Mar 28 2007
Public buildings could have a far bigger impact on tackling climate change if their actual performance was measured and understood. This was the message to ministers and members of parliament at today's official launch of the 2007 Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award.
Constructing and running public infrastructure and services - such as schools, hospitals, libraries and airports - account for approximately one third of all carbon emissions - far more than our homes.
Real progress has been made by the government during the past year in housing policy: the Code for Sustainable Homes; an ambition to make all new homes zero carbon by 2016; and the recent 'carbon challenge' to housebuilders. But in the National Health Service, for example, carbon emissions rose by 11 per cent between 1999 and 2005 and targets for reduced carbon emissions by 2010 are unlikely to be met.
So, much more attention must be given to public building, especially as a massive public building programme is now under way. Ensuring that all public buildings perform as well as expected when they were designed would have a dramatic impact on meeting government targets on environmental sustainability, including reduced carbon emissions.
Comprehensive post-completion and post occupancy evaluations will tell us how well a public building performs in practice. This is the only way to drive the continuous improvement in construction that will ensure public building really does mitigate and adapt to climate change.
An important step in the right direction is Schools for the future: design of sustainable schools - case studies, recently published by DfES. Under the £45 billion Building Schools for the Future initiative, 3,500 secondary schools are being built or renewed.
And the Prime Minister's Award has already showcased some outstanding examples of sustainable design, such as the Welsh Assembly building, which was shortlisted last year, and the Jubilee Library in Brighton which won in 2005.