NEWS | DIGEST Opposition builds to M&S demolition on Oxford Street A Conservative MP and a key government adviser on the built environment have expressed their opposition to plans by Marks & Spencer to bulldoze its flagship Oxford Street store. North Norfolk MP Duncan Baker and Nicholas Boys Smith, who chairs the governments Office for Place, have spoken out against the redevelopment, which has been called in for a public inquiry over concerns about embodied emissions. Baker, a member of the environmental audit committee, said that for the built environment industry to meet government net zero targets meant doing things differently and encouraging innovation. Approving the scheme would mean no change and business as usual. Boys Smith described the proposals as deeply flawed, and said it would waste oodles of embodied carbon. In a technical statement to the upcoming inquiry, academic Dr Alice Moncaster said the energy used to create materials such as steel and concrete for new buildings is far more significant than previously thought. Call for standard metrics for whole life carbon UKGBC says lack of consistency inhibits uptake of efcient processes A lack of agreed metrics on the carbon savings from retaining components in projects is an important gap in industry knowledge, according to a new report by the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC). How circular economy principles can impact carbon and value says a more consistent approach to measuring how much carbon is saved by reusing materials when demolishing and rebuilding projects is urgently needed. It found that as much as half of the life-cycle carbon emissions from buildings comes from embodied sources, such as the manufacturing of materials and construction processes. The report concludes that many circular economy principles are already in use, such as the reuse of steel and other building structures to save embodied carbon, and could be adopted more widely. However, the research says measurement of whole life carbon is infrequent, inconsistent, and difcult because of the lack of a common set of metrics and methods. This knowledge gap and a general failure to consistently measure whole life carbon and circularity inhibits uptake of more efcient processes, according to the report. CIBSE published a methodology for calculating embodied energy last year because of the lack of environmental product declarations for HVAC products. CIBSE TM65, Embodied carbon in building services: a calculation methodology, was subsequently used as the basis for another TM that investigates the embodied carbon impact of heating and hot-water equipment. They are free to download for Members go to www.cibse.org/knowledgeportal This valve has been fully functionally tested. Just like all our others. Every single Elite Prime PICV & Hook-Up is meticulously tested, in accordance with BSRIA BTS 01. These tests include verification of flow performance across the valves differential pressure range to ensure low hysteresis. So, when you need the complete valve solution none of the others will do. Find out more at hattersley.com/justlike Marc, Team Leader 21400_HATTERSLEY_FUNCTION_TEST_AD_133X186.indd 1 14/02/2022 13:27 12 September 2022 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Sept 22 pp12 News.indd 12 26/08/2022 18:27