Lifting the lid on sustainability…

No longer simply a ‘tick-box’ exercise, sustainability is now top of everyone’s agenda. In 2019, Foster + Partners became the first architectural practice to sign the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment. Soon after, the then 17 UK recipients of the Stirling Prize launched ‘Architects Declare’, a network of practices committed to addressing the climate and biodiversity emergency. By the end of the year, RIBA had set out its ambitions for the sector with the publication of its Sustainable Outcomes Guide, a set of eight measurable goals for projects of all scales, each one underpinned by specific design principles and each aligning with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

And so to the construction industry, where the need for the sector to take action has never been greater and where, according to the European Commission, the building sector contributes 11% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. But, it seems, times are finally changing. A 2018 survey reported that almost two-thirds of firms operating in the construction industry were more committed to taking action on sustainability than they were 12 months ago. Some of the big hitters are already leading the way, with the likes of Berkeley Group pledging to become carbon-positive and Landsec even opting for its carbon-reduction targets to be approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative.

Yet, legislation is not the only driver in this sustainability shift. There is greater demand from businesses for sustainable buildings, including green offices, and growing numbers of firms are putting sustainability at the forefront of their own agenda. A 2018 survey of around 2,000 building professionals from across the globe showed that the international market for green construction projects has grown significantly in the last ten years, with 47% of those surveyed believing that the majority of their projects would be green by 2021. Interestingly, too, one US survey even reported that three-quarters of millennial workers would be willing to accept a smaller salary to work for an environmentally responsible company.

What businesses now seem to be understanding is that sustainability is no longer just about assessing a building’s performance – a sustainable building also has commercial (not to mention social) benefits for the operator. Considering the ‘trade-off’ of any additional costs of sustainable products or features at the design stage against these wider whole-life benefits, can help reduce Operational Expenditures. BREEAM certification, for instance, can increase rental rates for buildings by up to 24.9% compared to conventional buildings, with BREEAM also reporting that certified green buildings have seen sale prices increase by approximately 30%.

Looking at ‘behind the wall’ drainage and piping systems can also contribute to wastage. However, discharge pipes such as Geberit’s SuperTube create space and save material in high-rise buildings, with the discharge stacks that are installed with the two hydraulically-optimised bends enabling smaller pipe dimensions to be used. With no ventilation pipes required, this results in narrower pipe shafts. In one recent example, the number of discharge stacks were reduced from four to two, resulting in a roughly 40% reduction in raw materials. Meanwhile, one missing part of the energy efficient puzzle behind the wall has always been ventilation openings in wastewater stacks. While these openings prevent negative pressure forming and blowing open traps when a toilet is flushed, they can sometimes lead the drainage system to become a constant source of heat loss. Geberit’s energy retaining valves (ERV) enable open ventilation for the discharge stack on the roof but open only when pressure compensation is required. This means that up to 500 kWh can be saved per year in a multi-story building through the installation of an energy-retaining valve – corresponding to around 50 litres of heating oil.

This approach goes right across to our front-of-wall ceramics too. Geberit’s shower toilets, the ultimate in comfort and luxury, incorporate a range of smart features including an oscillating wash. Geberit’s AquaClean Sela, for instance, uses 50% reduced water thanks to innovative WhirlSpray shower – so even those products very much driven by wellbeing and luxury do, nevertheless, ensure this life-cycle approach is adopted.

It’s fair to say that sustainability in 2020 goes beyond simply specifying energy saving products. It is also important to consider sustainability throughout the entire supply chain, particularly when selecting a manufacturer. After all, there’s little benefit in selecting water-efficient products if these have not been manufactured sustainably. Leading manufacturers should view product development process through the entire lifecycle. We don’t have to look too far to find industry trailblazers who are supporting architects and specifiers to meet sustainability goals. Danish carpet supplier, Egetaepper, for example, runs a “green thread” through everything it does, challenging standards and rethinking how aesthetics, quality and sustainability can be one. It’s a bold approach, but one which really sets them apart. At Geberit, meanwhile, we strive to ensure that each product is more sustainable than its predecessor. We are proud to have reduced our relative environmental impact by 27.5% since 2015 and our share of electricity from renewable sources totaled 42% at the end of 2019.

With the building and construction sector in Europe consuming around 10m tons of plastics each year (20% of Europe’s total plastics consumption), the industry is the second largest user of plastics - only behind the packaging industry itself. Therefore, we do all we can to ensure that our products use as little material as possible, opting for cardboard for most of our packaging and dispensing with expanded polystyrene and other plastics wherever we can.