Speaker: Jess Hrivnak, RIBA Lead on Sustainability
Moderator: Dr Mark E Breeze AIA, AIA UK 2025 President and Sustainability Chair
Discover the essential elements of the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard (UKNZCBS), launched in September 2024 to unify the approach to net zero carbon in the built environment.
Int his session Jess and Mark will help you understand how to leverage this comprehensive and collaborative standard to design, verify, and future-proof your projects, and dispel any greenwash claims.
The standard - created for the industry by the industry - provides robust, transparent guidelines to achieve Net Zero Carbon Aligned Buildings, and addresses upfront carbon, operational efficiency, and performance alignment with UK carbon reduction targets.
Jess will share how to use this free-to-access framework to initiate impactful change.
About the speaker
Jess Hrivnak is RIBA’s Lead on Sustainability, and member of the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard’s Technical Steering Group since its inception. They head up RIBA’s work on the UKNZCBS Standard, and is responsible for RIBA’s 2030 Climate Challenge guidance and Chartered Practice Sustainable Development Toolkit.
By working collaboratively within the institute and with partner organisations, they help improve climate literacy, align design targets, strategies, and processes. Jess is passionate about bridging gaps between sectors and disciplines to enable better guidance and action to improve planetary and human health outcomes.
About the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard
The standard has been created collaboratively by built environment organisations and leading experts in the profession in response to the market demand for a clear and unified definition for net zero carbon aligned assets in the UK.
The standard responds to this market need for consistent rules around net zero carbon. It has been created to both reduce spurious claims around net zero carbon, and to accelerate the design, construction, and use of buildings that deliver lower-carbon outcomes in line with the UK’s legally-binding carbon targets.
Read RIBA's feature on the significance of the launch of the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard for architects.
