VIDEO | How do you deliver a scheme under Greater Manchester’s new sustainability policy?

Greater Manchester has introduced a suite of documents to help ensure developers meet Places for Everyone’s net zero carbon goals with their projects. What does it look like putting the guidance into practice?

That is what Place North West set to find out, bringing together the guidance’s authors, the combined authority, developer Harworth, and a series of planners, architects, and sustainability experts to weigh in on the matter.

The net zero design guidance is of special importance to Harworth, which has multiple projects within the GM boundaries. The most high-profile of these is the 1,600-acre Northern Gateway in Rochdale and Bury where the developer, along with its joint venture partner Russell LDP, has plans to build 13m sq ft of employment space.

• READ MORE: Sheds are changing. Harworth is ready

With that in mind, the resulting roundtable discussion did not shy away from delving into the specifics of the guidance and how it would apply to a project like Northern Gateway.

Find out more by watching the video at the top of this page, or on the Place North YouTube channel.

Key takeaways

• This is the first iteration of the GMCA Net Zero Design Guidance, with updates expected as time goes on
• Standardisation will be vital to ensuring that the guidance accomplishes its goals of making development net zero, this includes ensuring that all of GM is using the same metrics for evaluating projects and that this aligns with other policies. These metrics should also be based in science, so there’s a confidence that when one says ‘net zero’, they mean it
• Sustainability policy is a moving target, as new regulations and guidance come into effect like the Net Zero Building Standard. Other regulatory documents, such as the Future Buildings Standard and the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard are also set to change. This is part of why the GMCA’s Net Zero Design Guidance is expected to be updated over time
• When it comes to the guidance and how it applies to non-residential buildings, it includes benchmarks for energy use intensity rather than requirements – it is not a pass/fail system
• The guidance is for evaluating a project at a specific moment in time due to its nature of being a document for the planning process. It is not concerned with post-occupancy data
• Training local authority planning departments is one of the tasks the GMCA is undertaking, to ensure they are up-to-speed on the guidance and how it should be used when evaluating applications. This training will need to include notes on how heavily this should be weighted on evaluation, so that planning officers know if they can be flexible with it or not

Participants

• Edd Ashworth, account director at Perse
• Peter Bartley, head of sustainability at Aew Architects
• Rob Haslam, regional head of planning for the North West at Harworth
• David Hodcroft, head of strategic infrastructure at Greater Manchester Combined Authority
• Thomas Lefevre, director at Etude Sustainability
• Fiona Lomas-Holt, head of sustainability and ESG at Turley
• Clare Murray, head of sustainability at Levitt Bernstein
• Owen Roper, sustainability and analytics manager at Harworth
• Chair: Julia Hatmaker, editor of Place North West

To learn more about Harworth, visit harworthgroup.com.