By David Pickstone, Partner and Head of Tax Disputes; Anastasia Nourescu, Partner, Tax Disputes OPINION: Landfill tax turns on a deceptively simple concept: a charge arises when there is a “taxable disposal”. But what counts as a disposal? The legislation offers little by way of a clear definition, and the case law is of limited … Read More
Record heat is moving adaptation from strategy to site. The NHS has launched a £1.5bn programme to retrofit hospitals with advanced cooling, ventilation and climate‑risk controls, targeting energy-efficient buildings that remain safe in heatwaves. Specifications point to low carbon design, demand‑led ventilation, smart controls and resilient fabric upgrades aligned with BREEAM and BREEAM v7 pathways, with whole life carbon assessment and life cycle cost appraisals used to prioritise packages that cut operational energy and embodied carbon while strengthening building lifecycle performance and resilience toward net zero whole life carbon.
The signal to supply chains is clear for MEP contractors, façade specialists and manufacturers of green building products, from high‑efficiency heat pumps to demand‑response controls, all core to net zero carbon buildings and low carbon building retrofits. UK pension capital is shifting toward scale. New commitments from Border to Coast and Strathclyde to Clean Growth Fund II indicate fresh backing for clean technologies relevant to sustainable construction and sustainable building design, including analytics, thermal storage and low carbon construction materials that accelerate decarbonising the built environment.
Materials markets are tightening the circular economy in construction. Egger’s acquisition of an Italian wood recycler is set to increase secondary fibre in panels, reducing embodied carbon in materials and exposure to virgin feedstock volatility. Design teams specifying renewable building materials and green building materials can rely on environmental product declarations (EPDs) and sustainable material specification to evidence low embodied carbon materials, enable end‑of‑life reuse in construction and embed circular construction strategies, improving resource efficiency in construction and the carbon footprint of construction.
Contamination risk is being tackled at source. A scalable PFAS‑destruction technology promising affordable mass treatment would lower barriers to brownfield regeneration, improve environmental sustainability in construction and reduce lifecycle liabilities and life cycle cost across assets dependent on clean water, shrinking the environmental impact of construction and supporting low‑impact construction.
Earthshot’s analysis with the University of Exeter maps positive tipping points if deployment accelerates for heat pumps, low‑carbon cement, timber construction and large‑scale reuse. Project teams integrating lifecycle assessment with eco‑design for buildings, sustainable design and sustainable building practices can measurably cut whole life carbon and deliver green construction and carbon neutral construction that advance net zero carbon across sustainable urban development and green infrastructure. The near‑term edge lies in heat‑resilient retrofits, locked‑in circular economy feedstocks and emerging remediation tools, with financiers ready to underwrite the jump from pilots to portfolio scale.
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