A new report shows organisations “burying their heads in the sand” on the need to retrofit commercial buildings, according to the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA).
The Role of Retrofitting our Non-Domestic Buildings in the Race to Net Zero – produced by from Ridge and Partners – found that just one in four public or private sector organisations had invested in making their buildings more sustainable and just one in ten had a retrofitting budget. Most had ambitious net zero plans, but few included the energy performance of their building.
Researchers spoke to 101 property and facilities bosses and concluded that the problem was at board level. Retrofitting to improve energy efficiency was seen as a low priority for 86% of building managers, according to the report, and 23% of the people managing buildings in the largest companies had not been involved in any form of net zero planning.
They also hugely underestimated the rate at which buildings were replaced in the UK. Over a third told researchers that fewer than 39% of the UK’s current building stock would still be in use by 2050, but it is likely to be more than 70%.
In response to the report, the BESA said both public and private sector organisations were “burying their heads in the sand” and failing to meet their energy efficiency and carbon reduction responsibilities.
BESA’s technical director Graeme Fox said the report’s findings were shocking as they revealed a huge lack of awareness among the people who had the power to make our built environment more sustainable and resilient.
He said:
This shows that there is a lot of talk about net zero and corporate flannel about sustainability but when it comes to taking action many are not investing in the most obvious and straightforward measures.
Retrofitting existing buildings can be done at speed and more cost-effectively than some of the grandiose ‘statement’ measures being proposed by some organisations. If they are serious about energy security and protecting themselves from another price shock, they should be retrofitting now.
We clearly need to make a stronger business case for building retrofit. FMs are struggling to get the message through to board rooms that this is an area which could not only make a huge difference to their ‘green’ corporate credentials but also significantly reduce their running costs.
