Net Zero Guidance on Renewables and Offsets
In March 2021 UKGBC released the much anticipated Renewable Energy Procurement and Carbon Offsetting Guidance. This guidance provides clarity for the property and construction industry on the procurement of high-quality renewable energy and carbon offsets for net zero buildings and organisations in the UK.
As impetus around net zero continues to build, the principles included in this guidance will be vital to ensuring that the ways in which buildings transition to net zero are credible and transparent. However, as much as this focus is important, it is also complex. In this workshop therefore we aim to demystify renewable energy procurement & carbon offsetting, exploring the key principles and metrics outlined in the guidance and how these can be implemented by built environment organisations.
Overview
The workshop will give an overview of UKGBC’s Renewable Energy Procurement and Carbon Offsetting Guidance. Given the complexity of these topics, this workshop will aim to provide a greater understanding of the principles and metrics behind them, and what it means to procure renewable energy and carbon offset in a way that will have the most impact in terms of sustainability.
Our speakers will be exploring the following questions:
- What is renewable energy procurement, and what are the principles for best practice?
- What is carbon offsetting, and how can the environmental integrity be assured?
- How are organisations procuring high quality renewable energy and utilising carbon offsetting for their buildings or organisational strategies?
There will be a practical workshop session to understand how the learnings can be applied to your own building or organisational strategy. This will include exploring the enablers and barriers to considering certain energy procurement routes for your organisation and considering how offsetting can be utilised as a tool to deliver impacts beyond carbon reduction or removal.
Who should attend?
We recommend this workshop to anyone who is thinking about or in the process of procuring renewable energy or carbon offsetting. It is also suitable for anyone hoping to understand more about these two areas.
Why attend?
You will obtain a better understanding of:
- The UK context to renewable energy procurement, and how to distinguish between high and low quality renewable energy procurement
- A practical overview of ‘buying energy’, with an exercise to explore the enablers and barriers to procuring high quality energy for your own building or organisation
- How the environmental integrity of carbon offsets can be assured, and which carbon standards meets these requirements
- Some practical considerations when buying carbon offsets, and an exercise exploring the role carbon offsetting can play in your building’s or organisation’s transition to net zero
Attend this workshop if you want to demystify what best practice in renewable energy procurement and carbon offsetting looks like.
Speakers
- Anna Hollyman, Sustainability Advisor, UKGBC
- Emily Huynh, Technical Advisor – Advancing Net Zero, UKGBC
- David Mead, Service Line Manager (Utilities), JLL
There are a limited number of free Gold Leaf member tickets available for this course. Please email learning@ukgbc.org for more information.
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