Could refurbishment of “traditional” buildings reduce carbon emissions?

Abstract

Purpose – Evaluate the post occupancy performance of a typical “traditional” building using multiple post occupancy evaluation (PoE) protocols against design intents to learn lessons about their suitability in meeting UK's climate change reduction targets. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – PoE studies of a single case study, Norton Park, using three PoE methodologies. Gaps and overlaps between the PoE protocols are assessed and their role in improving energy and carbon emission performance of traditional buildings is explored. Findings – Refurbishment of the type undertaken in this case study could halve the energy use in traditional buildings with comparable savings in CO2 emission. Research limitations/implications – Traditional buildings could positively contribute to achieving climate change reduction targets; regular feedback loops improve performance over time. Practical implications – Quantification of the likely national benefit of focusing retrofit actions on traditional buildings is explored. Originality/value – The research study demonstrates that very high levels of energy saving can be achieved when traditional buildings are refurbished. In addition on-going monitoring and PoE studies highlight opportunities to optimise the performance of traditional buildings.

Green building for office interiors: challenges and opportunities

“…Retrofitting usually refers to interventions to adjust, reuse, or upgrade a building to suit new conditions or requirements (Wilkinson, 2012, Mansfield, 2002. Building retrofitting is proved to be an effective intervention to reduce carbon footprint, energy consumptions and improve occupant satisfaction (Forsythe and Wilkinson, 2015, Lo et al, 2014, Atkins and Emmanuel, 2014, Gohardani and Björk, 2012, Miller and Buys, 2008, Baccarini and Bateup, 2008, Kok et al, 2012. Most building retrofitting strategies involve building envelope, Heating Ventilation and Air-conditioning (HVAC) system; renewable energy, lighting, elevators, even building roofs and surroundings (Zhang et al, 2014).…”

Investigating Drivers Stimulating Demand for Green Renovation of Existing Buildings and Systems

“…Evaluation of post occupancy performance of a typical conventional building was undertaken by Atkins & Emmanuel (2014). The research used a single case to explore gaps and overlaps and their role in improving energy and carbon emission performance of traditional buildings.…”

An investigation into retrofitting the pre-1919 owner-occupied UK housing stock to reduce carbon emissions

“…Pre-1919 housing stock's operational carbon emissions are estimated at 86 kgCO2/m 2 /year (Moran et al, 2014), with average annual emissions of 9.4 tCO2e compared to 1.5 tCO2e in newer housing stock (Atkins and Emmanuel, 2014;DCLG, 2015b). Fawcett et al (2010) state that whole house retrofit is required within the existing UK housing stock to achieve the desired reduction in carbon emissions.…”

“…Subsequently, this type of housing is thought to have a key contribution to attaining the UK government's carbon reduction targets (Power, 2008;Atkins and Emmanuel, 2014).…”

“…Dowson et al (2012) highlight the difficulties faced in achieving airtightness in the oldest building stock. Without improving the air tightness of homes, building fabric improvements could prove counter-productive (Atkins and Emmanuel, 2014). As far as technical interventions are concerned, there is a shortage of skills among the construction workforce to carry out low carbon retrofit of old buildings (Plimmer et al, 2008), prompting the National Energy Foundation (NEF) (2014) to outline how a lack of skills prohibits a holistic approach to retrofit.…”