Design

WHAT'S NEXT?: Design thinking will increasingly play a key role in improving systems and customer experiences. Companies will re-learn their approach to innovation and embrace human-centred design principles. Designers will begin to apply knowledge of human interaction, specifically in the area of how we earn trust and respect, to AI systems.

• In March 2019, the UK Government added to the Buildings Mission by committing to introduce a Future Homes Standard by 2025, for new build homes to be future-proofed with low carbon heating and world leading levels of energy efficiency.
• 17% of heat demand in UK homes and 24% of public sector buildings and non-industrial business could be met by 2050 through networked systems in line with a push to eliminate carbon emissions fully.
• The adoption of a more conscious approach to fashion consumption, changes in consumer behavior during use and reuse, and the introduction by brands of radically new business models could contribute 347 million metric tons of emission abatement in 2030.
• New buildings are considered to be the simplest of the building stock to decarbonise from both a heating and energy efficiency perspective according to the CCC report, which recommends that all new build homes by 2025 be built with ultra-high levels of energy efficiency.
• Different low carbon measures for buildings should not be considered in isolation and to enable Suffolk to realise net zero carbon for the buildings sector by 2030, energy efficiency must be considered in combination with heating and energy supplies to domestic and non-domestic buildings.
• To achieve net zero emissions in Suffolk by 2030, ambitious actions are required to reduce the emissions associated with the buildings sector.
• The next phase of UNDP's COVID-19 crisis response is designed to help decision-makers look beyond recovery, towards 2030, making choices and managing complexity and uncertainty in four main areas: governance, social protection, green economy, and digital disruption.
• Energy efficiency and the decarbonisation of electricity in Asia under a Sustainable Development Scenario 3 could reduce annual emissions from buildings in 2040 by almost 3000 megatonnes of carbon dioxide compared to a Stated Policies Scenario 4, 1.
• The growth rate of online fashion will triple in 2020 to account for more than 20% of total sales - the equivalent of five years of growth in about six months.
• UNDP's COVID-19 crisis response is designed to help decision-makers look beyond recovery, towards 2030, making choices and managing complexity and uncertainty in four main areas: governance and agency, social protection, green economy, and digital disruption.
• Greenhouse gas emissions from heating, cooling and hot water for connected buildings would fall by 60% today and by more than 90% by 2050 assuming Massachusetts reaches its long-term renewable energy targets.
• Hannah Leggatt, HS2' s environmeUsing renewable technologies and lean design, Curzon Street station will be a shining example of how HS2 is helping the UK to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
• Hydrogen can account for 24% of global final energy demand and 5.4 million jobs by 2050, playing a sectoral integration role to support the decarboni s ation in industry, transport, power generation and buildings.
• Industry leaders can join the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action that calls for net-zero emissions by 2050, as well as the Conscious Fashion Campaign, which works with global leaders to achieve Sustainable Development goals.
• £3 billion green investment package that could help support around 140,000 green jobs and upgrade buildings and reduce emissions.
• Global floor area grows by about 2.3% annually and carbon emissions related to buildings are expected to double by 2050 unless action at scale takes place.
• The global market for the Internet of Things in Buildings will continue to expand significantly over the next years from $34.8 billion at the end of 2017 to $84.2 billion by 2022, representing a compound annual growth rate of 19.4%.
• The City of Vancouver has set the target of reducing embodied carbon emissions in new buildings and construction projects by 40% compared to a 2018 baseline by 2030.
• The global market for the Internet of Things in Buildings will rise from $22.93Bn in 2014 to over $85Bn in 2020.
• The CCC acknowledges the progress made since 1990 in reducing buildings' emissions - by more than 10% through efficiency improvements, grid decarbonisation and increased use of bioenergy - but says a far more ambitious approach is needed to fully decarbonise heat by 2050.
• Electrification pathway The electrification pathway explores the widespread deployment of heat pumps in buildings across the UK, which when combined with the roll-out of electric vehicles leads to more than a doubling of total UK electricity demand by 2050.
• A major change to guidance for building rules in England will require the addition of large and well-equipped accessible toilet facilities to be designed and built into new public buildings, from next year.
• Biden's plan outlines specific and aggressive US targets, including achieving an emissions-free power sector by 2035 and upgrading 4 million buildings over four years to meet the highest standards for energy efficiency.

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Last updated: 14 September 2020