Move would enable major embodied carbon savings, says firm
Mace has called for the adoption of a 鈥榬etrofit first鈥� principle for non-domestic buildings to be adopted into UK planning policy.
The recommendation, included a new report published by the firm, aims to promote the re-use and re-purposing of existing non-domestic buildings, which represent 13% of building stock and 23% of carbon emissions from buildings.
According to Mace, more than 3.5 million non-residential buildings will need to be retrofitted within the next ten years.
Gareth Lewis, chief executive of Mace Construct, said: 鈥淢any buildings may not require demolition and can be transformed and renewed through retrofit into fantastic new assets, savings tonnes of embodied carbon in the process.
鈥淲e are therefore urging the government to mandate consideration of retrofit at the planning stage to avoid unnecessary demolition.
鈥淗owever, demolition can sometimes be necessary because of poor design or critical safety reasons, and it鈥檚 therefore important we avoid binary debates on new build versus retrofit.
鈥淚f demolition is required, then the reasons for this should be made clear from the onset. Developers should also consider how elements of the building can be retained, reused or recycled 鈥� adopting a circular mindset to construction.鈥�
The retrofit first planning presumption was one of 12 recommendations outlined in the report, which Mace claims would help boost retrofit for commercial and public sector buildings.
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These also included providing more clarity on energy efficiency regulations for commercial buildings, reviewing retrofit funding allocations for the public sector and exploring new fiscal incentives around the reuse or recycling of materials in the built environment.
Mace Consult鈥檚 chief executive, Jason Millett, said non-domestic retrofit had 鈥渙ften been overlooked鈥� by policymakers and that it was 鈥渃ritical that this imbalance is addressed鈥�.
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