The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has published guidance on what it has said constitutes high-quality renewable energy and high-quality carbon offsetting.
The guidance includes a set of principles that the body said should be used to evaluate the quality of renewable energy procurement routes as well as the quality of carbon offsetting projects.
Emily Huynh, technical advisor at UKGBC, said it can sometimes be difficult for real estate businesses to understand precisely what constitutes reputable renewable energy or carbon offsetting programmes.
She told Property Week: “It is definitely a learning curve for everyone, in part because there isn’t necessarily the level of transparency that we would like to see in the market currently, particularly on the renewable energy side, but we are confident that this guidance will help build environment businesses navigate these areas.”
She added: “Elements of this puzzle are definitely complex, but we also don’t have a choice but to try and improve our current building or organisational performance.”
Julie Hirigoyen, chief execuive at UKGBC, said: “The importance of the principles put forward in this guidance to evaluate the quality of renewable energy procurement routes, to calculate the residual emissions, and to offset those residual emissions in a meaningful way, is paramount to ensure the credibility of any net zero carbon building claim.”
Syed Ahmed, director of Energy for London, added: “This is a complex area, but one of growing importance as long term procurement of renewables presents significant opportunities in driving forward new renewable generation capacity in cities and more widely, supporting the renewables sector at a challenging time.”
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