Target Zero

Christ the King Centre for Learning secondary school in Knowsley, Merseyside

An independent guide has been published providing detailed cost analyses and route maps for achieving low or zero carbon schools and BREEAM Outstanding ratings. Commissioned by Tata Steel and the BCSA, Target Zero is the first project of its kind to undertake a detailed comparison of different energy efficiency measures, low or zero carbon (LZC) technologies and allowable solutions in order to identify the most cost effective means of achieving different levels of carbon reduction.

Target Zero is a programme of work being led by AECOM and Cyril Sweet to provide guidance on the design and construction of sustainable, low and zero carbon buildings in the UK. The studies investigate three priority areas of sustainable construction; operational carbon reduction, BREEAM assessments and embodied carbon, to establish the most cost effective routes to achieving different levels of compliance. The Steel Construction Institute and Tata Steel’s own Research and Development department are providing steel related expertise to the Aecom led team.

The first of five guides covers secondary schools, which is timely against a backdrop of the pilot green schools now planned in all English regions, as part of the implementation of a newly published Zero Carbon Task Force report and the Government’s aspiration for all new schools to be carbon zero by 2016. Further guides will be published on supermarkets, warehouses, offices and mixed-use retail/residential.

With Part L of the Building Regulations providing a roadmap of likely carbon reduction targets going forward, Target Zero looks at how the expected incremental reductions can be successfully achieved and the associated whole life costs over an operational period of 25 years.

The Schools research was based on Christ the King Centre for Learning secondary school in Knowsley, Merseyside. Alterations were made to the form, fabric and services to provide a base case more representative of current practice and then a variety of changes made to ascertain the effect these would have both on the construction and operation of the building in terms of emissions and whole life cost. Tata Steel General Manager Alan Todd said: “The work has been undertaken by leading organisations in the field of sustainable construction to provide information and guidance for construction clients and their professional advisors on how to design and construct sustainable secondary school buildings.

“The findings of this guide will inform those that have been set the zero carbon challenge to turn the aspirations of Government into reality.”

Key findings of the Schools report include:

• The likely 2010 Part L compliance target of reducing operational carbon emissions by 25% is achievable using energy efficiency measures alone, i.e. without LZC technologies, at an increased capital cost of just 0.14%.
• Operational carbon emission reductions up to 119% of regulated emissions, (96% of total carbon emissions) can be achieved using a package of energy efficiency measures, plus a 50kW wind turbine, 1,300 m2 photovoltaics, a biomass boiler and 216 m2 of solar thermal panels. Together these measures would incur an increased capital cost of 11.5%.
• The study found that no current single on-site LZC technology could achieve true zero-carbon, i.e.a 124% reduction in regulated emissions.
  • The greatest on-site reduction, using just one technology, is 86% of regulated emissions (69% of total carbon emissions) achieved by using fuel cell CCHP when combined with a package of very high energy efficiency measures.
  • Several of the off-site LZC technologies considered are capable of achieving zero carbon with a positive impact on whole life costs. The most cost effective option is to purchase a share in a large on-shore wind farm. If off-site wind technologies are not available or allowed, i.e. not permitted as an ‘allowable solution’, district CHP plant is the next most cost effective option.
• Using structural steelwork for the building frame has a lower embodied carbon impact than an in-situ concrete frame.
• No significant difference was found in the thermal mass performance of the heavy-weight concrete frame option compared with the lighter steel framed solution.

Download the report here

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