New Net Zero university courses will help UK’s building industry make huge carbon emission cuts

Four new Net Zero courses to train students in the latest green skills and help the UK building industry make huge carbon emission reductions, have been launched by London South Bank University (LSBU).

The four new Net Zero courses are being run in close partnership with leading organisations in the housing and green sectors including: London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI), Ashden, Clarion Housing Group, The Climate Framework, Building Services Research and Information Association, Lambeth Council and Southwark Council. Up to 180 students a year who are currently working in the building, housing or green sector will be trained on the four new LSBU Net Zero courses:

1. Designing Net Zero Buildings - aimed at those with knowledge of buildings, but not low-carbon building services and will teach the critical elements in designing buildings that don’t rely on fossil fuels, whole building systems, and HVAC engineering.
2. Operating Effective Net Zero Buildings: aimed at Facilities Maintenance / Managers or those with close operational knowledge of buildings, but little formal education in building performance and topics include sustainability, benchmarking, data and controls, and health and safety.
3. Procurement for the Net Zero Built Environment: aimed at decision-making roles (e.g. councils, planners, social housing), seeking to procure more sustainable projects portfolios. Topics include planning, whole-life carbon, social value, decision-making with incomplete data.
4. Net Zero Leadership and Management: aimed at mid-career professionals seeking to advance to team leadership or more strategic roles within the built environment. Topics include legal & fiscal aspects, systems change for Net Zero and project / team / client management.

The four new Net Zero Level 4 – 6 short courses will be taught over a year and are funded by £150,000 from the Office for Students (OfS), The students will be able to learn at a pace that fits in with their lives, supported by loans from The Lifelong Learning Entitlement. The new Net Zero courses support LSBU’s strategy to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Professor George Ofori, Dean of LSBU’s School of the Built Environment and Architecture, said, “LSBU is tackling climate change head-on by teaching our students the latest green skills so they can reduce carbon emissions in our building industry and help the UK achieve Net Zero. Our four new Net Zero courses will offer fantastic opportunities for 180 LSBU students to learn the work-ready skills they need to put them at the front of the queue for green jobs in the UK building industry.”

2. A WPI Economics report in Oct 2021 projected the number of green jobs in London will rise by over 110% between 2020 to 2030, from 234,000 in 2020, to 505,000 in 2030 and to over 1 million in 2050.  LSBU launched a new Green Skills Hub in February 2022, to give opportunities for Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark residents to gain new skills and work in the growing green sector in London, creating 382 jobs and apprenticeships.