How to overcome barriers in the net zero journey

With the built environment accounting for 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it’s clear that FM is set to play a central role in the journey to Net Zero.

Facilities teams are increasingly being tasked with key roles in the process, a daunting prospect for often overworked departments juggling sustainability alongside a number of other objectives.

In July’s FM & Energy Leaders Forum, facilities management and energy professionals shared the barriers they encounter most frequently when working to reach Net Zero, as well as tips and techniques for overcoming these challenges.

Focus on the building envelope

While it’s all too easy to get caught up in excitement around the potential for innovative technologies to help drive progress to Net Zero, it’s vital to ensure that any efficiency or sustainability initiative is built on strong foundations.

By following a “fabric-first” approach, focussing first on appropriate retrofit improvements to a building such as insulation or heat capture technologies, it’s possible to make cost savings which can later be reinvested into more advanced technologies, helping to reduce emissions even further and build a continued business case for change.

Fill data gaps

For many FM professionals, lack of data is a serious barrier to achieving Net Zero. Without a clear picture of current emissions, and the ability to break this data down to a granular level, it’s virtually impossible to make significant progress.

Metering and sensors, along with analytics technology such as an energy management system to help make sense of the data, play a critical role in understanding the key drivers of emissions and unpicking each site’s individual patterns and processes.

Expand from energy to emissions

Outside of direct energy usage within a building, Net Zero takes into account carbon emissions from a wide range of other sources, and measuring this effectively is likely to mean broadening the scope of data collection significantly from just energy usage. Water, waste and other sustainability measures will need to be taken into account, as well as Scope 3 and 4 emissions occurring outside of the building.

While a comprehensive data strategy within a building is a good start, FM and energy teams will need to expand their worldview considerably if they’re to meet the Net Zero challenge, working collaboratively with suppliers and other third parties to develop a comprehensive view of carbon emissions through the entire supply chain.

Drive behavioural change

Behavioural change is critical to reducing emissions, although the exact approach to achieving this will vary between sites.

In some circumstances, educating building users is the most effective and efficient way of reducing emissions, with signage, dashboards and awareness programmes capable of driving measurable impact for a very low cost.

In other situations, however, building users may be too transient to have any reason to commit to change. In this case, building automation can be used to take decisions out of their hands, automatically turning off equipment and managing things like temperature and air quality to minimise energy use while maintaining a comfortable environment.

Collaborate and share progress

Whatever the barrier FM or energy teams face, it’s unlikely to be unique. The industry experts at the FM & Energy Leaders’ Forum were keen to emphasise that out of all the techniques available, collaboration and cooperation were the most important.

By reaching out to peers, teams can gain access to support and insights from others who’ve experienced, and overcome, similar challenges to them, and can also share their own learnings in turn to boost the entire industry’s progress. While reaching Net Zero is something every business would like to achieve, the reality is that progress is better than perfection, and by supporting others to get further, FM teams can drive benefits for the planet way beyond those they’re capturing in their own day-to-day-operations.

Download the ebook for more tips and insights

For more expert advice and insights from FM and energy professionals, download our ebook “Driving decarbonisation: how to reduce operational spend and make progress towards net zero goals”.