cycle. 26. https://www.c40reinventingcities.org/en/ professionals/winning-projects/scalo-grecobreda-1276.html 27. https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/ Carbon_offsetting 28. https://www.theguardian.com/ artanddesign/2021/mar/16/lacaton-vassal-unflashyfrench-architectures-pritzker-prize 29. https://www.lacatonvassal.com/index. php?idp=37# 30. https://theconversation.com/lacaton-andvassal-how-this-years-pritzker-prize-could-spark-anarchitectural-revolution-157636 31. https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2019/12/02/ acceptance-speech-at-the-2019-goldene-kameraawards-march-30-2019/