Building performance and measurement: its place within a variable climate With a reluctance to take appropriate action, the IPCC have warned that the net cost of global climate change is considerable and increasing over time. For many, the implications are devastatingly severe, with anticipated fires, floods, droughts and extreme winds that will permanently reshape the environment. The recently reported loss of 219bn tonnes of ice, per year, and sea levels rising considerably faster than previously predicted is set to displace millions of people and, with the loss of the heat sink, the lack of ice will further contribute to global warming (Shepherd et al., 2019; IPCC, 2019). The built environment has a critical role to play, if we are to slow down the change. Until now, as a major emitter of greenhouse gases, the sector has done relatively little to reduce emissions. Decarbonising energy supply is part of the process and this is progressing with countries like the UK, Denmark, the USA and China reducing the carbon intensity of the electrical supply (Assirati, 2019), yet the demand in these countries remains unsustainably high and set to increase. Relatively, the changes to the buildings are static and the inefficient building stock is a major consumer. The international targets for new buildings that are net zero by 2030 and all of the existing stock following suit by 2050 are but a vision, unless we have the measures, checks, processes and technology in place to advance change.The pace of change in the performance of the building stock has been remarkably slow. Almost without question, today's buildings are not fit for purpose; even new buildings often fail to perform against current standards, resulting in the infamous performance gaps (Gorse, 2016). The real concern is that the enhanced performance standards required to transform towards zero and net plus buildings has not materialised. Developments that offer net zero contribution are limited almost to prototypes around which research is sporadic. A better understanding of new and existing buildings is required. Buildings are part of an integrated living system and all of the parts of the system need to be assessed to ensure optimum performance can be achieved. The built environment needs to adapt to one with the ability to function under changing climatic conditions and, in some cases, buildings must be capable of withstanding extreme environments while at the same time must drastically reduce associated emissions.In some areas, the moderate environments may mean that less stringent requirements can still produce buildings that when integrated with green energy can provide a net zero habitat. Following on from this, there is a need to be considerate of the whole energy system: the local environment, climate, characteristic building behaviour and occupant behaviour to make appropriate use of renewable energy. Models and simulations of future environments, and iterations of different buildings, occupant and weather scenarios have a significant role to play in ...
