A team led by Verco and including BSRIA, Arup and UBT, with sponsorship from leading players in the UK office market and the backing of the Better Buildings Partnership (BBP), is launching an 18 month pilot programme to test a ‘Design for Performance’ approach for UK prime rented office developments, which mirrors the ground-breaking NABERS Commitment Agreement used in Australia.

The pilot study follows a successful feasibility study to assess whether NABERS-style Commitment Agreements could work in the UK.

Commitment Agreements were introduced in Australia in 2002, to allow in-use energy performance to be targeted throughout the development process and verified by an investment-grade NABERS rating using 12 months of metered data.

The feasibility study found that ‘base building’ landlord’s services in all new office buildings in Australia using this approach typically use half as much energy as when Commitment Agreements started in 2002, and the best one-quarter. It also found that new office base buildings in London today use as much energy as those in Melbourne did in 2002.

Importantly, the study has highlighted that there are no technical reasons why a NABERS-style Commitment Agreement could not work in the UK. However, two critical steps need to be taken: measuring ‘base building’ performance and the landlord taking control over all the ‘base building’ services. 

In Australia, many occupiers, not just the government, now require minimum NABERS ratings for lettings and there is increasing evidence to demonstrate that tenants seek and will pay a premium for space in higher rated buildings. This has led to strong interest from investors for better rated buildings, as well as NABERS being used as a standard for Green Bonds. It is hoped that such a market could be created in the UK.

The portfolio of ten pilot studies have been selected to span different stages of a building’s life cycle, enabling the project team to test most aspects of the Commitment Agreement process without waiting for a single project to progress from initial briefing to operation.

Head of sustainable construction at BSRIA, Jo Harris (pictured), said: “The feasibility study has confirmed that there is still a very clear benefit to be realised from following through with the commitment agreements model. The pilot studies will be our opportunity to gather the evidence needed to ensure that the business case can be supported.”

The findings of the feasibility study are available to download at http://bit.ly/22zvITN