In collaboration with
The science is clear.
Globally we need to stop producing planet-heating emissions to halt the impact of global warming. Over the past few years, more and more, we have heard the term ‘net zero’. From large corporations to tiny start-ups, governments to universities, tech giants to fashion designers, they are all mapping out their route to reaching net zero emissions.
Don't know the answer? You wouldn't be alone.
A government survey of more than 1,800 UK citizens has found that the public is largely unaware of the net-zero movement and what that means for the UK, despite more than three-quarters of citizens being concerned about climate change.
BUT WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
AND HOW CAN IT BE ACHIEVED?
64% are unaware of net-zero as a concept
So What Is Net Zero?
Every action we do, every lifestyle choice, every item we buy, eat, use, discard, has the potential to emit carbon.
Human activity is causing a rise in temperature and this is having an impact on the world around us.
Sea levels are rising. Wildlife is suffering. Areas of land are becoming inhospitable. The weather is becoming more extreme. Food sources are affected. And our health is impacted
o
We need to stop carbon emissions to keep global warming to below 1.5 C
Where do we need to get to?
To keep global warming in check we need to reach NET ZERO CARBON EMISSIONS by
2050
UK emissions have fallen by 38%, but globally have increased by 60%. As a country we are going in the right direction, but we all have to make a change if we are to meet the 2050 target.
It's a act.
balancing
We need to REMOVE greenhouse gases from the atmosphere that have already been emitted.
We need to REDUCE the emissions we are currently producing to as close to zero as possible.
&
These two actions are how we get to get to Net Zero Carbon emissions.
It's Time To Act!
How do we get there?
- Phase out coal plants
- Invest in clean energy
- Retrofit buildings
- Decarbonise cement, steel & plastic
- Reduce food waste and loss
- Eat more plants and less meat
- Shift to electric vehicles
- Increase public transport
- Decarbonise aviation
- Halt deforestation & restore degraded lands
What can I do?
The average UK citizen's personal
CARBON FOOTPRINT is
5.3t CO per year
2
BUT we can make simple changes to our daily lives to reduce our carbon footprint.
So whilst Governments need to change policies, and use of technology needs to develop, our behaviour can also have a real impact.
Some ways you can do this:
- Fly less
- Eat less meat
- Wash clothes at 30 degrees
- Go car free
- Switch to green energy
- Buy secondhand
- Avoid single use plastic
- Eat local and seasonal
- Reject fast fashion
Want To Know More?
Here is a selection of sites to follow for solutions, ideas and inspiration and for ways to calculate your personal carbon footprint.
Positive changes which not only bring down our emissions but improve health, wellbeing and have financial savings.
Project Drawdown
Project Drawdown® is a nonprofit organisation that seeks to help the world reach “Drawdown”— the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline.
Project Drawdown has brought together over 200 scientists, academics, business leaders and activists to measure and model some of the most 'substantive solutions to global warming'. These solutions can be seen in the graphic.
Project Drawdown continues to review and assess climate solutions, presenting their findings and partnering with efforts to accelarate climate solutions globally.
Cut a Tonne in '21
This online resource focusses on lifestyle changes that we can all make to reduce our personal emissions. The goal is to encourage individuals to cut a tonne of CO2 emissions in 2021 and they provide personalised challenges which can be tracked on a month by month basis.
Race to Zero
Race to Zero is a global campaign which 'mobilises a coalition of companies, cities, states, regions, universities, investors and non-state actors aiming to halve emissions by 2030 and individually committed to achieving net zero emissions as soon as possible and by 2050 at the very latest.'
WWF Footprint Calculator
Another easy to use online respource to caluclate your carbon footprint and look at ways to reduce your personal emissions.
FCBStudios & Net Zero
What does a Net Zero building look like?
The construction industry is widely acknowledged to be responsible for around 40% of carbon emissions.
The implications of material selection, construction, operation, maintenance, and end of life use for a building hugely impacts this figure.
As a practice founded on environmental and social principals, we have committed to achieve net zero operational carbon in all our projects on site by 2025.
Our researcher, Dr Joe Jack Williams explains in this explore piece how achieving net zero carbon in our designs means balancing operational carbon, energy generation from renewables, embodied carbon and carbon sequestration on every project
And to understand how we plan on getting there, Managing Partner, Ian Taylor, outlines FCBStudios’ route to zero carbon here.
Croft
Gardens
Croft Gardens is a project for King's College, Cambridge, proposing residential accommodation for students and fellows in a new community south-west of the city.
It is expected Croft Gardens will be carbon negative for the first 7-10 years of operation, driven in a large part by the embodied sequestered carbon through use of CLT for its structure and timber as an internal finishing material. It is designed to truly last 100 years, with replacement and maintenance considered for each component.
Croft Gardens is a project for King's College, Cambridge, proposing residential accommodation for students and fellows in a new community south-west of the city.
It is expected Croft Gardens will be carbon negative for the first 7-10 years of operation, driven in a large part by the embodied sequestered carbon through use of CLT for its structure and timber as an internal finishing material. It is designed to truly last 100 years, with replacement and maintenance considered for each component.
Paradise
Paradise will replace the disused Costa Coffee roastery on Old Paradise Street, London, and transform a neglected and disused site into 60,000sqft of net carbon zero work and maker space.
