In this podcast, Elina Grigoriou and Dave Wakelin, board members of SKArating, discuss the evolution and updates to the Offices scheme following the industry workshops and research stages in 2024. They also touch on some wider strategic directions for the whole system and open up about the process of developing and updating the scheme.
Key updates include:
The strategic scheme alignment with Net Zero targets by 2030, the alignment to 100% Circularity, including a broader focus on social/wellbeing and economic/value sustainability;
the use of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for decision-making, and the removal of outdated measures;
how the workshops and broader stakeholder involvement have enhanced the scheme’s relevance and practicality;
and the goals to streamline standards, improve performance, and ensure the system and all the sector schemes remain a practical tool for the industry.
If you would like to receive more information or have any questions about the Offices Scheme update, please sign up for our newsletter in the footer below, or contact us via email at [email protected].
The Competent Professional course is created for those looking to explore the scheme in more depth without becoming an assessor, this pathway offers comprehensive learning and progression opportunities, helping individuals become more knowledgeable in the SKArating scheme and wider environmental sustainability of interiors.
Registrations are now open for existing Assessors wishing to renew as a Competent Professional if this pathway represents their role more accurately. Training courses for others wanting to become a Competent Professionals are in the final development stages and will take place in January with pre-bookings now open.
Professional Competency levels are a new part of the SKArating training and accreditation pathways. Each competency level encompasses a set of capabilities that candidates must meet to join and progress through each stage of SKArating training and accreditation. Key themes within these competencies include professional conduct, communication and management, systemic thinking, technical and sustainability knowledge, scheme and assessment knowledge, and the rules governing the system. As candidates complete each training level, they advance through these competencies, gaining progressively greater skills and expertise. Candidates aiming for accreditation as either a Competent Professional or Assessor must demonstrate proficiency at the highest and relevant competency levels. The introduction of these competency levels is designed to ensure that accredited candidates possess the experience and skills required to excel as SKArating Assessors or specialists within the industry.
To find out more about the Competencies Matrix, please take a look at the Pathways Guide here:
The approach and level of Assessor auditing and support for competency during the first year of Assessors has also been improved with new audits occurring on first projects. The aim is to guide Assessors in advance, avoid malpractice and maximise opportunities for project performance.
To maintain the standards of SKArating and ensure clients receive consistent and robust certification quality across the community and market, the auditing processes, benchmarks, and consequences have been updated to clarify outcomes. Under this updated system, Assessors will undergo an audit within their first year of accreditation, then adhoc and at least once every three years, or sooner if any “red flags” arise, whether from issues in their assessments or concerns regarding professional conduct. Assessor audits will be measured against set benchmarks that identify potential “major fail” items or general errors, resulting in a Pass or Fail at varying levels of “Consequences.” A Pass may be awarded either unconditionally or with recommendations, while a Fail will require retraining in the scheme, temporary suspension of accreditation, or a total ban from assessor status.
The new auditing initiative is designed to be a fair process for all Assessors, helping to uphold the scheme’s high standards while supporting professionals to gain strength in environmental sustainability and improve the wider industry.
To find out more about Quality Assurance (QA), please find the QA home page here and the QA Guide here.
To find out more and ask questions about the changes, sign up for our public online briefing session on the 20th November 12-1pm GMT:
We are pleased to announce that important updates to our scheme are being introduced over the next month. These changes aim to improve the quality and effectiveness of SKArating, increasing openness and transparency, ensuring clients are getting what our scheme states, and assessors are supported to undertake and be rewarded for high quality assessments.
Over the next few weeks, we are introducing new operational processes that further ensure the quality of our assessors and open up new accreditation opportunities for professionals who wish to explore different roles with regards to SKArating assessed projects.
Key updates include:
New professional and accreditation pathways to support professional development and for those not pursuing an assessor role.
Enhanced support, guidance and auditing for assessors.
