Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors                            ESH0090

Supplementary written evidence submitted by the
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

RICS follow up to the Environmental Audit Committee inquiry into environmental sustainability and housing growth.

During the RICS committee session, we said we would respond to the committee with details on the carbon cost and budget of meeting 1.5 million new homes, as well as details on standards produced by industry to support decarbonisation and carbon measurement – specifically relating to the below question:

What contribution can the NPPF make to meeting Government targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions? What account does the NPPF take of advice from the Climate Change Committee on reducing the use of embodied carbon as well as operational carbon in the built environment?

Below, we provided the details of our calculation below, which works out at 8.3% of the 2033-2037 UK Carbon Budget.

• New homes construction currently emits on average 574 kgCO2e/m2 (only module A, i.e. upfront embodied carbon) – this is based on data collected of the UK NZCBS here: PowerPoint Presentation, page 68
• Average new home floor area is 94m2 – based on this: Size_of_English_Homes_Fact_Sheet_EHS_2018.pdf
• That means a new home on average emits 574*94 = 53,956 kgCO2e
• Multiplied by 1.5 million homes is 80,934,000,000 kgCO2e = 80.9 MtCO2e
• Which is 8.3% of the total UK carbon budget for 2033-2037 (965 MtCO2e as stated here: The-Sixth-Carbon-Budget-The-UKs-path-to-Net-Zero.pdf page 15)

Furthermore, we promised the Committee we would provide further information on standards and tools produced to support the carbon measurement, and carbon reduction related to housing building. There are three measures we would like to draw the Committee’s attention towards.

1)     RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment  – A world-leading standard for consistent and accurate carbon measurement in the built environment, WLCA presents tangible opportunities for you in your work. The standard equips assessors with the right skills and knowledge for completing consistent and accurate carbon measurements.  By giving visibility to embodied carbon, operational carbon and user carbon – a unique feature of the standard – a comprehensive and consistent approach can be used for decision making. WLCA is already being employed in parts of the UK. For example, several social housing development tenders require bids to provide estimated carbon footprints – with WLCA being required to ensure a consistent approach to measurement and estimation is delivered.

2)     Built Environment Carbon Database - The database is envisioned to become the main source of carbon estimating and benchmarking for the UK construction sector and a practical instrument to support the decarbonisation of the built environment. The database has been developed to collect and supply product data and entity-level data to the industry through its portal and by interacting with existing databases and software solutions.
 

3)     UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard – While the Future Homes Standard regulates operational carbon (and developers are likely to use this as the absolute minimum they will have to build to), it falls short of net-zero goals, with homes being “zero-carbon ready” instead of truly net-zero. RICS was a founding member of the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard. The UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard is a framework designed to help buildings achieve net-zero carbon emissions throughout their lifecycle, focusing on reducing energy use and carbon output. It sets clear performance criteria for operational energy, embodied carbon, and ongoing carbon reductions, aiming to ensure that buildings contribute to the UK's climate goals.

March 2025