The built environment involves many organisations across long and complex supply chains, spanning strategic partners and project specific suppliers. These supply chains significantly influence environmental and social outcomes across the lifecycle of assets, and effective engagement can shape how buildings are designed, delivered, operated and repurposed for decades.

This guide sets out a simple four-step approach to effective supply chain engagement:

1. Which impacts to engage on

2. Who to engage with

3. When to engage

4. How to engage

23% of the UK’s built environment carbon emissions come from the energy used in non-domestic buildings. On average, this can be reduced by a quarter through optimisation actions. This guidance has been created to support greater reductions in the energy use and associated carbon emissions of operational non-domestic buildings.

Every organisation and building has its own unique characteristics and so there is no one size fits all answer for energy and carbon optimisation. However, based on case studies and the industry experience of the working group, this report outlines key steps for success and lists practical actions, which will be applicable to many buildings.

This guidance has been developed for anyone who is overseeing, creating or running an energy and carbon reduction strategy for a commercial building, estate or property portfolio. This is likely to include individuals in within the following roles: owners/landlords, occupiers/tenants, property managers/facilities managers, mechanical and electrical (M&E) and building management system (BMS) engineers, energy and carbon consultants, design and project teams.

This report aims to empower the retail and logistics sectors to drive rapid reductions in energy use and whole life carbon. It does this by highlighting commonly used retrofit measures for these buildings and examining the possible impacts on energy performance and their estimated cost of implementation. It also identifies other key considerations for deciding what and when to undertake retrofit measures.

This report is primarily for those working on retail and logistics buildings in the following roles: owners and landlords, occupiers/tenants, property and facility managers, designers and other consultants.

What is nature positive?

We may be at a tipping point in our relationship with nature. The loss of biodiversity and the rapid degradation of ecosystems have reached critical levels, pushing us closer to irreversible changes. In response to this reality, the����(GBF) has set an ambitious goal to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2030 and begin to reverse it by 2050. The UK has followed, committing to protecting 30% of its land and seas by 2030, underscoring the need for immediate action.

Amid this urgent need, the term “nature-positive” has emerged. Nature positive represents a collective effort to combat biodiversity loss and the negative impacts on the natural environment, transforming it into a shared goal: “.

The built environment sector��has a crucial role to play in achieving nature positive.��This framework provides key definitions, the steps and recommended actions needed to��progress towards��a nature-positive built environment.������

‘Embodied Carbon: Scope 3 Measurement and Reporting’ seeks to align organisational GHG Scope 3 reporting and project-based embodied carbon assessments to show how establishing a coherent link can support emissions reductions efforts. The guidance demonstrates that integrating embodied carbon assessments directly within Scope 3 reporting would represent an easier, more centralised and more detailed solution than typical practices for GHG Protocol reporting.

To do so, the report outlines guidance for various stakeholders:

• How Developers, Owners, Contractors, Facilities Managers can use embodied carbon assessments to report Scope 3 emissions across an asset’s lifetime,
• How Architects and Engineers should adopt a project-based emissions disclosure for embodied carbon, due to the challenge of designing embodied carbon emissions that do not easily fit within the GHG Protocol.

Embodied carbon is being increasingly factored into how we design, build, maintain, and treat the end-of-life of our built assets. Embodied carbon also makes up 20% of the UK’s built environments’ carbon emissions so it is important we are able to accurately understand the carbon impact of the building materials and design choices made across an asset’s lifetime.

To increase the accuracy of embodied carbon assessments this report provides guidance on the embodied carbon modelling and reporting processes to enable greater transparency and clarity. This will enable a better understanding of the embodied carbon of our built assets and hopefully lead to a more informed decision process on the carbon impact.

UKGBC has published a short report for built environment professionals that focuses on breaking down barriers to funding and financing options.

The biodiversity market – and the global economy more broadly – is fundamentally embedded in nature, which makes financial interventions to fund BNG a sound and potentially lucrative investment. Yet estimates predict a funding gap of between . UKGBC’s report aims to de-mystify the specific barriers to funding in order to encourage and enable the financing needed to recognise the immense opportunities offered by BNG.

Aided by bespoke graphics, the report maps the types of considerations that could apply to organisations and funders hoping to invest in restoring nature and biodiversity in the UK.