Regulatory and Policy Drivers for Sustainability in the United Kingdom and How These Impact the Approach to Design for Laboratory Buildings
Alan Fox, CEng, MCIBSE, AECOM
This presentation will provide a summary of the United Kingdom (UK) policy drivers and legislation and their impact on the design of laboratory buildings. The presentation will be supported by case studies from several laboratory projects.
Over the past 20 years, the need to reduce the growth in global greenhouse gas emissions has been gaining momentum on the international political agenda. Since the Kyoto Protocol, most countries have been setting targets for national carbon emissions reductions, and the UK was the first one to put this into legislation. The UK Climate Change Act (2008) sets a legally binding target for reducing UK carbon dioxide (CO2) by at least 80 percent by 2050. It also provides for a Committee on Climate Change, which sets out carbon budgets binding on the government for five-year periods. The act is the driver behind a framework of strategy and policy documents developed at national and regional levels ,such as the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan (2009) and zero carbon policy, which in turn have informed the development of local planning policy. Local planning policy will often require non-residential developments of floor spaces of at least 1,000 gross square meters to achieve a 10 percent reduction in carbon emissions through the use of onsite low and zero carbon. Policy and legislation, however, continue to change and engineers and architects have to consider potential future changes as part of their design approach. As part of the regulatory requirement, the UK Building Regulations set minimum compliance standards in several categories: achieving acceptable CO2 emission rates; setting minimum standards for building fabric performance and efficiencies of engineering systems; and providing information on the construction, commissioning, and operation of the building. The presentation will take the audience through the key stages of design in the UK and will inform how the design team responds to these regulatory requirements.
Alan Fox specializes in laboratory and pharmaceutical projects and is the sector lead for Europe. Mr. Fox is responsible for the administration management and technical standards of a multi-disciplinary team of engineering personnel engaged on the design, construction, and commissioning of environmental services for a wide range of laboratory projects and other buildings. Within AECOM, Mr. Fox provides a lead role in the laboratory and pharmaceutical sector to maintain standards and to ensure delivery of innovative and low-energy design concepts. In addition, he has played a key role in leading the design for the award-winning, low-energy Sainsbury Millennium store and the innovative Halley 6 project for the British Antarctic Survey. Mr. Fox has also contributed to the laboratory design sections of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers guides and to BREEAM standards.