The RICS Ska Rating is an assessment method that focuses on promoting environmental and sustainable good practice in thefit out and refurbishment of existing buildings. The RICS Ska Rating is now four years old and has grown from an idea into a credible, widely adopted environmental assessment method with over 4,000 users and 4,052 projects on the system.
Existing non-domestic building stock represents 18% of UK carbon emissions and up to 40fit outs can take place over a building’s life. Fit out and refurbishment activity represents roughly 10% of UK construction spend and until Ska was launched, it was something of a sustainability blind spot.
Ska provides a set of good practice measures that can be implemented on a project and has been widely adopted by property occupiers in both the office and retail sectors including Bank of China, Yell, BBC, GE, Westpac Banking, Derwent London, Nationwide and Lush.
From a standing start, Ska has become a widely recognized assessment method that is mentioned in the same breath as BREEAM and LEED and is referenced in documents such as the UK Government’s Low Carbon Con-struction Action Plan and the British Council for Offices ‘Guide to Fit Out’. The number of projects using Ska is now growing exponentially (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Number of projects assessed using Ska
The key to Ska’s growth is that it has been designed to be much cheaper and simpler to implement than other environmental assessment schemes. Ska is entirely on-line with the guidance, assessment methodology and even the certification generated through the tool. The aim is to promote good practice in fit out projects, so the on-line tool and the associated good practice guidance can be accessed by anyone (ska-tool.rics.org). Also, anyone can
train as an assessor and RICS provides a two-day training course which includes a one-day face-to-face session followed by on-line modules and exam. There are currently 313 Ska assessors and the numbers are steadily growing. Qualified Ska assessors can assess projects and can generate certificates once they have demonstrated that the project meets the Ska criteria.
Ska covers the following topics and issues:
Reducing energy and water use by selecting efficient equipment and promoting metering etc.
Selecting materials with lower environmental impact.
Reducing construction site impacts, including waste.
Reducing pollutants such as refrigerant leakage.
Promoting health and wellbeing in the working environment, including improving internal air quality, daylight, etc.
Rewarding more sustainable project delivery, such as registration to the Considerate Constructors Scheme and seasonal commissioning.
These issues are addressed by providing a long list of good practice measures that are rewarded if the project demonstrates implementation. For example, Ska aims to reduce energy use in the completedfit out by promoting the use of energy efficient equipment.
The installation of more efficient equipment means that the fit out can use less energy, providing it is well managed and the use (or the intensity of use) has not changed. A British Council of Shopping Centres’ report on Low Carbon Fitout (Cutting Carbon, Cutting Costs: Achieving Performance in Retail Fit Outs 2013) includes a case study that demonstrates the potential savings. Nationwide moved its premises in Oxford from one location to another on the same street (Queen Street) in Oxford. Thefit-out was specifically designed to be low carbon and achieved a Ska Gold rating. Figure 2 shows a comparison between the energy use of the old and new store. The case study shows that the energy use is more than 40% lower after thefit out of the new store.
Figure 2: Comparison of energy use before and afterfit-out of a Nationwide branch
Fit out projects are typically of a short duration and vary widely in scope from a quick refresh to a minor refurbish-ment or a comprehensivefit out programme. Other environmental assessment tools tend to employ a ‘one size fits all’ approach and they assess the whole building. Ska has a flexible scope as it assesses the project rather than the whole building. This means that the project team can get rewarded for implementing a good practicefit out, even if the building has poor transport links or if it has inefficient central air conditioning plant.
64 RICS Ska Rating
Ska broke new ground when the offices scheme was launched in 2009 and again in 2011 when the retail version was launched. The aim is to increase the adoption of Ska, particularly in retail and to continue to push out sus-tainable good practice into other sectors.
Volume certification
RICS is now developing Volume Certification for the retail scheme that will allow clients to assess the fit out activity on their entire portfolio. This will allow retailers to assess hundreds of branches and stores for a fraction of the cost of certifying each one separately. Volume certification works on the basis that retailers often have one base fit out specification that they then roll out across their portfolio. The Volume Certification approach would assess the base specification, the framework contractors delivering the projects and then audit a sample of the branches/stores to ensure that they are compliant. The pilots for Volume Certification have started with two high street banks involved.
Higher education
Over 30 universities have been using the Ska on-line tool forfit outs for office areas. For example, UCL and City University have their own assessors who review their projects. UCL has even developed its own criteria for laboratories that it is applying informally to projects. RICS is now working with the Association of Directors of Estates (AUDE) to develop a formal version for Higher Education, including laboratories, lecture spaces and other facilities.
Product labelling
Product selection is a key part of Ska. This includes everything from procuring energy efficient technologies through to using furniture that have low environmental impacts during manufacture and high levels of recycled material. Grigoriou Interiors, a Ska development partner, has now launched a label and directory for products that are proven to be Ska-compliant. This will allow designers tofind and specify products much more quickly and it will make the assessment process even simpler than it is now.
Conclusion
Ska has been a great success story to date and has helped to promote sustainable good practice infitout and refurbishment projects. It can provide tangible and reputational benefits to occupiers and other property stake-holders and the ultimate aim of Ska is to get it widely adopted to the point that it is embedded in all projects as part of the established process.
For more information see: http://www.rics.org/uk/knowledge/more-services/professional-services/ska-rating-/
RICS Ska Rating 65
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