RICS APC Sustainability 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the purpose of a 'Whole Life Carbon Assessment' for a building?
- Measuring only operational energy use
- Assessing total carbon emissions across the entire lifecycle, including embodied, operational, and end-of-life carbon (Correct answer)
- Calculating the carbon tax liability
- Measuring carbon in the surrounding landscape
Correct answer: Assessing total carbon emissions across the entire lifecycle, including embodied, operational, and end-of-life carbon
A Whole Life Carbon Assessment evaluates the total carbon emissions across a building's entire lifecycle: from material extraction and construction through operation and maintenance to demolition and disposal.
Question 2: What is a 'Passivhaus' standard building?
- A building with no windows
- A building designed to achieve ultra-low energy consumption through superinsulation, airtightness, and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (Correct answer)
- A building powered entirely by solar panels
- A traditional stone-built house
Correct answer: A building designed to achieve ultra-low energy consumption through superinsulation, airtightness, and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery
Passivhaus is a rigorous energy performance standard that achieves very low energy consumption through superinsulation, extreme airtightness, triple glazing, and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR).
Question 3: What does 'circular economy' mean in the context of construction?
- Building only circular buildings
- Designing buildings and using materials so that resources are kept in use for as long as possible, with waste and environmental impact minimised (Correct answer)
- Only using recycled materials
- A financial model for funding construction
Correct answer: Designing buildings and using materials so that resources are kept in use for as long as possible, with waste and environmental impact minimised
The circular economy in construction means designing for disassembly, reusing materials, minimising waste, and keeping resources in productive use for as long as possible, rather than the traditional linear 'take-make-dispose' model.
Question 4: What is the purpose of the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC)?
- To enforce building regulations
- To campaign for a sustainable built environment and provide guidance to the industry (Correct answer)
- To manufacture green building materials
- To conduct Ofsted inspections of schools
Correct answer: To campaign for a sustainable built environment and provide guidance to the industry
The UKGBC is a membership organisation that campaigns for a sustainable built environment, provides net zero guidance, and helps the property and construction industry reduce its environmental impact.
Question 5: What does 'Part L' of the Building Regulations in England primarily cover?
- Fire safety
- Conservation of fuel and power (energy efficiency) (Correct answer)
- Structural safety
- Drainage and waste disposal
Correct answer: Conservation of fuel and power (energy efficiency)
Part L of the Building Regulations covers the conservation of fuel and power, setting requirements for energy efficiency in new and existing buildings, including insulation, heating, and ventilation standards.
Question 6: What is 'greenwashing' in the context of property and sustainability?
- Painting buildings green
- Making misleading or unsubstantiated claims about the environmental credentials of a product, service, or building (Correct answer)
- Washing buildings with eco-friendly products
- Planting trees around a development
Correct answer: Making misleading or unsubstantiated claims about the environmental credentials of a product, service, or building
Greenwashing involves making misleading claims about environmental performance or sustainability credentials, which is increasingly scrutinised by regulators and the RICS.
RICS APC Sustainability 2
What is the purpose of a 'Whole Life Carbon Assessment' for a building?