Thread by @WHurst1

THREAD: M&S boasts it is going net zero because 'there is no Plan B when it comes to our planet'. But I've crunched the CO2 numbers on your Oxford St demolition job @marksandspencer & I have to tell you it ain't pretty

@marksandspencer The embodied carbon cost of replacing the building on the left with the building on the right is 39,534 tonnes of CO2 (thanks @w9maidavale & @WillIng9). That's equivalent to driving a typical car 99,000,000 miles - further than the distance to the sun

Another way to look at it is driving 8,598 cars for a year

Or burning 43,696,278 pounds of coal

Or using 91,530 barrels of oil

It's also equivalent to the carbon sequestered by 653,703 tree seedlings grown for 10 years

Or that sequestered by 48,436 acres of forest in north America over a year

Anyone can get hold of these kind of equivalent numbers by using this useful calculator (thanks @SustainableTall) epa.gov/energy/greenho…

Under the new London Plan, M&S had to provide the 39,534 tonnes figure (thanks @MayorofLondon @Simonsturgis). Yet there is currently no obligation to act on this terrible figure despite the climate crisis

We should be doing these kind of calculations every single time we consider demolishing a building no matter its size or location & then applying some common sense. But that's not enough. To get clients & developers to make the right decision we need policy and tax reform

In particular, we urgently need to cut the VAT on refurbishment and reuse (perversely it's the top rate of 20%). That is the point of the @ArchitectsJrnal #RetroFirst campaign

To discover more, watch this video (thanks @MrGeorgeClarke) and read this: architectsjournal.co.uk/news/retrofirst

And if you agree with our #RetroFirst demands, please take action. Speak out on the environmental cost of demolition. Tell your MP and local councillors about the link between waste in the built environment & emissions. Lobby them to act. Thank you ♻️♻️♻️