Cutting emissions where it matters most
Dan Dowling, sustainability partner, PwC UK
The UK’s building sector is currently the country’s second largest source of emissions and is on track to become the highest. With 80% of the buildings that will exist in 2050 already built, cutting energy use in existing homes is vital for tackling the climate crisis. However, accurately assessing energy-saving and low-carbon heating measures is a major challenge.
The UK Government is committed to changing how buildings are heated through targeted net zero initiatives. However, major policies like the Future Homes Standard and bans on off-grid gas boilers will mainly affect new homes. Efforts to promote energy-efficient homes have struggled to deal with the diversity of the UK's ageing housing stock.
The next decade is critical in the race to decarbonise buildings, requiring a comprehensive policy framework that incorporates essential supply chains; infrastructure; and investment, as well as a plan to ensure public support for the transition.
Our solution to this enormous challenge is the Green.House Toolkit. It models the 29 million houses across the UK, according to more than 120 physical characteristics. Using AI and building physics calculations, it creates optimised retrofit pathways for every UK home.
These pathways report on the climate impact, energy savings and investment associated with retrofitting homes, and analyse many other socio-economic benefits, such as improved air quality and improvements in productivity from living in warm homes.
Assess the current state of all 29 million homes in the UK to determine 120 physical characteristics and deployment of more than 45 retrofitting measures. We are not restricted to EPC recommendations.
Use a database of costs and forecasted energy prices and emissions intensity of the grid to estimate investment need (£), energy savings (kWh and £), and emissions saved.
Takes physical characteristics of the home
and applies to calculate the yearly
energy use and average internal
temperatures.
Identifies the indirect effects of low carbon
measures including reduced excess cold,
excess heat, dampness and improved air
quality and GVA jobs created.
Charlotte Hopkinson, Head of Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility, Grainger Plc
Putting plans in action
Working with over 120 CEOs of the world’s biggest companies on the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council, we researched the opportunity to accelerate the global energy transition by acting on energy demand. This revealed the global economy could achieve a 31% reduction in energy demand with no loss of output, using currently-available technologies, at commercial returns. This would result in annual savings of up to US$2 trillion, while helping companies to build resilience and competitive advantage. This reduction aligns with the commitment by 133 countries at COP28 to double the rate of energy efficiency improvement by 2030. The study emphasises the importance of transforming energy demand alongside supply, to achieve a sustainable, secure, and just energy transition. Our role showcased our expertise in data analysis, strategic planning, and energy management, contributing to a comprehensive study that established the world-leading business case for acting on energy demand.
The Green.House Toolkit has supported both public and private sector clients and is already helping the UK take more effective action to achieve many of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
We used it to support the Climate Change Committee (CCC) in developing the residential buildings pathway for the Seventh Carbon Budget. This budget will advise ministers on the volume of greenhouse gas emissions the UK can emit during the period from 2038 to 2042, and will subsequently be voted on by Parliament to become law.
In the private sector, the toolkit helped Grainger gain the confidence to set a science-based net zero target by gauging the effectiveness of the UK’s largest listed residential landlord decarbonisation measures and fine-tuning the balance between its climate and commercial responsibilities.
We are also working with major UK banks to explore how they can use The Green.House Toolkit to proactively provide customers with personalised plans, including loan amounts, while highlighting the benefits of retrofitting.
Ramesh Deonarine, Buildings Team Lead, Climate Change Committee
Building the case for retrofitting
With increased global demand for energy following the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the UK experienced an energy price shock. In response, the UK Government, through the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), introduced emergency support measures to protect consumers and businesses, including the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS). This scheme provided £6.7bn in support to non-domestic customers.
The EBRS needed to be rolled out quickly to provide urgent support to businesses. With such a short window to develop and deploy the scheme, it was important to ensure there were rigorous post-payment compliance checks to mitigate against the risk of fraud and error.
In collaboration with DESNZ, our multidisciplinary team of industry and fraud experts were able to rapidly mobilise and implement a post-payment compliance process, to ensure consumers received the support they were due, whilst ensuring taxpayers were protected against fraud, error or misuse of funds. We worked closely with over 70 energy suppliers to perform over 60,000 checks across the scheme, ensuring accurate claims were submitted by suppliers and correct payments made.
As part of our work, our people and DESNZ were involved in a pilot on the carbon footprint of running a professional services engagement and estimating the impact of working from home, with key learnings fed back into the firm’s wider net zero research.
The Green.House Toolkit is revolutionising how government, real estate businesses and other housing organisations assess the implications of decarbonising their housing stock. Not only can it give accurate answers to common questions about the cost and benefits for retrofitting a whole portfolio, it can also explore how different combinations of retrofit initiatives can affect the energy demand profile of a home, the potential bill savings and the societal benefits. This has enabled the toolkit to push boundaries and raise ambitions for climate policy.
