Technical explainer: Decarbonisation
Decarbonisation
Decarbonisation – the significant reduction of a building’s or estate’s operational energy use and CO2 emissions – is an increasingly urgent priority for many organisations. Decarbonisation is fast becoming a necessity: both to meet net zero carbon targets, and to reduce operational costs.
Decarbonisation leaders
Total of 2 people
About decarbonisation
We have been at the forefront of sustainable environmental engineering since our foundation in 1966. Our thorough understanding of low-energy mechanical and electrical systems means that the decarbonisation solutions we recommend are realistic, detailed, and will work in practice – from low and zero carbon heat (such as heat pumps), to maximising daylight, renewable energy generation, and thermal fabric improvements.
The Max Fordham difference
- We’re specialists in heritage buildings. Decarbonising historical buildings requires sensitivity, care, and a thorough understanding of the technical challenges and constraints. Our work with Historic Royal Palaces, Historic England, and many other clients with Grade I, II, A, B, or C-listed estates speaks for itself.
- Collaboration is a key strength. We are adept in engaging stakeholders at every level of seniority and knowledge, ensuring we bring them along the decarbonisation journey with us. We also work closely with architects and cost consultants, to ensure our decarbonisation plans are practical, realistic, and workable.
- We bring proven experience in securing decarbonisation grant funding. Over the past few years, we have helped our clients secure government decarbonisation grants to pay for both the initial advice and decarbonisation plans themselves, and the capital works required to implement the recommended solutions.
- We offer flexibility, not fixed solutions. With considerable experience of working with occupied buildings, we know that decarbonisation interventions need to be scaled according to budget, programme, and existing maintenance schedules. Our decarbonisation plans offer a range of costed options for interventions, tailored to our clients' specific needs.
Case studies
Total of 2 projects
Related journal entries
All services
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All buildings should be comfortable and a pleasure to be in: warm, well-lit, well-ventilated, well-used, and well-loved. Our mechanical and electrical engineering, vertical transportation, acoustics, daylight, and lighting design services can help ensure just that. We maximise passive measures such as natural ventilation and daylighting, seamlessly dovetailing our designs with the building’s own form and architecture to result in simple, low-energy, and low-cost building services.
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In the face of an increasingly urgent climate emergency, it’s crucial that buildings consume as little energy as possible in their operation. Low energy, low carbon, and low operational costs are our watchwords when it comes to designing new buildings or retrofitting existing ones. We help our clients build sustainability goals into masterplans or early-stage feasibility studies, decarbonise existing estates, and optimise how a building performs against its targets for sustainability and user comfort.
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Meeting net zero carbon targets and minimising a building’s impact on the environment means reducing embodied carbon – the carbon tied up in the materials like steel, concrete, and plastic that go into a building’s construction and services design – as much as operational carbon (the carbon a building produces in its heating, cooling, and lighting). We facilitate material reuse with circular economy strategies, steer low embodied carbon design from the earliest project stages with whole life carbon assessments, and offer advice on planning and compliance, all helping to reduce the carbon footprint of construction.