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BUILDING STANDARDS SYSTEM: AN OVERVIEW
13 The current building standards system was established by the Building (Scotland) Act 2003. The purpose of the system is to protect the public interest in terms of securing health, safety, welfare and convenience, furthering the conservation of fuel and power, and furthering the achievement of sustainable development.
Scottish Building Standards & Building Regulations
14 The 2003 Act gives powers to Scottish Ministers to make building regulations. The schedule of standards in the regulations is arranged in sections, one of which is energy (Section 6). The Scottish Building Standards ( SBS) part of the Directorate for the Built Environment, provide two Technical Handbooks which give advice on ways of achieving the standards by providing methods of compliance; one covering domestic buildings and the other non-domestic buildings.
15 The building regulations are expressed in terms of 'functional standards'. These standards are statements of functions that the completed building must fulfil or allow. The intention is to permit a variety of ways of complying. What is needed for compliance depends on the materials chosen, the site conditions, and the use of the building. The Technical Handbooks give guidance on possible ways of complying and for most situations, designing in accordance with that guidance is the usual way of showing that the functional standards are going to be met. However, a designer or developer may put forward other ways of meeting the standards, in the form of alternative solutions.
Energy Standards for Buildings
16 On 1st May 2007 revisions to the energy standards came into effect. The principal aim of this was to reduce the CO 2 emissions that occur as a result of the energy used in heating, cooling or lighting new buildings and existing buildings that are being converted, altered or extended.
17 The standard on CO 2 emissions presents the overall CO 2 emissions levels for new buildings. This is measured in kilograms per square metre of floor area per annum: kgCO 2/m 2/annum and each building sets its own maximum level of emissions. The standard obliges a designer to consider new buildings in a holistic way. This means that energy performance requires to be dealt with as a complete package rather than looking only at individual elements such as insulation or boiler efficiency. A building may be designed and constructed to be even more energy efficient than these standards require and may make greater use of low and zero carbon ( LZC) equipment.
Relationship between Energy Standards & SPP6 Target
18 The SPP6 policy concerns the integration of low and zero carbon equipment into new development to reduce CO 2 emissions. It uses the building regulations CO 2 emissions standard as a baseline. From this the separate and additional planning requirement for a reduction can be measured.
A Low Carbon Building Standards Strategy for Scotland - The Sullivan Report
19 The Low Carbon Building Standards Strategy for Scotland, published in December 2007 and known as the Sullivan Report, makes recommendations to Scottish Ministers on a route to achieve further reductions in CO 2 emissions from buildings. The recommendations, made by a panel of experts appointed by Ministers, include an aspirational target of total life zero carbon for new buildings by 2030 and the goal of net zero carbon for heating, lighting and ventilation by 2016/2017, if practical. To meet this it advocates staged revisions to energy standards in 2010, 2013 and 2016/17.
20 The Report also recommends undertaking research to analyse the cost impacts on new buildings of energy standards and other sustainability measures proposed for the building regulations, including life cycle analysis techniques.
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