Decarbonisation

Decarbonisation – the significant reduction of a building’s or estate’s operational energy use and CO₂ emissions – is an increasingly urgent priority for many organisations. Decarbonisation is fast becoming a necessity: both to meet net zero carbon targets, and to reduce operational costs.

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Decarbonisation leaders

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Bill Watts

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BA MSc CEng FCIBSE
Director, MEP Engineering
Partner

Petra Rodrigues

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DipArch MA
Principal Decarbonisation Project Manager

About decarbonisation

We have been at the forefront of sustainable environmental engineering since our foundation in 1966. Our thorough understanding of low-energy mechanical and electrical systems means that the decarbonisation solutions we recommend are realistic, detailed, and will work in practice – from low and zero carbon heat (such as heat pumps), to maximising daylight, renewable energy generation, and thermal fabric improvements.

The Max Fordham difference

We’re specialists in heritage buildings. Decarbonising historical buildings requires sensitivity, care, and a thorough understanding of the technical challenges and constraints. Our work with Historic Royal Palaces, Historic England, and many other clients with Grade I, II, A, B, or C-listed estates speaks for itself.
Collaboration is a key strength. We are adept in engaging stakeholders at every level of seniority and knowledge, ensuring we bring them along the decarbonisation journey with us. We also work closely with architects and cost consultants, to ensure our decarbonisation plans are practical, realistic, and workable.
We bring proven experience in securing decarbonisation grant funding. Over the past few years, we have helped our clients secure government decarbonisation grants to pay for both the initial advice and decarbonisation plans themselves, and the capital works required to implement the recommended solutions.
We offer flexibility, not fixed solutions. With considerable experience of working with occupied buildings, we know that decarbonisation interventions need to be scaled according to budget, programme, and existing maintenance schedules. Our decarbonisation plans offer a range of costed options for interventions, tailored to our clients' specific needs.

Case studies

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Wolfson College, University of Oxford

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At the project's outset, this graduate college of the University of Oxford had a 20-year carbon footprint of ~24,000 tonnes of CO₂ across their 15,000m² GIA buildings. After a Max Fordham-produced decarbonisation plan, a Max Fordham-secured Salix grant of c.£5M, and a subsequent extensive refurbishment programme, that figure reduced by more than 500 tonnes in the first year of occupation. As of January 2024, the college had no fossil fuel combustion in its buildings and is on course to achieve net zero carbon well ahead of their 2030 target.

Power Hall, Science and Industry Museum

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In 2021, Max Fordham worked closely with the Science and Industry Museum to apply for the government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) capital works fund. The application was successful, and the Museum secured £4.3M to support its goal to become Net Zero Carbon by 2033. We are now working with the Museum to replace the 1980s gas-fired steam system that powered the dynamic display of 18th- and 19th-century mill and factory machinery in the Power Hall with a new electric steam boiler and a water source heat pump.

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All services

All buildings should be comfortable and a pleasure to be in: warm, well-lit, well-ventilated, well-used, and well-loved. Our mechanical and electrical engineering, vertical transportation, acoustics, daylight, and lighting design services can help ensure just that. We maximise passive measures such as natural ventilation and daylighting, seamlessly dovetailing our designs with the building’s own form and architecture to result in simple, low-energy, and low-cost building services.
In the face of an increasingly urgent climate emergency, it’s crucial that buildings consume as little energy as possible in their operation. Low energy, low carbon, and low operational costs are our watchwords when it comes to designing new buildings or retrofitting existing ones. We help our clients build sustainability goals into masterplans or early-stage feasibility studies, decarbonise existing estates, and optimise how a building performs against its targets for sustainability and user comfort.
Meeting net zero carbon targets and minimising a building’s impact on the environment means reducing embodied carbon – the carbon tied up in the materials like steel, concrete, and plastic that go into a building’s construction and services design – as much as operational carbon (the carbon a building produces in its heating, cooling, and lighting). We facilitate material reuse with circular economy strategies, steer low embodied carbon design from the earliest project stages with whole life carbon assessments, and offer advice on planning and compliance, all helping to reduce the carbon footprint of construction.