Built Environment Reports
In 2024, Manchester Climate Ready published two built environment reports.
Accelerating Net Zero: Retrofit of Commercial Buildings in Greater Manchester
Published by Manchester Climate Ready’s Commercial Building Retrofit City Challenge Group, this report aims to help accelerate retrofit action in the commercial building sector in Greater Manchester.
The Commercial Building Retrofit City Challenge Group, Chaired by Bruntwood with Sub-groups led by Arup, Turner & Townsend, Buro Happold and Greater Manchester Combined Authority brought together industry experts with support from Manchester Climate Ready. The Group explored the barriers to retrofit including: an unambitious regulatory landscape, a lack of fiscal incentives and an underdeveloped retrofit supply chain; and identified that less than 10% of commercial buildings in Manchester are responsible for over 60% of the direct emissions from this sector.
The report sets out a clear decarbonisation pathway, with targets for different sizes of commercial building escalating over time, and includes recommendations for the city-region, that have been tested with wider stakeholders, to explore how local fiscal instruments, planning policies and skills/supply chain developments can accelerate change.
Net Zero New Buildings: shaping Manchester’s local plan
Published by Manchester Climate Ready’s Net Zero New Buildings City Challenge Group, this report explores how local planning policy can be used to help reduce the city’s emissions from new buildings, and support efforts to stay within Manchester’s science-based carbon budget.
The Net Zero New Build City Challenge Group, Chaired by Civic Engineers, with Sub-groups led by Cundall, SimpsonHaugh, Natwest and Deloitte, brought together industry experts from across the built environment sector with support from Manchester Climate Ready and Manchester City Council. The Group examined best practice standards from across the UK, performance data from local planning applications and exemplar new builds, and the financial barriers and drivers affecting progress.
The resulting report recommends a series of targets for Manchester’s Local Plan that cover operational energy, upfront and embodied carbon escalating over time and being tailored to different building types and scale of development. It also recommends a ‘retrofit first’ approach.