Among the usual flurry of work before the winter holidays, there was one discreet email that we had to pause for.

It was a short message from the BRE to British Land and the 1 Broadgate team, informing us that the project had formally received its NABERS UK ‘Design for Performance’ (‘DfP’) target rating certificate, for five stars. The first building in the UK to register, it also received a notable DfP0001 registration reference.

NABERS UK ‘DfP’ is an approach for

• predicting energy consumption as accurately as possible during the design life of a project,
• reducing predicted energy use through design and specification decisions, and
• preparing the building for accurate energy monitoring throughout its operational life.

Very importantly, it is third party certified and holds the applicant to account. It was launched in the UK in November 2020 by the Better Buildings Partnership and is a very important process for buildings with a Net Zero Carbon brief.

When complete in 2025, 1 Broadgate will create some of the most sustainable mixed-use space in London. And as early adopters of the NABERS rating, British Land are able to demonstrate a sustainability commitment that extends well beyond this date. As the project’s development continues at pace, we wanted to reflect on the project’s sustainability journey to date and the path we are setting out for the important steps to come.

The brief should exceed current standards

1 Broadgate registered as a NABERS UK Pioneer Project during its RIBA Stage 3, but British Land had already devised a plan for earlier design stages. In a short period of time we switched from the existing standard - CIBSE’s Technical Memorandum 54 ‘Operational Energy Performance’ - to a British Land-commissioned bespoke method named Enhanced Building Energy Modelling in anticipation of NABERS UK, which was still being piloted at the time. The switch to NABERS UK was also a pre-requisite of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), who were the first occupier to sign an agreement for Lease.

Opportunities were therefore identified early, and as soon as the NABERS UK scheme was formally launched, 1 Broadgate was ready to commit to a high target energy rating. As obvious as it may sound, an ambitious brief is of vital importance to a sustainable and future-ready project. Setting this high standard from the start has allowed 1 Broadgate to adapt its ambition to one of the most rapidly changing markets in recent years.