Future Homes Hub releases implementation plan for WLC reduction in homes
The Part Z authors are delighted to see the launch of the Future Homes Hub report “Embodied and Whole Life Carbon: 2023-2025 Implementation plan for the homebuilding industry”. Amongst other measures, the report sets out the need for the homebuilding sector to implement a series of embodied carbon related actions over the next three years.
The report calls for voluntary disclosure of whole life carbon emissions on pilot housing projects to start from this year, leading to voluntary whole life carbon targets to be implemented in 2024. It also calls for mainstream or regulated disclosure of whole life carbon from 2025 – which is aligned with the regulation that the Part Z proposals have been calling for.
Implementation plan timeline, taken from “Embodied and Whole Life Carbon: 2023-2025 Implementation plan for the homebuilding industry” report (Future Homes Hub, 2023).
It is also heartening to see the report indicate the desire to use the BECD as a platform for data collection, and to continue to engage with the ongoing development of the RICS Professional Statement. The Part Z team is also collaborating with both initiatives and see these as vital parts of the UK’s carbon accounting infrastructure.
The report also sets out a number of enabling actions, designed to continue to increase the ease with which embodied carbon could be regulated in the UK. This includes the development of a homebuilder-specific tool (and associated guidance), making the carbon assessment of houses more accessible to those SME homebuilders that may not have developed their own tools to do this already. The Part Z team has been speaking with the Future Homes Hub about ways in which they may advise on the development of this tool, to help accelerate this process.
Richard Goodman, Director General for Safer and Greener Buildings at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was quoted in the report as saying, “We need all parts of the housing sector to pull together and reduce the embodied carbon of our buildings – it is essential to reaching net zero”. Part Z authors continue to make themselves available to advise the Department, and are keen to help work in ways that can accelerate the reduction of embodied carbon in the UK.
The full report can be read at https://irp.cdn-website.com/bdbb2d99/files/uploaded/Embodied%20and%20Whole%20Life%20Carbon%20Implementation%20Plan%20-%20final.pdf
