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 support@skarating.org 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 support@skarating.org.
One of our priorities in the scheme’s development is the update of the Offices scheme.
This year it is to undergo an update, both in scope and criteria, and we are looking for assessors and other experienced fit-out related team members, who would like to support the process with research, insights and development of the scheme.
Some of the key issues included will be the alignment to delivering to Net Zero and Circularity, and the topic of Wellbeing and its scope in the current Environmental scheme. There will be industry workshops and lots of knowledge-sharing opportunities while making a big difference to our industry if the past scheme development journeys are anything to go by.
We very much hope you will be part of the team. If this is something you are interested in joining, whether for one workshop or all, please fill out the application form below.
Hello Assessors! Your annual accreditation can now be processed, you have until February 26th to retain your place in the assessors directory and maintain assessor credentials on the online tool.
A few things to note:
• If you have trained and passed an Assessor exam after 2019 select the NEW accreditation process as you have not yet been formally accredited.
• If you were last accredited in 2019, select a re-accreditation, and you are required to pass the relevant scheme(s) examination as you have now reached your 3-year re-examination cycle.
Following the announcement last week of the move of SKArating to new ownership and management, the Board of Directors has taken the opportunity to make a correction to the project certification fees, which have not been increased since 2013.
SKArating has ambitious plans to update the SKArating schemes to respond to an increasingly climate-aware fit-out industry, and to expand the sectors that SKArating can be used in. As such, SKArating is committed to:
Reducing the negative environmental impact and increase the positive economic and social impact of the fit-out sector.
Operating a sustainability rating tool owned by the fit-out industry for the fit-out industry.
Promoting good practice across the sector and evolve SKA Rating to meet changing sustainability requirements´
Reinvesting generated revenue in developing the tool and its impact.
Key organisational projects include:
Online tool – redeveloping the online tool to increase its functionality, improve the audit process and produce better project data.
Scheme evolution – making it fit to current priorities such as the Net Zero agenda.
Triple bottom line – introducing meaningful, measurable objectives relevant to the fit-out sector for social value and economic benefits, not just the environment.
Increased number of schemes – to reflect market demand, in particular residential/ accommodation refurbishments, education, and health.
Assessor accreditation – more robust assessor accreditation to enhance consistency and deliver higher quality outcomes, with increased CPD requirements to ensure all assessors are giving the best and most relevant advice to clients.
Training – more training available for assessors, updated to match changing scheme criteria.
This all needs significant investment, which is paid for through certification and accreditation fees. Therefore, certification fees for all SKArating schemes will be set at £850 +VAT from the end of January 2024.
