The long awaited COP 26 has arrived, we are full of anticipation waiting for this global climate change conference to deliver some change and positive outcomes.
We have been following the One Step Greener campaign, an initiative which forms part of the COP 26 mission which encourages everyone to do their bit to become #OneStepGreener.
As a construction business with specialist teams installing green roofs, living walls, landscapes and storm-water management roofs – we hope we can help others to make considered decisions to become One Step Greener.
What are the Cop 26 Goals?
1. Secure Global net zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach
Countries are being asked to come forward with ambitious 2030 emissions reductions targets that align with reaching net zero by the middle of the century.
To deliver on these stretching targets, countries will need to:
- accelerate the phase-out of coal
- curtail deforestation
- speed up the switch to electric vehicles
- encourage investment in renewables.
2. Adapt to Protect Communities and Natural Habitats
The climate is already changing and it will continue to change even as we reduce emissions, with devastating effects.
At COP26 we need to work together to enable and encourage countries affected by climate change to:
- protect and restore ecosystems
- build defences, warning systems and resilient infrastructure and agriculture to avoid loss of homes, livelihoods and even lives
3. Mobilise Finance
To deliver on our first two goals, developed countries must make good on their promise to mobilise at least $100bn in climate finance per year by 2020.
International financial institutions must play their part and we need work towards unleashing the trillions in private and public sector finance required to secure global net zero.
4. Work Together to Deliver
We can only rise to the challenges of the climate crisis by working together.
At COP26 we must:
- finalise the Paris Rulebook (the detailed rules that make the Paris Agreement operational)
- accelerate action to tackle the climate crisis through collaboration between governments, businesses and civil society.
Supporting the 2nd goal ‘Adapt to Protect Communities and Natural Habitats’
The call to action is to ‘protect and restore ecosystems’ and to ‘build defences, warning systems and resilient infrastructure and agriculture to avoid loss of homes, livelihoods and even lives.’
Here in the UK we are seemingly so protected from the ‘extreme’ effects of climate change felt elsewhere in the world, but the signs of climate change are alive and kicking here – remember Storm Christophe earlier this year, bringing extreme flooding to Wales and the West? Recall summer temperatures in 2020 consistently meeting 34C exacerbated further by the urban heat island effect in cities to reach dangerously high temperatures?
Whilst greening our towns and cities is one part of this huge puzzle it is what we at a local level can do for the greater good globally – taking simple steps within our businesses and homes can help us all go One Step Greener.
What can specifying Green Roofs and Living Walls do to help you go One Step Greener?
There is much debate about green roofs and living walls being perceived as ‘greenwashing’. Green Roofs win in the reputation race, however the living walls of the last 5 years have adopted innovative technologies which make them a really viable tool, along-with green roofs to support biodiversity and boost ecosystems. The devil is in the detail. Green roofs and walls full of the correct plant content with a broad variety of topography, food and forage throughout the year for pollinators, a mix of perennial and evergreen plants for habitat creation are far more viable than single species planting for ‘aesthetics’. These ‘islands’ of biodiversity help to boost ecosystems by connecting otherwise barren areas of the urban landscape, supporting wildlife and plant species, a perfect example of this is the rare orchid (serapias parviflora) found on a central London green roof this summer.
Green roof solutions which include a blue roof to hold storm-water are an excellent addition to any living roof application. Retaining storm-water to be released slowly into city drainage systems can mitigate the disruption caused by flash flooding in cities.
Solar panels have been found to perform optimally when utilized correctly on green roofs – systems which enable the surrounding plants to thrive help to cool the solar panels with evapotranspiration, making these clean energy producers the ideal addition to a green roof.
What are the benefits of specifying a green roof?
A living roof can deliver the following benefits, according to BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method):
- They benefit people and community, by improving health, wellbeing and comfort, as well as heritage and local character.
- They reduce construction and operational impacts.
- They help mitigate climate change.
- They can provide habitats for wildlife and improve biodiversity.
Other claimed benefits of living roofs include:
– Increasing the effectiveness of solar panels, by reducing the ambient temperature of the roof area, evidence from Germany, where biosolar (combined living roof and solar panels) are more common, suggests.
– Improves the life expectancy of the roof, by protecting the roofing materials from direct ultra–violet radiation and extreme temperatures
What are the benefits of specifying a living wall?
A living wall can deliver the following benefits, according to Living Roofs and Walls Technical Report: Supporting London Plan Policy (2008):
- By providing shading from the sun, living walls can significantly reduce the external temperature of a building. Depending on plant coverage, temperature fluctuations at the wall surface can be reduced from between 10°C and 60°C to between 5°C and 30°C.
- Living Walls provide winter insulation. Creating a zone of still air adjacent to the wall, evergreen plants can reduce convection at the wall surface by up to 75 per cent and heating demand by up to 25 per cent.
- Living Walls can reduce wall wetting thus reducing the amount of cooling through evaporation at the wall’s surface (and thus energy loss).
- The interception of both light and heat radiation by living walls helps reduce Urban Heat Island effect (UHIE).
- Climbers on buildings protect the surface of the building from damage, particularly from very heavy driving rainfall and hail.
- They help to shield wall surfaces from ultra-violet light which could damage building materials.
- They help trap dust and other pollutants from both the air and rainfall on the leaves of plants.
- Living Walls improve biodiversity by:
- Providing a food source for invertebrates (which are eaten by birds). Providing breeding and nesting habitat for invertebrates, birds (including the house sparrow), and possibly bats.
What will you do to go One Step Greener to support COP 26 – the most anticipated Climate Change Conference of our time?
If you want to learn more about methods to help your business go #OneStepGreener – get in touch and book a presentation – we would be happy to guide you.
Contact info@pritchardandpritchard.co.uk