Planet Positive Buildings
New Buildings that Cut Carbon, Save Rainforest
and Promote Local Sustainability
Monday 5th December: Planet Positive launched it Building Certification programme at Deloitte last week to over 100 invited guests from the built environment. Speakers at the launch included Paul King, UKGBC, Simon Cox, Prologis and Marco Marijewycz, Zero Carbon Hub who provided an insight into the regulatory drive to reduce whole-life carbon as well as the business case.
The Planet Positive Building Certification for new buildings verifies embodied and operational carbon reduction, helps save endangered rainforest and funds community projects to promote sustainability. New buildings for Tesco, BMW and M&S have achieved Planet Positive certification this year and have saved over 1,500 acres of endangered rainforest and provided sustainability workshops for 20 schools across the midlands.
The certification programme is a 4-step process managed by Planet Positive and includes a lifecycle assessment (LCA) of each development to measure and reduce its whole-life carbon. In a recent study by dcarbon8 Deloitte, it was found that up to a 25% reduction in embodied carbon could be achieved without a cost premium and could even result in a 1% saving in capital expenditure.
Each building compensates for 110% of its remaining embodied carbon footprint by saving the equivalent area of endangered rainforest in partnership with Cool Earth, the charity supported by Sir David Attenborough, Vivienne Westwood and Lord Stern. The carbon compensation also funds investment into local community projects to promote sustainability, such as the Planet Positive Schools Programme or biodiversity projects.
“We believe that every building has the potential to have a positive impact on the planet and the communities that it serves,” said Steve Malkin, CEO Planet Positive. “The certification unlocks new ways to promote sustainability, from twinning rainforest villages with the building occupier to running competitions for school children to design their best green building. Ultimately our goal is to help create a better way of living.”
The certification process has helped developments meet planning requirements and discharge obligations, such as the Merton Rule by demonstrating embodied carbon reduction in construction. The verification process and support of local community carbon mitigation are also aligned with the Allowable Solutions strategy within the Zero Carbon Buildings initiative due to take effect within the next 5 years.
The Planet Positive Building Certification supports BREEAM assessments, with a minimum requirement of Very Good for new developments.An independent review by Drivers Jonas Deloitte of SusCon, the Planet Positive certified sustainable construction training centre in Dartford, revealed that 20-22 BREEAM points could be achieved in accordance with 2008 and 2011 criteria.SusCon reduced its embodied carbon emissions by over 30% and was awarded BREEAM Outstanding in Design and Construction.