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In the face of a changing climate, a growing number of construction firms are adopting carbon reduction targets on individual projects and across their portfolios. In the wake of the Paris Agreement, some firms are seeking a means of aligning their targets with sectoral, national and international mitigation commitments. There are numerous ways by which such an alignment can be achieved, each requiring different assumptions. Using data from the UK construction industry, this paper reviews current company commitments and progress in carbon mitigation; analyses the unique challenges in aligning construction targets, and presents a series of possible sectoral decarbonisation trajectories. The results highlight the disparity between current company targets and the range of possible trajectories. It is clear that a cross-industry dialogue is urgently required to establish an appropriate response that delivers both a widely-accepted target trajectory and a plan for its delivery. This paper is intended to stimulate and support this necessary debate by illustrating the impact of different methodological assumptions and highlighting the critical features of an appropriate response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: An archetypal simulation model of office building representing variability in UK office building stock by parameterising built form, construction elements, occupancy/usage and operational/control strategy has been developed thus enabling detailed energy performance simulation to be used for stock modelling and parametric studies. The paper discusses the building characteristics needed to be considered for energy performance simulation, their values, and how they can be used in parametric studies. These parameters include built forms, fabrics (including thermal mass and insulation positioning), glazing percentages and characteristics, daylight and solar control measures and activity and operational related parameters (heating and cooling set points, ventilation rate, occupancy density and metabolic rate, equipment and lighting gain). The default parameter values suggested for the archetypal simulation model reflect typical existing and currently proposed UK office building stock. An archetypal model, combined with parametric studies, can be used in assessing energy performance of building stock and evaluating adaptation/retrofitting strategies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Low Carbon Futures project, funded by the Adaptation and Resilience in a Changing Climate (ARCC) Programme, has the objective of using the latest UK climate projections (UKCP’09) to assess overheating in a range of domestic and non-domestic buildings. As these climate projections are probabilistic in nature, and dynamic building simulation is being used by the project to assess building performance, the information produced is vast. To understand how to filter this data into a useable tool that can interact with current building practices, the project has commissioned a range of focus groups to obtain practitioner feedback. These focus groups provide guidance on how buildings are currently designed with respect to overheating but also how future overheating risk assessments, incorporating probabilistic climate projections, might be carried out. This paper describes the assimilation of all this research into a coherent building simulation methodology that could be used by building practitioners to assess future overheating risks of a range of buildings, and provide guidance for applying adaptation solutions to prevent defined comfort thresholds being exceeded. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper describes the analysis of the hygrothermal behaviours of stabilised rammed earth (SRE) walls used in a building in the UK. The analysis was achieved by computer simulation using WUFI Plus v1.2 whole building hygrothermal analysis software. To validate the model, an unoccupied test room in an unheated SRE building was monitored for 10 months. The hygrothermal properties of the SRE material were measured in the laboratory. It is shown that the SRE walls significantly reduced the amplitude of relative humidity fluctuations in the room air and reduced the frequency of high humidity periods at the wall surface. By adapting the model to represent an occupied and conditioned space, it is demonstrated that SRE walls have the potential to reduce the energy demand for humidification/dehumidification plant. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]