Biggart Baillie Solicitors

Sustainability Labelling for Buildings

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

by Ian McCann

Introduction

Following hot on the heels of the Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2010 coming into force [Click here to view Summary Of The Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2010 Article] is a Consultation on Sustainability Labelling in New Buildings which could result in further amendments to the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004 and the accompanying Domestic and Non-Domestic Technical Handbooks. 

Sustainability in building standards is not a new concept.  The Building (Scotland) Act 2003 (“the 2003 Act”) gave the Scottish Ministers the power to make building regulations for the purpose of furthering the achievement of sustainable development.  This Consultation is intended to move towards explicit requirements for new buildings to achieve “a specified level of sustainability and a statement of the level of sustainability achieved that would be affixed to the building”. 

The Scottish Government have commented that they want Scotland to be a world leader in relation to sustainable development.  This aspiration is clear from a number of policy documents.  It was put on a statutory footing (similar to that in the 2003 Act) in the Planning etc (Scotland) Act 2006 and covered in the current planning guidance [Click here to view Planning & Sustainability in Scotland Article]. 

Options

The Consultation papers set out three options:-

1. To do nothing – as the Scottish Government is committed to the objective of a Greener Scotland they see no benefit in furthering achievement of sustainable development in this option. 
2. Introduce the English Code for Sustainable Homes modified to Scottish needs. 
3. Introducing an amendment to embed in the Scottish Regulations a requirement for the sustainability labelling of new buildings.

It is clear that the option three is the preferred option for Scottish Government in line with their aspiration to be a world leader in this field. 

Objectives

The objectives in proceeding with option three are:-

• Recognise the level of sustainability achieved by the 2010 building regulations.  
• To allow planning authorities a simple route to achieve their obligations under Section 72 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.  
• To encourage the adoption of even more demanding sustainability standards with optional higher level of achievement. 
• To adopt a sustainability labelling system that can operate within the scope of the building standards system in Scotland. 
• To encourage consistency between local authorities and supplementary planning guidance on sustainable construction. 
• To give simple benchmarks that can be referred to when local authorities aspire to developments that meet a higher standard of sustainability. 

Updates to Technical Handbooks

The Consultation papers contain new proposed Section 7 on sustainability for both Domestic Guidance and Non-Domestic Guidance Technical Handbooks.  These each propose five standards for new buildings:-

• Bronze Level – for this all the standards in sections 1-6 of the existing Technical Handbooks (which were updated in terms of the 2010 Building Regulations) apply to the building. 
• Bronze Star Level – in addition to the level achieved for bronze the building must include the use of a low and zero carbon generating technology (wind turbines; water turbines; heat pumps; solar or thermal panels; solar photovoltaic panels; combined heat and power units (fired by low emission sources); fuel cells; biomass boilers / stoves; biogas). 
• Silver – the standards for bronze are achieved in addition carbon dioxide omissions to be a 28.6% (for non-domestic buildings) or 21.4% (for domestic buildings) improvement on the 2010 standards and for domestic buildings to achieve specified standards for space heating, water heating, water use efficiency, optimising performance and standards connected with quality of life, material use and waste. 
• Gold Level – the standards for bronze apply and carbon dioxide omissions to be a 64.3% (for non-domestic buildings) and 42.8% (for domestic buildings) improvement on the 2010 standards and for domestic buildings to achieve specified standards (that are higher than those for silver level) for space heating, water heating, water use efficiency, optimising performance and standards connected with quality of life, material use and waste. 
• Platinum Level – the standards for bronze level apply and carbon dioxide omissions to be 100% (for both domestic and non-domestic buildings) improvement on the 2010 standards to achieve as yet unspecified standards for space heating, water heating, water use efficiency, optimising performance and standards connected with quality of life, material use and waste. 

Responses are sought by Friday 25 December 2010.  The Consultation papers can be found here.  Should you have any queries on the Consultation including any assistance required in framing a Consultation response or if you have a query relating to the current regime, please contact Ian McCann for an initial discussion and indication of whether fuller advice might be appropriate on 0131 226 5541 or imccann@biggartbaillie.co.uk.