As homes, buildings, infrastructure, and physical assets around the world face increasing risk from more frequent and severe climate-based threats, UKGBC has today published a landmark review of the strategies and processes that asset-owners can use to adapt and enhance their climate resilience.

The Physical Risk Assessment Labs, convened under UKGBC’s Resilience & Nature Programme and with support from our Programme Partners, has compiled a series of case studies, reflections, and critical insights that will enable asset-owners to more effectively measure, report, and adapt to climate-based risks to their physical assets.

The project has also produced a Compendium of Experience that couches the framework in real-world examples of climate-based risks provided by UKGBC members, to ensure that the industry can undertake their own assessments based on insights into real-world case studies.

Resilience & Nature Partners

Our climate change adaptation work is supported by our Resilience & Nature Partners.

Climate Change Adaptation

As the climate crisis intensifies and extreme weather events become more common, the UK’s buildings, cities and critical infrastructure, and the communities that use and occupy these, are in increasing danger. It’s vital to address how our buildings and infrastructure can be adapted to remain fit for the future.

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Biodiversity Net Gain Definitions

Access our list of almost 30 definitions on key topics that will help you navigate biodiversity net gain with more confidence.

Explore here

Biodiversity/ Environmental Net Gain

Embracing and adding to biodiversity on site is vital as we work to reverse the biodiversity crisis.

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So to empower all corners of the property and construction sectors to engage in the net zero transition, UKGBC has developed Bitesize Learning Guides – a suite of resources that demystify key carbon concepts and create a common language for non-technical experts to confidently get involved in sustainable building topics.

Free of charge and with a minimal time commitment, UKGBC Bitesize Learning Guides are an accessible learning package supporting all built environment stakeholders to upskill, ensuring everyone can play a role in the green transition.

Explainer Guides

Using jargon-free, easy-to-understand language, UKGBC’s Explainer Guides provide a jumping-off point for non-sustainability professionals to begin their sustainability learning journey.

The one-pager guides break down key carbon concepts into digestible chunks outlining:

• How it is defined
• Its importance in tackling the climate crisis
• How it relates to the built environment
• Relevant resources to consolidate knowledge.

Download the six-part series

Net Zero Carbon Buildings and Infrastructure

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Scope 1, 2 & 3 Emissions

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Whole Life Carbon

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Operational & Embodied Carbon

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Carbon Pricing

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Renewable Energy

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Practical Guides

UKGBC’s Practical Guides introduce sustainable building approaches at all stages of the life cycle and detail key considerations and practical tips to enable non-sustainability experts to think about how they approach sustainability and integrate sustainability-driven decisions into their work and projects. 

The concise, two-page guides detail sustainable building across the value chain, outlining: 

• Key principles 
• Practical approaches for project stakeholders 
• Case studies to bring the approach to life 
• Further resources to continue learning 

Download the six-part series

Sustainable Investment

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Sustainable Design

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Sustainable Procurement

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Sustainable Construction

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Sustainable Operations & Maintenance

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Sustainable Deconstruction & End of Life

Download here

Learning & Leadership

Impactful, inspiring and accessible learning is at the heart of our mission at UKGBC. From bitesize courses accessible on the move to immersive learning on live projects, UKGBC’s diverse and comprehensive Learning and Leadership portfolio offers a range of opportunities to raise awareness, deepen sustainability knowledge and build skill

Learn more

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As we embarked on this journey in the year that COP26 was being hosted in the UK, the theme for our journey is around the Conference of Parties, and those people and nations having an impact in this space. 

So, we begin our journey in Paris. Host to the pivotal COP21 where world leaders committed to restricting emissions to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.  Click on the link below to see the 10 case studies from Paris, ranging from re-purposed basement car parks to roof-top farms, social housing to the green future of the Champs Elysee. 

From Paris we cross the Atlantic to the Central American nation of Costa Rica, home to one of the key figures in negotiating the Paris Agreement, Christiana Figueres. Long renowned for having got rid of their army following their civil war, and allocating the spending instead to health and education, Costa Rica is also now the poster child for recovering biodiversity.  Have a look at the 10 case studies from across Costa Rica via the link below. 

But Costa Rica is not the only nation in the region forging forward. We couldn’t help adding in these inspiring examples from Mexico, Columbia and Brazil as a small bonus edition: 

Continuing our journey we cross into the Pacific Ocean and sail westwards passing the Galapagos Islands where Darwin sailed on the Beagle and came up with his theory of evolution, passing through French Polynesia with 118 atolls spread over 2,000km and on to Kiribati, one of the poorest nations in the world, very vulnerable to climate change and one of the ‘Alliance of Small Island States’ campaigning for equity in combatting climate change, eventually reaching Shanghai on the east coast of mainland China. 

China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases but also the nation transitioning most quickly to becoming a leader in implementing sustainable technologies.  Here we explore Sponge Cities transforming their waterways to mitigate the impacts of climate change and population growth, cities with fully electrified bus networks, 10-storey buildings built in a day, along with more ‘conventional’ BREEAM certified commercial buildings.   

Our journey continues in January to stop in Australia, a nation whose government is reluctant to let go of the wealth generated from it’s resource extraction industries (most notably coal) but whose property sector is nevertheless throwing up exceptional examples of sustainable design and building. 

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To help tackle this issue at the scale needed, Bionova Ltd, developers of One Click LCA, have created One Click LCA Planetary. Planetary is free to use, global embodied carbon software that helps construction industry professionals to calculate and benchmark embodied carbon impacts and material efficiency of building designs. UKGBC is delighted to be the official partner for One Click LCA Planetary tool in the UK.

One Click LCA Planetary is available in nine languages and covers the ten most carbon-intensive and significant materials categories in construction. It provides both materials efficiency and embodied carbon metrics at once. You can learn more about One Click LCA Planetary and get free access at www.oneclicklca.com/planetary

You can also follow One Click LCA’s LinkedIn page for announcements on upcoming training and events on One Click LCA Planetary.

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 The briefing includes general information on social value, as well as more specific information on shifting expectations of investors, social value outcomes from buildings and places, driving social value across the lifecycle of an asset, measurement and reporting and principles for a real estate impact fund.

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Access the full actor map here.

Get involved: We are searching the built environment for initiatives on social value to add to our actor and resource map. If you have worked on or know of any initiatives to add to our map, then please email sophia.cox@ukgbc.org

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For the built environment to become fully circular it must collectively act to share information and work together to create the change required. UKGBC’s mission is to work together for a better built environment, as such we have created a web-based actor and resource map of initiatives within the built environment around circular economy. The purpose of which is to allow organisations to use existing knowledge and methodologies to successfully implement circular economy principles without repeating the work of others.

Access the full actor map here.

Get involved: We are searching the built environment for initiatives on circular economy to add to our actor and resource map. If you have worked on, or know of, any initiatives, then please share by emailing lucy.rees@ukgbc.org.

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The manual has been designed to promote a culture of innovation in the built environment sector, and more specifically to aid the generation of solutions that are both sustainable and innovative.

Download the Sustainable Innovation Manual here

We have also developed templates designed to accompany the innovation process set out in the Sustainable Innovation Manual and to guide you towards the creation of a sustainable solution to challenges you have identified.

They are intended to be used in a workshop format but can equally be used and applied by an individual to any challenge, as a way to frame and organise thoughts.

Download the Sustainable Innovation Templates here

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The core content is a ‘Policy Playbook’ which focuses on energy & carbon, mitigating overheating risk, and the cross-cutting issue of assuring performance. There is also a section on viability and a set of case studies.

This project is part of the Cities Programme.

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