How can we make our buildings more sustainable?

Marialena and Henrik present a workshop in a boardroom full of businesses

Buildings and the construction sector account for approximately 40% of CO2 emissions globally. From design and construction to the operation of buildings, there is a lot we can do to address the problem – but how do we choose the right approach?

In the second of our Net Zero Pathway to Change workshops, Professor Marialena Nikolopoulou and Professor Henrik Schoenefeldt from the Kent School of Architecture and Planning set out to answer this question.

“Government strategies focus on technology as a means to fix everything,” Henrik explained at the beginning of the workshop. “Technology is important but it can’t work in isolation. The priority needs to be to bring energy demand down by finding ways to intelligently integrate existing technology.”

This, of course, requires a workforce with the skills and understanding to do so, a challenge which Henrik is helping to address through various initiatives within the School. The slides he presented throughout the workshop, for example, were a condensed version of a programme he developed for Masters students to ensure that graduates from the University of Kent are equipped with the core knowledge and working practices required for net-zero carbon design. He has also led a PassivHaus working group which involved students and industry in examining the technical, economic and cultural barriers to the construction of PassivHaus standard buildings in the UK.

Throughout the workshop, Henrik and Marialena stressed that as 80% of 2050’s homes have already been built, the focus should be on retrofitting existing buildings rather than building new ones. They also iterated that this should be done on a case-by-case basis, taking the heritage of the building into account and using tools such as the LETI Climate Emergency Retrofit Guide as guidance.

To demonstrate how this might work, Marialena shared her experience of retrofitting a heritage townhouse in Margate as part of a project co-funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund with Thanet District Council and Kent County Council. More recently she has been working on the SOLOCLIM (Solutions for Outdoor Climate Adaptation) EU-funded project, investigating clusters of microclimatic interventions in the urban environment, where she is leading the work on climate-responsive systems responding to microclimatic changes, and thermal comfort of urban environments more widely. “Such work is particularly pertinent to the current heat-wave we are experiencing, highlighting the challenges we are facing on the path for zero carbon buildings and cities.”

Henrik Scheonefeldt features on CIBSE Journal cover as time traveller

Meanwhile, Henrik is well-renowned for his work leading a large research project within the Houses of Parliament’s restoration programme to understand the Palace of Westminster’s 19th century ventilation system. Both Henrik and Marialena are based within the Centre for Architecture and Sustainable Design which Marialena founded to bridge the gap between academia and industry and promote research in sustainable design.

This Net Zero Pathway to Change workshop is part of a wider programme, funded by the UK Community Renewal Fund and led by Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, Kent County Council and the University of Kent, to support SMEs within the Local Authority areas of Swale, Gravesham and Canterbury to identify, adapt and implement measures that reduce their carbon emissions. As such, businesses from these areas who attend the workshops are able -and encouraged- to apply for £5k funding to continue to access support from University of Kent academics to take further steps towards meeting their net zero goals.

To find out more about and register for future sessions in the series, visit our Eventbrite Page.

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