Mainly for Students: COP this now or it will be too late

Paul Collins explores some of the thoughts, information and provocations around climate change and the built environment. According to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy guidance, Climate change explained: “Climate change is happening and is due to human activity, this includes global warming and greater risk of flooding, droughts and heatwaves.” There’s nothing new there, but what are we doing about it as an industry? Concerns around humanity’s disconnection with nature have existed for many years. In the early 19th century, poet William Wordsworth wrote: “The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” His words were a plea against what he saw as soulless consumerism and material possessions that he thought were ousting our relationship with the natural environment. His words nearly 120 years later chime strongly with the current conflicts between the natural and built environments and the impacts of climate change and loss of nature. Industry action Last month, EG reported that Cadogan Estates was “taking a leaf from the Chelsea Flower Show and planting its own mini forest. The owner of 88 acres of central London has selected a 240 sq m site on Pont Street, SW1… to be transformed into a pocket-forest, with 630 native trees”. Apart from aesthetic, wellbeing and biodiversity benefits, trees extract carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. But how many trees should we plant? The answer is a lot, and from a property point of view, research suggests that they can add up to 20% in market value by their presence. By comparison with the European Union average, the UK has almost two-thirds less tree cover: 13% compared to 35%. That should be, arguably, the first target. The planning white paper published in August 2020 talked about a commitment “to make all new streets tree-lined”. Further, the proposed Environment Act will require, among a broad range of green provisions, that all new developments provide more biodiversity than existed previously on a site: so-called “net biodiversity gain” – and that could include tree planting. If it is not possible to do so on site, additional contributions to biodiversity would be required to be made elsewhere – by law, not just planning policy. In terms of trees and carbon, a good basic resource can be found on the Carbon Community’s website. It suggests that slow-growing deciduous trees, rather than conifers, can be best in the long run in capturing carbon and that the soil in which trees grow also provides a massive carbon store. Carbon basics If we go back to basics on the challenge of carbon, there are three things that need to be done: 1. Cut the emission of carbon into the atmosphere by reducing and ending fossil fuel dependency; 2. Offset the carbon produced by particular activities; and 3. Store carbon where and how we can. All three are fraught with challenge. Reducing carbon emissions While the UK is committed to wind and solar energy, most existing homes and places of work are heated by gas boilers and few of us yet have electric cars. The current proposal to open a new coal mine in Wordsworth’s beloved Cumbria underlines the complexities. Environmental campaigners argue that it undermines Britain’s commitment to stop using fossil fuels, but the company making the application argues that coal (to be used for the local steel industry) would have to be imported from Australia, Russia or Brazil, which in turn would have a high carbon cost of transportation, well apart from providing new local jobs. The inquiry into the proposal should be published in the new year. Offsetting The concept of carbon offsetting is demonstrated by the band Coldplay, who recently announced plans to plant a tree for every ticket sold as part of their forthcoming world tour. Similarly, if as a car commuter you travelled six miles each way for 250 days of the year, you would need to plant at least 22 trees each year. This in turn would need about half an acre of land to do so. Carbon capture and storage Trees and vegetation provide the natural way to capture carbon, but what is the “industrial” alternative? In Reykjavik, Iceland a company called Orca recently opened a carbon capture “factory” which sucks in air-captured carbon, mixes it with water and pumps it deep underground where it is trapped and stored. If done at scale, could this technology dramatically supplement the nature-based approaches? Nature and technology working together A great example of a science-based technology working symbiotically with a nature-based approach are bio-solar roofs: the combination of solar panels on a green roof. The green roof provides all the positives of biodiversity, rainwater attenuation and some insulating qualities and the solar panels provide electricity – but the additional positive is that research has indicated that the solar panels can be more efficient on a green roof. See, for example: https://livingroofs.org/green-roofs-solar-power. In a similar but different way, plants and greenery in offices have been found to increase productivity, wellbeing and air quality. It is recommended that, as students, you explore what is called biophilic design. Knight Frank provides a very good summation of the approach on its website. Practitioner thoughts and challenges In preparing this article, I put a call out to practitioners for views on what students should think about in helping solve environmental challenges. These included the following, which might form the basis of an essay, dissertation or seminar discussion: 1. Embed the energy hierarchy principle at the design stage: passive design principles, maximise the efficiency of heating technologies and maximise on-site renewable generation. 2. Every new building to be fitted with a full array of photovoltaics plus air or ground-source heat pumps. 3. Squaring the circle between the competing demands of sustainable performance, “beautiful design”, affordability and reducing the carbon footprint. 4. Recognising and taking into account the socio-economic and environmental impacts of homelessness and unemployment. 5. Understanding and empathising with people’s needs and issues and how we interact with sustainable and environmental issues and technologies.  6. Reflecting corporate ESG factors in all real estate valuations going forward – and a practical understanding of the costs to achieve net zero. 7. The biggest challenge to sustainability is how we place the needs of the investor above the needs of environmental and social priorities. UN Sustainability Goal 13 Finally, let’s move to the big picture as regards the United Nations Sustainability Goals. There are 17 interlinked goals, which the UK and major built environment professions have committed to supporting. See, for example, the government’s position in its July report Implementing the sustainable development goals. Please have a look at each of the goals in the context of COP26 – in particular, goal number 13: “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.” (See: www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/climate-change) Final thoughts Wordsworth wrote: “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in nature that is ours”. Students, as practitioners of the future, must help in not laying waste our powers and better support the health of nature, that is ours. UN secretary-general António Guterres said earlier this year: “The climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win.” However, that immediate responsibility rests with current political leaders along with public and private sector organisations, including those related to property and the built environment. “If we don’t act now,” warned Sir David Attenborough ahead of COP26, “it will be too late.” As Wordsworth said, we will “have given our hearts away, a sordid boon”. Paul Collins is a senior lecturer at Nottingham Trent University and Mainly for Students editor Photo by Akil Mazumder from Pexels