ACCELERATING NET ZERO: RETROFIT OF COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS IN GREATER MANCHESTER

A new report, published today by Manchester Climate Change Partnership’s Commercial Building Retrofit City Challenge Group is aiming to help accelerate retrofit action in the commercial building sector in Greater Manchester.

The 2022 Update of the Manchester Climate Change Framework showed that energy consumption in commercial buildings is responsible for 12% of the city’s emissions, making it a priority area for action if we are to achieve our climate goal of becoming zero carbon by 2038 at the latest.

Bringing together representatives from Bruntwood, Manchester Climate Change Agency, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and industry experts from a range of relevant sectors, the Commercial Building Retrofit City Challenge Group explored the barriers to retrofit including: an unambitious regulatory landscape, a lack of fiscal incentives and an underdeveloped retrofit supply chain; and identified that less than 10% of commercial buildings in Manchester are responsible for over 60% of the direct emissions from this sector.

The Accelerating Net Zero: Retrofit of Commercial Buildings in Greater Manchester report sets out a clear decarbonisation pathway, with targets for different sizes of commercial building escalating over time, and includes recommendations for the city-region, that have been tested with wider stakeholders, to explore how local fiscal instruments, planning policies and skills/supply chain developments can accelerate change.