The UK’s commitment to Net Zero and what this means for UK Government property

In 2008, the UK passed the Climate Change Act, committing the Government to cut national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050, and agree progressive ‘carbon budgets’ to drive progress toward this target. In 2019, this was amended to require the UK to bring all GHG emissions to Net Zero (NZ) by 2050. This commitment is widely known as NZ, or Net Zero Carbon (NZC), 2050. In the interim, the 5th Carbon Budget (covering 2028 to 2032) requires emissions to be reduced by 57% by 2030 compared to 1990, and the 6th Carbon Budget requires emissions to be reduced by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990.

In December 2020, the UK communicated its new Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, which commits the UK to reducing its emissions by at least 68% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. This underlines the UK’s commitment to reducing GHG emissions and to providing global leadership on climate change.

For the UK, the commitments defined above and the UK Government’s Ten Point Plan for a green industrial revolution outline how the UK will transition onto the NZ path. As the built environment contributes up to 42% of the UK’s total carbon footprint, the efficient management and decarbonisation of property portfolios is a focal point in the UK’s transition to NZ. As it is estimated that 80% of the UK’s buildings in 2050 are already standing today, we need to ensure that current stock is appropriately addressed, as well as new construction projects.

For the public sector the UK Government sets the ambition in the Clean Growth Strategy, that a 50% reduction in direct public sector emissions would be delivered by 2032 against a 2017 baseline. In order to deliver on this ambition, all public sector organisations should be planning and acting now to reduce their emissions, in particular direct emissions. As highlighted in the Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener, decarbonising buildings will support clean, local growth in every region of the UK, while investing in equality of living standards and job creation. It will also encourage investment in innovation to refine processes and technologies to deliver value-for-money and value for the UK economy.

What is the purpose of the NZ Estate Playbook?

The NZ Estate (NZE) Playbook provides guidance to support UK Government departments and public sector bodies to transition their estate towards NZ. It provides Government property professionals with guidance on how to approach the design, implementation, and monitoring of a NZ strategy and delivery programme. The goal is to provide direction on how to adopt a systematic approach to the delivery strategy, and drive consistency in the design, implementation and monitoring of NZ transition across the UK Government estate.

This document is not intended to provide exhaustive guidance for the design and implementation of a NZ strategy for Government property. Further details can be found using the references to external guidance provided throughout, with active hyperlinks where publicly accessible, as well as a linked index in the appendix of this document.

Who is the NZE Playbook for?

The NZE Playbook can be used by anyone responsible for the management of Government property. Therefore, the general term ‘organisation’ is adopted throughout the NZE Playbook to refer to the user of this guidance. Some essential requirements that organisations should adopt in order to achieve their NZ commitments are highlighted throughout and summarised at the beginning of each section of this document.

This Playbook is a high-level guide to help property professionals understand their current emissions and energy use across their portfolios and the steps to take in designing and implementing solutions and monitoring emissions in the transition towards NZ.

The role of the Office of Government Property in the NZ transition

As a major land and property owner, UK Government must transition its estate to NZ. The Office of Government Property (OGP) sets standards, provides guidance and tools, drives best practice to facilitate this transition and improve capability across Government. As part of this work OGP has developed the NZE Playbook as an initial step to provide guidance and consistency in how to address NZ across the wider Government property portfolio. As aspects of wider Government NZ policy are still under development, further guidance and commitments that emerge will be reflected in future versions of the NZE Playbook.

The NZE Playbook serves as guidance to support the Government Functional Standard for Property (GovS 004). OGP recommends that any NZ strategy should be developed as part of a wider Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP), ensuring investment is planned wisely on assets where the organisation holds a long-term interest.

The role of key government policy organisations in the NZ transition

All Government organisations have a key role to play in the delivery of the NZ commitments, including the transition of government property towards NZ. The organisations below have particular roles in driving this agenda forward, which all organisations using the NZE Playbook should be aware of.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS): BEIS owns the overall policy for UK-wide activity to deliver NZ, including public sector decarbonisation.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA): Sets out how the Government will tackle the effects of climate change in the 25 Year Environment Plan. It also manages and publishes the Greening Government Commitments (GGC) which set out how UK Government departments and their agencies will contribute towards the Environment Plan by reducing their environmental impacts.

Office of Government Property (OGP): Provides leadership and coordination to help departments in meeting GGC targets and achieving NZ across the Government estate. This is also supported by the Infrastructure & Projects Authority (IPA) whose remit is to improve the way in which projects and programmes are delivered across Government, including property and construction projects.

Government Property Agency (GPA): Has introduced a coordinated approach for the management and decarbonisation of the Central Government office estate. The GPA NZ Offices Programme seeks to make carbon and energy reducing interventions to buildings in the Central Government office portfolio (not just the GPA onboarded estate). Central Government departments should liaise with GPA to establish their NZ strategy for this aspect of their portfolio.