NET ZERO | DECARBONOMICS DELIVERING ON THE NET ZERO PROMISE Organisations are setting ambitious 2030 targets in response to the climate emergency, but how do they decarbonise property assets in such a short period of time? Andy Pearson looks at how SNC-Lavalin is using data to assess buildings and set clients such as HM Treasury on the road to net zero I n June 2019, the UK government passed legislation committing it to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. For most councils, some of which had declared a climate emergency, the governments target was not ambitious enough. In fact, almost two-thirds of councils in England are aiming to be carbon neutral ahead of 2050, some as early as 2030. It is a worthy commitment and an ambitious target. Its not just local authorities that are setting progressive carbon targets; some universities, too, have committed to be net zero in advance of the 2050 target. The University of Bristol, for example, has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2030. The challenge faced by these large organisations, many with large numbers of properties, is to know how best and most cost-effectively to decarbonise their estate to meet their carbon aspirations. One solution being promoted by consultancy SNC-Lavalin is its Decarbonomics initiative, a commercial, data-driven service, aimed at helping public and private sector clients to assess how to decarbonise their properties to meet their carbon commitments. Decarbonomics gives a helicopter view of how a portfolio is currently performing, and the property improvements that will require investment over what period of time to achieve a carbon target, says Stephen MacLoughlin, regional director, Faithful + Gould (a member of SNC-Lavalin Group), and the ventures building retrofit workstream lead. Decarbonomics is a key aspect of SNC-Lavalins work with the Government Property Agency (GPA), as part of its net zero and life-cycle replacement programmes framework. It empowers clients to make much more informed decisions about their decarbonisation investments, adds MacLoughlin. There are three steps to SNC-Lavalins Decarbonomics approach: benchmarking, roadmap and delivery. Benchmarking An initial benchmarking exercise is undertaken to gain a detailed understanding of how a portfolio of properties is performing. This can be a relatively straightforward exercise when a client has three years of half-hourly energy data to show use profiles across the day, week and year. If the data is in good order, we can feed it into our digital tools to create a dashboard, says MacLoughlin. Not all clients have detailed energy data, however. Quality of data can be an issue. There might be gaps in the data or insufficient detail, for example, so well have to work with a client to determine the best 30 March 2022 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE March 22 pp30-33 Decarbonomics.indd 30 25/02/2022 15:19