View all research
Research /

Sustainability

Net Zero 2030

Net zero in the city: call for projects for a GLA research paper that will guide London’s decarbonisation journey.

by Jane Manning

Allies and Morrison and Buro Happold are leading an important piece of research commissioned by the Greater London Authority, to facilitate sustainable development in the Capital.

The research will build a directory of exemplary sustainable projects for a new report, entitled Designing towards Net Zero 2030.

The call for projects launched on the 15th May and be open until 5th June 2023. We invite you to submit your project as a case study before 5th June when submissions will close.

More on the report:

Designing towards Net Zero 2030 will focus on ways in which we can design and adapt buildings and neighbourhoods to significantly reduce carbon emissions. We are seeking to spotlight best practice examples of how these measures have been successfully incorporated into a project, resulting in high quality, exemplar masterplanning and building design. It will be an important design resource in response to the Mayor’s Net Zero by 2030 target, and will contribute to the creation of necessary guidance and support to aid the implementation of the Mayor’s Net Zero strategy.

Furthermore, we are seeking to promote case studies which demonstrate a good approach to our other key Good Growth by Design priorities: designing for accessibility; safety for women, girls and gender diverse people; and exemplary public realm.

More on project submissions:

We are looking for projects that are ambitious in their net zero and sustainability targets. Initially we are focusing on case studies that achieve high performance across operational energy, materials /embodied carbon and resilience. Case studies which perform best under these three themes will be shortlisted. We are using both GLA policy and LETI best practice to inform the thresholds for shortlisting, and projects will be required to submit data on aspects such as energy use intensity and embodied carbon. Later in the process we will be collating information on the wider themes of biodiversity, community and mobility.

Projects could be:

  • at the building scale or the masterplan scale,
  • either new build or retrofit of existing buildings,
  • a range of typologies i.e. residential, commercial or community uses,
  • built or in the design phase, and
  • in the UK or abroad, but relevant to the Greater London context.