Improved quality of delivered assessments throughout the scheme’s implementation.
Further details will be shared over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for more information on these changes!
We’re thrilled to see the launch of the UK’s first cross-industry Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard Pilot for net zero carbon-aligned buildings, our Board members and scheme researchers have contributed at various sectors and aspects!
The UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard, or “The Standard” was launched on Tuesday 24th September and is a free-to-access technical standard that will enable the built environment industry to prove that built assets align with the UK’s carbon and energy budgets. Until now, there has been no single agreed methodology to define what ‘net zero carbon’ means for buildings in the UK. The Standard provides a set of consistent rules to create a level playing field around what ‘net zero carbon’ actually means and how it can be defined in the built environment.
The Standard is for anyone who wants to fund, procure, design, or specify a net zero carbon building, and for anyone who wishes to definitively demonstrate that their building is net zero carbon aligned, and this also includes interior fit-out and refurbishments relating to the remit of SKArating’s work. It has been developed and agreed through collaboration between built environment organisations and industry leaders, including architects, engineers, carbon assessors and developers, and our very own board directors Elina Grigoriou and Joe Croft.
With the new and improved SKArating Offices scheme being developed as we speak, all scheme criteria is being aligned with the new Standard carbon levels, both operational energy and upfront embodied carbon. This will mean that anyone who uses SKArating to guide and benchmark an interior fit-out will be able to align with net zero according to the rating they achieve.
If you would like to download the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard, please see the link here: nzcbuildings.co.uk
If you would like to keep up to date with all SKArating news and the latest developments in the Offices scheme, please sign up to our newsletter in the footer of this page and/or follow us on LinkedIn here: linkedin.com/company/skarating/
We are looking for SKArating case studies to be featured as showpieces for all current schemes. If you have a project, office, shop, restaurant, university space etc that you believe shows exceptional examples of circularity, efficiency in energy and water, high wellbeing or materiality performance, please get in touch to discuss at [email protected] or fill in some project details and put it forward for consideration via the form below.
Thank you to all of you that have come forward so far to register your interest for the Offices v2 scheme update. We are now able to share more details of how we will go about the scheme update.
We will be hosting themed workshops on each of the SKArating categories through March and April. The workshops will be to review the key themes to be covered by the category in the update, the relevance and appropriateness of the Good Practice Measures and the principles for updates.
The dates and locations are:
Workshop
Date
Where
Energy & CO2
20th March ’24 2pm
Morgan Lovell, 16 Noel Street, London, W1F 8DA
Project Delivery
26th March ’24 2pm
Overbury, 77 Newman Street, London, W1T 3EW
Strategic Outcomes & Whole Life Impact
3rd April ’24 2pm
Overbury, 17 Gresse Street, London, W1T 1QL
Pollution
4th April ’24 2pm
Morgan Lovell, 16 Noel Street, London, W1F 8DA
Waste & Materiality
10th April ’24 2pm
Overbury, The Zenith Building, Manchester, M2 1AB
Wellbeing
17th April ’24 2pm
Gleeds, Interchange Place, 151-165 Edmund Street, Birmingham, B3 2TA
Each category will be updated by a group of specialists covering all phases of the project lifecycle to ensure the SKArating Offices v2 represents good practice from across the sector, and will be overseen by the SKArating Technical Committee.
We’d like the groups to have representation from all parts of the fit-out supply chain, but as a minimum:
Our timelines for the update and release of Offices v2 are:
Stakeholder workshops – Mar – April 24
Research and updates to GPMs – Apr – Aug 24
Public consultation – Sept 24
Go live – Nov 24
SKArating is your tool to drive sustainable fit-out, and we’d like as much of your expertise and experience as possible to put SKArating Offices back at the leading edge of the industry. If you haven’t already done so, please register your interest in being part of the workshops and update team at the link below. Please also pass on recommendations you may have for experts in the field that you think may contribute to the update to [email protected].
