A new building performance designation is being introduced for the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard (UK NZCBS).
The Standard, Version 1 of which was published in March, defines the performance levels a building must achieve to be considered ‘Net Zero Carbon Aligned’.
Now, under the UK NZCBS’s Performance Evaluation designation, buildings that do not currently meet all of the requirements can still get a ‘robust indication’ of how they are performing against the Standard’s criteria.a
A verified Performance Evaluation will act as a ‘report card’, using the same metrics as the UK NZCBS to show how close a building is to being Net Zero Carbon Aligned.
By reporting on in-use performance and learning to measure and assess it against the Standard, the evaluation is a vital step towards a building’s decarbonisation, says UK NZCBS.
Simon Wyatt, partner and global head of sustainability at consultants Cundall, said: ‘The Performance Evaluation designation responds to industry concerns about the binary pass/fail approach to Net Zero Carbon Aligned status.
‘Recognising projects making progress, even if they’ve not met all criteria, encourages broader engagement with the Standard.’
