Share these talks and lectures with your colleagues
Invite colleaguesPractice paper
A multidisciplinary approach to decarbonisation pathways for commercial stranded assets in the UK
Corporate Real Estate Journal,
12
(4),
351-364
(2023)
Abstract
To meet 2050 net zero targets, 65 per cent of existing commercial buildings will need to be electrified by 2030. Legislation and performance targets at present remain conflicting with no one clear path being promoted. The paper uses an ‘in-flight’ example project to considers how retrofit projects could be approached from the outset, reflecting on contractual models, performance targets, societal and sustainability challenges around adapting our existing building stock. The purpose of the paper is to assist investors, insurers, owners, occupiers and advisers in understanding the potential decarbonisation pathways for their assets and to clarify how a project should be approached to benefit the asset and environment in the short and long term. Interdependencies are discussed to highlight the multidisciplinary nature of retrofit and how a holistic and direct approach from the outset is likely to achieve best outcomes where the building’s envelope, heating and ventilation are designed to work in tandem with each other.
Keywords: retrofit; decarbonisation; stranded assets; commercial assets; CRREM; LETI
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Abigail Beaney is a built environment design professional based in Brighton. She has worked for and with award-winning architecture and interior design practices in the UK and Australia. She has experience delivering retrofit projects as the design lead/manager for a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) main contractor and uses this experience to promote knowledge sharing across project stages and project teams. Abigail has a first-class honours degree in interior architecture and design, is undertaking an MSC in green building and is an Associate member of CIAT. She is currently employed within the Mace Consult net zero carbon team as an Architectural Manager. Abigail is focused on ensuring that design teams have the knowledge to consider retrofit options alongside design. With a belief that visual values associated with interior architecture and design should be integrated with retrofit, she is working across sectors and disciplines to promote increased decarbonisation uptake. She is passionate about ensuring early-stage engagement with performance targets and uses data collection and analysis to support this research.
Aleksandra Przydrozna leads the multidisciplinary retrofit team within Mace Consult, specialising in the asset assessment, design, delivery and quality assurance of retrofit projects across a variety of sectors (eg residential, education, government, healthcare and commercial). Her focus is on implementation of net zero carbon technologies within different sectors. Aleksandra has been passionate about energy efficiency and thermal comfort throughout her professional career. She earned a PhD from the University of Cambridge focusing on reducing energy consumption through a close control of convective air flows within heated spaces. Notably, she implemented the results of her research when designing space heating for the award-winning Dorothy Garrod building (Newnham College, Cambridge). She is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with a demonstrated history of successful delivery of sustainable mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) packages in small and large-scale projects. The driver for her research and design (R&D) research is to introduce energy-efficient solutions in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) sector and contributing to achieving carbon neutral economy before 2050. She supports her clients in understanding how energy is consumed within their building and prepares strategies for monitoring and reducing the consumption. She implements the soft landings approach to help her clients solve the performance gap between design aspirations and operational outcomes.
Rachel O’Donnell leads Mace Consult’s retrofit development, driving a retrofit-first culture through the business by enabling collaboration between all the sectors and practices. She is a senior business leader with a background in environmental consultancy and waste management, having been environmental lead in several major programmes prior to joining Mace. Rachel is naturally curious and seeks to develop solutions by leveraging the Mace team’s talent to solve clients’ complex technical and programme challenges. She firmly believes that all projects should start with a retrofit-first mentality to better leverage the built environment on the journey to decarbonisation.
Omar Addis-Elyassir is a Welsh/Palestinian MEP Design Management Assistant. Having attained a MSc in advanced mechanical engineering from Cardiff University, he recently joined Mace Consult’s net zero carbon team specialising in retrofit.
