As the UK shifts towards greener infrastructure, retrofitting is becoming more popular. Mark Rooney, Premier Modular’s divisional director, discusses in more detail
Retrofitting is growing steadily in popularity as a sustainable, low-waste alternative to the construction of brand new infrastructure. A vast body of evidence promoting its benefits is accumulating, including case studies such as the University of Cambridge’s “Entopia Building.”
This demonstrated that retrofitting spared the use of over 62,000 kilograms of construction materials, recycled 352 LED lights and saved 84% of carbon per square metre of the gross internal area, in comparison to a standard office fit out.
Retrofitting offers options for decarbonisation
Whilst the benefits of retrofitting are becoming increasingly recognised, there is still a huge opportunity for other repair-focused approaches to reinforce its application and accelerate the decarbonisation of the built environment.
The reuse of modular rental building solutions is one example of this and one of the most circular methods of construction to date. If a greener, cleaner built environment is to be achieved, a partnership of retrofitting and rental building solutions must take centre stage.
Retrofitting has largely earned its reputation in the housing sector, but is increasingly being applied on a wider scale due to its potential to drastically cut carbon emissions. Research indicates that retrofitting an existing building could bring carbon savings of up to 70% which, alongside cost and time savings, makes clear the huge role this practice should be playing in decarbonising the built environment.
Retrofitting also often improves the building’s energy and operational efficiency whilst removing the need for vast amounts of construction and demolition waste to be sent to landfill. The recent renovation of the Sydney Opera House confirms this and has enabled the building to run entirely on renewable energy whilst simultaneously reducing energy and water consumption by 20%.
Constructing with MMC ensures future sustainability
Rental building solutions hold equal sustainable potential. When constructed through offsite manufacturing, these solutions can be routinely reconfigured and reused to minimise the need for new components and modules to be produced. For example, a classroom can be repurposed into hospital ward space and former offices can be reconfigured to create student accommodation.
The flexibility and recyclability of this pre-existing stock is rooted in the extensive standardisation of building components, which are all made to exact measurements to ensure they can be repurposed at the end of a hire period. For instance, window apertures are all the same size and shape, and so can be easily removed and reintroduced to a new building. The aim is to reuse as much as possible, from the building shell itself to plumbing, design and electrical items such as ventilation systems or sinks.
Whilst it’s clear building practices focused on circularity and repair will be fundamental to decarbonising the built environment as Net Zero targets draw nearer, both will require further backing from government. Earlier this year, the UK Green Building Council called for investment in a £64m programme over the next decade to retrofit houses – largely through home insulation and by replacing gas boilers with electric heat pumps.
This scheme is hoped to save £60bn in grid upgrade costs and save the NHS £22bn by improving the internal quality of home environments, reducing the risk of illness.
Funding will be just as important as method
Whilst the initiative would be a promising step forward at a domestic level, the government should also consider encouraging the uptake of retrofitting and rental building reuse at commercial and industrial levels to keep its green agenda on track.
The declining condition of healthcare and education estates is well-documented, with the NHS in particular requiring billions in order to upgrade its facilities to support demand spikes and meet modern healthcare standards. Public finances may be volatile, but allocated funding pots or grants that enable NHS facilities to be retrofitted (either structurally or with component replacements) would provide a cheaper, faster means of improving the overall operational efficiency of the estate at a national level.
The same, and more, can be said for rental building solutions. Hire buildings can be used to satisfy short- or long-term facility demands, for example, by serving as temporary accommodation for the workforce that is retrofitting or building new facilities.
In the context of the NHS, rental buildings offer trusts the opportunity to either upgrade building stock efficiently or invest in high-quality hire facilities for a dedicated time period, without having to part with the significant level of capital, carbon and time costs a brand new permanent building would entail.
For example, it is simpler, faster and more cost-effective to increase ward capacity in spike periods by utilising a hire building rather than constructing an entirely new hospital.
Permanent buildings can be a thing of the past
There’s scope for retrofitting permanent buildings with modules too. Whilst achieving cohesion between the different materials and structures can be challenging, this is another opportunity for avoiding the unnecessary construction of permanent buildings via traditional methods, which comprise the most carbon intensive part of a project.
The partnership between retrofitting and reusing rental solutions could be a green game-changer for the built environment. It’s high time reducing, reusing and recycling was scaled up to new heights.
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