A pilot standard for net zero carbon buildings has been launched today. The new technical standard features technical details about the limits and targets a building will need to meet to be verified as net zero and sets out methods for how to evidence and report this.

Our director Duncan Baker-Brown is cited by the Architects Journal as saying:

‘This is the most likely way we’re going to meet the challenges of the climate and ecological emergency, because it’s basically giving the industry a set of rules. Apply those rules and show us how you’re going to meet net zero targets and hopefully stay within a 1.5°C temperature increase.’

Baker-Brown said the standard will help show the government that ‘we have a plan; take us seriously’. He added: ‘It’s the industry saying to the government: this is how we’ll spend our meagre carbon budget, [to meet] net zero by 2050.’

Urging people to use the evolving pilot standard, which is based on data from thousands of existing buildings and will be updated with more by users, Baker-Brown insisted: ‘It's only as good as the data that people put into it.’

Read the full article at the AJ here.