Trial / Demo
IES are excited to be partnering with the UKGBC, as well as several partner organisations and industry experts, on a newly launched non-domestic retrofit project, targeted at the retail and logistics sector.
Building on its Retrofitting Offices report, published in January, UKGBC’s Non-Domestic Retrofit: Retail and Logistics project seeks to explore how best to decarbonise the retail and logistics sectors through effective retrofit planning and delivery.
Retrofitting non-domestic property will play a crucial role in achieving our net zero targets. According to UKGBC’s Whole Life Carbon Roadmap, the non-domestic building stock is responsible for 23% of the UK built environment’s operational emissions, with the retail and logistics sectors being the primary drivers of operational emissions. With around 80% of the buildings that will exist in 2050 already built, we need to deliver rapid improvements in the energy efficiency of our current building stock if we are to achieve our net zero ambitions.
This is why UKGBC has been delivering a workstream covering the retrofit of these energy intensive non-domestic buildings. This next phase will focus on buildings in the retail and logistics sectors and aims to explore the operational energy performance improvements that can be achieved, alongside the consequent cost and embodied carbon impacts. This is intended to inform planned upgrades to existing assets and help overcome common challenges and to meet the likely ambition behind emerging net zero carbon performance limits, such as those being developed by the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard. In addition, the report will collate real-world examples of retrofit measures to illustrate what these projects can look like and the lessons learned from implementation.
IES are amongst six organisations from across the built environment sector that have come together to support UKGBC in this project and make this much needed analysis possible. Fellow project partner organisations include: AtkinsRéalis, Federated Hermes, Mitsubishi Electric, Ridge and Partners, and SEGRO.
The task group, formed of experts in retrofitting retail & logistics buildings from across the UKGBC’s Advancing Net Zero programme partners, project partners and wider UKGBC membership, will work closely with the UKGBC team to undertake this research over the next year.
Lorenzo De Donatis, Senior Manager, ICL Consultancy at IES, commented: “Retail and logistics buildings are some of the most energy intensive in our sector and many of them need to be retrofitted to ensure we can meet our net-zero goals. IES is proud to be working with the UKGBC and the entire task group on this important project, which will seek to examine the effectiveness of different retrofit measures in the retail and logistics sector and collate real-world examples to inspire industry action.”
Laurie McKelvie, Head of ICL Customer Success at IES, who will also join the task group, added: “If we are to reach net-zero as an industry, we need to retrofit much of our existing building stock to improve its energy performance – and retail and logistics buildings are a key part of this. We’re pleased to be supporting UKGBC in this important project, and to have the opportunity to bring our performance analytics expertise to help shape guidance on the effectiveness of retrofit measures within the retail and logistics sector.”
For more information, read the full announcement on the UKGBC website.
