Simon Corbey – Director, Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP)
www.asbp.org.uk
Q: The proposed Part Z Building Regulation will focus minds on embodied and whole-life carbon across the built environment – is this a long overdue addition to construction and design thinking?
SC: The ASBP has been working towards legislating for embodied carbon since our launch in 2011, so yes, it is long overdue. On 20 June, Jerome Mayhew MP reintroduced a private member’s bill to the House of Commons, calling for embodied carbon in buildings to be regulated and reduced. This is a reintroduction of the 10-minute rule bill introduced previously by Duncan Baker MP in February. This had to be dropped when Baker was promoted to a position within Michael Gove’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, as 10-minute rule bills can only be put forward by backbench MPs.
Q: The debate surrounding structural timber and 18m usage is seemingly only a UK-only one. With tall timber flourishing internationally – is the UK approach likely to change any time soon?
SC: I fear that this is unlikely sadly. However, the situation is frustrating a lot of developers, all of which want to reduce the embodied carbon of their builds. They recognise that building with timber is the best way to do this but are being prevented by an array of obstacles, which also include insurance. We need more data from large scale testing to help push this along. We are delighted to be working with Built by Nature, who are working across Europe to encourage more timber building. For a more detailed look at the challenges please read our Timber Accelerator Hub report.
Q: Timber is a mainstay of housebuilding in Scotland – what can be done to raise the levels of structural understanding and use of timber in residential projects elsewhere in the UK?
SC: Scotland seems to be more switched on to the climate crisis, with well-funded organisations like BE-ST (formerly Construction Innovation Scotland) and Zero Waste Scotland and housing providers like Makar that are developing systems from local materials. Wales has organisations like Wood Knowledge Wales, whose mission is to turn Wales into a high value forestry nation. Embodied carbon is now part of the Design Quality Standards for social housing in Wales. England seems to be lagging behind but a recent Innovate UK study – AIMCH with Barratt Homes – did look at the embodied carbon of timber and made comparisons to brick, and found timber offered significant carbon savings. There is no doubt that legislating for embodied carbon would change the status quo.
