The UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard Guide: Part 10: Refrigerants
The UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard Guide: Part 11: Carbon offsetting
Contributor
Mari Ferguson
MEng
Sustainability Consultant
The pilot version of the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard (the Standard) was published in September 2024. The full document can be downloaded here. The Standard has been produced by a range of industry professional organisations including RIBA (architecture), IStructE (structural engineering), CIBSE (services engineers) and RICS (surveyors), along with a large team of other industry organisations and professionals.
It aims to set out unambiguously, for a wide range of scenarios, the characteristics that buildings and building projects need to be aligned with the UK’s strategy to become net zero carbon by 2050. The Standard builds upon and supersedes previously published approaches such as the UKGBC Net Zero Carbon Building Framework, the RIBA Climate Challenge and the various LETI design guides.
Read more from our guide:
Part 1: Key principles and overview
Part 2: Embodied carbon
Part 3: Operational energy
Part 4: On-Site renewable generation
Part 5: Operational Water Use
Part 6: Fossil fuel free
Part 7: Electricity demand management
Part 8: District heating and cooling networks
Part 9: Space heating and cooling
Part 10: Refrigerants
Part 11: Carbon offsetting
Carbon offsetting requirements
The pilot version of the standard does not require any carbon offsetting for a building to be net zero carbon aligned. However, there is an option to include offsetting for the building to be considered net zero carbon aligned (with offsets). The offsets would apply for all up-front and in-use emissions associated with the development, namely the following:
- Upfront carbon emissions due to New or Retrofit Works
- Upfront carbon emissions due to Reportable Works
- Operational energy use carbon emissions
- Operational water use carbon emissions
- Carbon impact of refrigerant leakage – Kyoto products only
Offset option one: carbon credits
If a development does decide to follow the offsetting route, purchased carbon credits must meet either of the following standards:
- The ICROA endorsed voluntary carbon market standards and their Code of Best Practice
- The ICVCM principle labelled credits (new programme, no credits available at release of the NZCBS Pilot) and their Core Carbon Principles
Additionally, the carbon credit must adhere to the following:
- The vintage (year) of the credits must be no more than five years outside of the Reporting Period End Point
- Credits must be purchased and retired specifically for the in-scope carbon emissions
Offset option two: renewable energy procurement
For offsetting Scope 2 emissions only, a development can also go down the route of Renewable Energy Procurement. Three routes can be followed for this:
Embedded Media
Reporting metric
For the submission, projects going down the net zero carbon aligned (with offsets) route will need to include information on the quantity of carbon credits and renewable energy procured as well as details and a written statement detailing how they meet the requirements detailed above. This should include the following information:
- The type, supplier, vintage, and registry reference of carbon credits;
- The renewable energy tariff or contract agreement with the supplier if using renewable energy procurement;
- Proof of procurement and retirement of the carbon credits.
Example from our projects
As a practice, we do not offer a service for offsetting, however we have worked on a few projects in which offsetting was used to achieve net zero carbon in compliance with the old UKGBC NZC Framework. One of these is the Max Fordham House, which used both renewable energy procurement and carbon credits in the offsetting strategy. The building is all-electric, so carbon credits were used to offset the upfront carbon only (102tCO2e) and renewable energy is used to offset carbon associated with the operational energy use.
- Carbon credits: A price of £70 per tonne of CO2e was agreed upon and this was used to purchase a mixture of Gold Standard Offset Verified Emission Reduction units.
- Renewable energy procurement: 100% of the building energy is supplied by renewable energy, with 76% of this being grid imported “High Quality Green Tariff” through the Good Energy Standard Tariff.
A full breakdown of the Carbon Credit budget can be seen below, and you can read more about this project and the offsets purchased.
Image
Max Fordham House
Total of 2 images
© Tim Crocker
© Tim Crocker
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