Towards a Standard for Carbon Accounting: a

view from CIBSE

Hywel DaviesCIBSE Technical Director

and Stuart Macpherson Irons Foulner Consulting Engineers

Presentation Outline

Current carbon counting activitiesStandards- what standards are being developed?- what are we really trying to standardise?- where are we trying to go?Directives and national measures- EPB Regulations

Current Standards Activity

BSI, CEN and ISO are working on standards related to carbon emissions from buildings and their component materials and systems

• BS PAS 2050 – measurement of embodied greenhouse gases in products and services

• CEN - Sustainability of construction works

• CEN – Strategic energy management forum

• ISO – sustainable construction standards

Carbon counting standards

• 4 strands of standardisation (at least)

• ISO well advanced on a general framework for environmental impact measures

• CEN developing standards in response to a mandate – possible standstill on national efforts

• BSI developing the PAS on carbon

PAS 2050• Being developed jointly by Carbon Trust,

Defra and BSI• Aims to “develop an agreed method for

measuring embodied GHG emissions which can be applied across a wide range of product and service categories …to enable companies to measure the GHG related impacts of their products and reduce them.”

• Carbon and GHG specific

CEN TC 350 – Integrated Performance of Buildings

Committee has a mandate from the Commission to produce standards covering the performance of buildings. Although the mandate is primarily concerned with environmental performance, the committee is keen to extend its scope to health, comfort and whole life cost as soon as possible.

Proposed CEN standards for sustainability of construction

works• Framework for assessment of building

• Assessment of environmental performance of buildings – Calculation methods

• Environmental product declarations – Product category rules (on products, processes or services)

• Description of the building life cycle

CEN CENELEC Joint working groups on Energy

ManagementActivity arose from earlier work within CEN on the need for standards for energy management. Initially included work items included in the EPBD standards programme. After input from CIBSE and BSI a scaled down plan of work was adopted. A BSI committee, SEM/1, was established earlier this year to manage UK input

CEN/CENELEC Sector Forum Energy

Management (SFEM)Task Force 189 (TF): Energy Management and related services

Project Team (PT): Energy Management Systems

PT: Energy Service Companies (ESCOs)

TF 190: Energy Efficiency & Savings Calculations

PT: Bottom-up calculations

PT: Top-down calculations

CEN/CENELEC Sector Forum Energy

Management (SFEM)• Proposed New Task Forces for:

– Green certificates, – White certificates, – Benchmarking, – Conformity Assessment

International Standardisation

Organisation• ISO/ TC 59/ SC 17 Building construction:

Sustainability in building construction

Has been working since 2003 to develop a set of standards covering environmental and sustainability aspects of construction.

Adopts a broad view of environmental aspects – not just counting carbon

ISO TC59 SC17 - Sustainability in Building

Construction• ISO TS 21929-1 - Sustainability Indicators - Part 1:

Framework for the development of indicators for buildings – being developed into a full standard

• ISO TS 21931-1 - Framework for methods of assessment for environmental performance of construction works – Part 1: buildings

• ISO 21930 (FDIS) Environmental declaration of building products

• – ISO TR 21932 Terminology• – ISO DIS 15392 general principles

Other relevant ISO work

• ISO TC 207 /SC3 and /SC 5 - Environmental management – ISO 14000 series of standards

• ISO TC 205 - Building environment design

• ISO TC 163 - Thermal performance and energy use in the built environment

“Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body”

Ecclesiastes 12 v12

What are we really trying to standardise?

• Carbon impacts or Environmental impacts?

• Products? Systems? Whole buildings?

• Cradle to gate, or cradle to grave?

• Life cycle? When does life begin and end?

• Impact of a building? Of what goes on in it? Of how people get to it (to work on it or in it)

Where are we going?• Development of a range of indicators and

measures covering carbon and other environmental impacts

• Potential overlap

• Potential duplication of burdens on the industry

• Potential confusion – remember carbon offsets?

Directives

• The EPBD

• Scottish Building Standards

• Energy Assessors in Scotland

EPBD Scope & Implementation

Scope – non-domestic• All new buildings• On sale of existing buildings• On change of tenant in existing rented buildings• Existing public buildings

Timetable – non-domestic• New buildings – May 2007• Existing buildings – 4 January 2009

Asset Ratings and Energy Performance

Certificates• Duty to obtain/provide placed on owners• Based on Asset Rating

( SBEM or approved software )• Accompanied by a Recommendation Report• EPC and Report for existing buildings produced by

‘accredited assessor’• EPC and calculations for new buildings may be

provided by ‘approved certifier of design’

Different ApproachesExisting Buildings

• Protocols with professional bodies

• ‘Accredited assessors’ judged primarily by their professional institutions

• Only open to members of professional body

New Buildings• Formal scheme with

‘scheme providers’• ‘Approved certifiers of

design’ subject to external scrutiny by SBS

• Open to non-members of scheme provider body

Existing BuildingsSBS non-domestic protocols in place with:Chartered Institution of Building Services EngineersAssociation of Building EngineersEnergy InstituteRoyal Institution of Chartered SurveyorsHeating and Ventilating Contractors AssociationBuilding Research EstablishmentNational Energy Services

New Buildings• CIBSE aim to become ‘scheme provider’ before the

end of 2008• Open to non-CIBSE members but applicants must

still have other relevant professional qualifications / memberships

• Applicants must have relevant knowledge and experience – training not designed for zero starting point

Carbon Accounting?

Its not just about counting carbon, but controlling it

Thank you for listening – Any questions?