Circular Economy and Whole Life Carbon Assessment Guidance
Adopted policy in this area is set out in the London Plan 2021, including Policy SI 2 Minimising greenhouse gas emissions and Policy SI 7 Reducing waste and supporting the circular economy and also in our City Plan 2019-2040, especially Policy 38 (D) Sustainable Design.
Planning validation requirements
Our adopted local validation list currently requires a Circular Economy Statement for all referrable applications and a Whole Life Cycle Carbon assessment for all major redevelopment schemes with substantial demolition. This is also encouraged for all majors. You should refer to the GLA Circular Economy Statement and Whole Life Carbon assessment guidance in preparing your statement and the guidance set out below.
PACER Platform
Westminster will be adopting the ‘PACER’ platform for Whole Life Carbon Assessment reporting and review in early 2025.
Initially the use of PACER will be voluntary, but we strongly encourage applicants use the platform when submitting planning applications as there will be significant benefits arising from its use. Using PACER will allow for quicker assessment of WLC issues by the council, contributing to reduced application assessment timescales. For schemes referrable to the Mayor you will still need to provide a GLA compliant WLCA spreadsheet, however this can be generated from within the PACER platform.
Please contact the case officer if you require further support and guidance on using the PACER platform.
If PACER is not used to submit your whole life carbon assessment, you will need to submit a WLCA with your application.
Guidance and checklists
In the context of Westminster’s commitment to reach net zero carbon by 2040, applicants are advised to give early consideration to how to minimise both operational and embodied carbon emissions.
RIBA, LETI, and UKGBC have published a number of guidance documents helping designers to reduce their embodied carbon footprint, incorporating circular economy design principles through early considerations and retaining building layers at their highest value.
To assist applicants, we have also prepared the following checklists, which provide informal guidance on policy and standards, ensuring that all relevant requirements are considered early in the design process and encouraging applicants to achieve best practice standards.
A user manual for the PACER platform will be provided on this page when the platform is adopted in early 2025.