Paradise will be a landmark timber-framed building. The building will have a cross-laminated timber structure and an extruded terracotta façade and the proposals are on target for almost 60 years of a negative carbon footprint, when including carbon sequestration.
Paradise will replace the disused Costa Coffee roastery on Old Paradise Street, London, and transform a neglected and disused site into 60,000sqft of net carbon zero work and maker space.
Paradise will be a landmark timber-framed building. The building will have a cross-laminated timber structure and an extruded terracotta façade and the proposals are on target for almost 60 years of a negative carbon footprint, when including carbon sequestration.
Woodland
Trust
HQ
An unusual office building clad in larch, designed to give the feeling of being among trees, with an enclosed woodland glade at its heart.
A series of ‘concrete radiators’ – concrete boxes fixed to the timber panelling inside - provide the necessary extra mass for passive heating and cooling. We calculate that the CLT structure and timber cladding saved nearly 650 tCO2e in comparison to a concrete frame, making the building carbon negative and offsetting five years of operational carbon. The building achieved a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating.
An unusual office building clad in larch, designed to give the feeling of being among trees, with an enclosed woodland glade at its heart.
A series of ‘concrete radiators’ – concrete boxes fixed to the timber panelling inside - provide the necessary extra mass for passive heating and cooling. We calculate that the CLT structure and timber cladding saved nearly 650 tCO2e in comparison to a concrete frame, making the building carbon negative and offsetting five years of operational carbon. The building achieved a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating.
University of Staffordshire Nursery
Set adjacent to a woodland, but close to the city centre, the new on campus nursery for Staffordshire University is intended to be a sustainable place of early years learning with a connection to the immediate landscape and nature reserve.
The designs seek to achieve zero carbon, both in construction and in-use. Pre-fabricated timber cassettes and simple timber beams create teaching spaces that are naturally lit and ventilated by distinctive roof lights. Low windows, recessed seating and external benches aim to animate the building at child height, creating spaces to explore and connect with the outside.
Set adjacent to a woodland, but close to the city centre, the new on campus nursery for Staffordshire University is intended to be a sustainable place of early years learning with a connection to the immediate landscape and nature reserve.
The designs seek to achieve zero carbon, both in construction and in-use. Pre-fabricated timber cassettes and simple timber beams create teaching spaces that are naturally lit and ventilated by distinctive roof lights. Low windows, recessed seating and external benches aim to animate the building at child height, creating spaces to explore and connect with the outside.
Explore More
If we are to stand any chance of reaching the net zero target of 2050 then we need to increase public awareness and understanding. And we also need to collaborate with our colleagues across the industry. Because through engagement and education comes empowerment and change.
FCBStudios have created a variety of tools, platforms, and knowledge sharing sites and events to engage with the wider community, share our knowledge and affect change.
FCBS CARBON is a whole life carbon review tool, designed to estimate the whole life carbon of a building to inform design decisions prior to detailed design. This makes potential carbon impacts clear to the client, architect and the whole design team from the outset of the design process.
Using benchmarked data from the ICE Database and EPDs, the tool is designed to give the design team insight into the whole life carbon impact of a building from the very outset of a project.
FCBS CARBON is available to download for free
FCBS
CARBON
Carbon Counts is an exhibition about the environmental impacts of materials. First installed in our London studio in December 2019,
it has now moved to the Manchester Technology Centre in collaboration with Bruntwood and is open to the public. It is accompanied by an online exhibition and continues to provoke conversation and engage people in the material choices they are making.
Enter exhibition.
Carbon Counts
Using natural systems which respond to the local climate should be an integral part of the design process to face the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss.
The Climate Responsive Design microsite has been created as a means to engage with people across the globe, to share knowledge built through first-hand experience, to form collaborations, and start conversations so that together, as an industry, we can affect change.
Climate
Responsive
Design
Installation
As part of this year's London Festival of Architecture we have created an installation in the Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios London office window which aims to debunk the mystery of what 'Net Zero Carbon' actually means to the passer-by on the street.
The colourful installation takes the audience through the journey of understanding; from why the planet is heating up, what we are aiming towards, and how collectively we can reduce our impact on the world around us. A 3D light installation draws the passer-by in, made up of hundreds of suspended laser-cut icons which represent the delicate balancing act of reducing what we emit and removing what greenhouse gasses are already in the atmosphere.
The entire installation has been created using only offcuts and remnants from the FCBStudios model making workshop and all waste was reused and deployed in the window displays. The icons are cut from left-over panels of acrylic and timber and the remaining cut sheet ‘waste’ has been used alongside panels (also remnants) with etched information. The left-over acrylic waste boards - with their negative ‘holes’ in the forms of cars, factories and food waste etc - are layered up, creating shadows and reflections across the window, taking the audience on a narrative journey of understanding and action, but also hinting at the things we need to cut out and demonstrating the size and complexity of Net Zero Carbon, which many just find too overwhelming to begin to tackle.
You can visit the installation at Twenty Tottenham Street, London, W1T 4RG
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios is an architectural and urban design practice with an international reputation for design quality, for pioneering environmental expertise and a progressive architectural approach.
Visit our website and find out more about who we are and the work we do.
The 'What Is Net Zero' installation was created in collaboration with Thomas.Matthews.
Thomas.Matthews is a communication design studio committed to good design and sustainable practice. Since 1997 our work has brought together identity, architecture, information and human experience.
© 2021 FCBStudios