This week, the UK House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, or EAC, released a report on environmental sustainability and housing growth. The UK government is striving to meet a target of building one and a half million new homes, and has raised concerns about the risk that environmental objections could delay their construction.

But, the EAC says, the UK must balance these needs. One tool to do this is the Whole Life Carbon Assessment guidelines, produced by the RICS, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. In the absence of a national programme for measuring the carbon impact of construction, the EAC recommends that this tool should be adopted into the planning process.

In this episode, first aired in 2023, we talked to Simon Sturgis, lead author of the guidance, as he and his colleagues worked to produce its second edition. 

Guests

Simon Sturgis, founder, Targeting Zero LLP

Matthew Collins, senior specialist, construction and infrastructure management, RICS

Resources

Simon Sturgis’s paper Redefining Zero, which helped spur debate on the carbon costs of buildings.

An earlier UK House of Commons environmental audit select committee report Building to net zero: costing carbon in construction.

The Bath University Inventory of Carbon and Energy (Bath ICE) database.