Four project case-studies from our NZC theatres research featured in the recent Theatres Trust magazine

14.02.2022

Back in November 2021, we published the first of our important research on our website to help define what net zero means for theatre buildings. The research has now been featured in the recent edition of the Theatres Trust's Magazine. The article written by director Simon Erridge, details the importance of monitoring the carbon impact of capital projects and particularly focuses on four Bennetts Associates' theatre projects: Citizens Theatre, Hertford Theatre, Storyhouse and King's Theatre. 

Net-Zero and Theatre Buildings - Introduction

The UK has committed to achieving Net-Zero carbon emissions by 2050. Buildings, including theatres are significant emitters of carbon both through their day-to day operations, and often more significantly through their construction and maintenance. It’s currently forecast that to achieve Net-Zero, emissions from both operations and construction work will have to be reduced by around 50% from current-day benchmarks. Understanding and managing the things that influence these emissions is therefore critical. Operational carbon emissions from buildings are well understood, and there are already formal mechanisms in place, such as Display Energy Certificates, which allow the operational performance of buildings to be measured and compared. 

In theatres, measures to reduce operational carbon emissions (from the energy used for heating, lighting etc) are already a key part of the ABTT’s ‘Green Book’, which guides theatres on how to understand, measure and reduce operational carbon emissions and to share their data. Carbon emissions are expressed relative to the floor area of a building in square metres. The units used to measure carbon emissions are kilogrammes of carbon dioxide equivalent (kgCO2e), so the resulting metrics are expressed in kgCO2e/m2. From existing benchmark data we know that the operational carbon emissions from an average theatre today are around 60 kgCO2e/m2. 

The carbon emitted during the construction, maintenance or refurbishment of a theatre building can be much more significant than operational carbon emissions. Our research indicates that the emissions from the construction of a new theatre can be twenty times the operational carbon emissions from an average year in use. This so-called ‘up-front’ carbon is emitted through the manufacture of materials, transporting, and erecting them on site, right at the start of a buildings’ life, before the heating and lighting are even switched on. Capital projects of all scales involving new buildings or the refurbishment of existing buildings are quite common, and given the relative magnitude of ‘up-front’ carbon emissions, even for smaller projects it is important for the industry to understand the carbon impact of all construction work.

Forecasting the amount of carbon which will be emitted during the construction or refurbishment of a building is a relatively complex process requiring the specialist input of a professional team. The starting point is an accurate estimate of the quantities of each different building material to be used in the construction. These estimated quantities are then multiplied by the carbon-intensity factor specific to each material drawn from an accredited database. It’s a very similar process to cost planning a project, and a measured cost plan is a good basis for calculating embodied carbon during the design stages of a project. Of course many strategic decisions which will have an impact on up-front carbon emissions are made early in the project’s gestation, so this process should ideally be started early in the design process as soon as a measured cost plan is available.

Read the article from page 24 onwards from this link.