CPD for architects · 1 hour · certificate on pass

The most sustainable finish is the one you don’t rip out

Refit carbon, reuse and the systems that keep a fit-out alive past its first lease. Pass the 10-question test and download your 1-hour CPD certificate.

Get your 1-hour CPD certificate Book the session

1Watch and readThe film, the drawings and the rules on this page
2Pass the test10 questions, 8 to pass, about five minutes
3Get 1 hour of CPDA certificate PDF with your name, for your CPD record

2VP founder presenting the cumulative refit carbon chart at an architects' CPD on sustainable fit-out

The session

What happens to an interior when the lease ends, and how to specify it so it survives. Every figure carries its source.

Watch

The CPD on film

Sustainable fit-out: the CPD filmWatch on YouTube

Sustainable fit-out, in one minuteWatch on YouTube

Learning outcomes

After this session you can

1Explain why refit carbon compounds
2Apply the five-step decision ladder
3Specify the overlay, the partition and the panel wall
4Choose joinery board on its EPD
5Evidence waste by weight
6Design against the rules that now apply

The size of the problem

Six numbers to carry into a client meeting

61%: of all UK waste is construction and demolition; DEFRA, UK Statistics on Waste (2020)
~25%: of UK emissions come from the built environment; UK Green Building Council
190: kgCO₂e per m² for an average Cat B fit-out; Overbury, Carbon in Cat B Fit-out (2024)
5.5 yrs: average London office lease; Building magazine cost model (Q1 2024)
6%: of UK flat glass is recycled; ASBP, glass-partition reuse guide (April 2025)
93%: of stripped Cat A lighting goes to the skip; UKGBC, End Cat A Lighting Waste

Every refit spends the carbon again

Cumulative kgCO₂e per m², one floor plate, if every lease refits from scratch

Cumulative embodied carbon in kilograms of CO2 equivalent per square metre, by successive fit-out
Fit-out	Cumulative kgCO₂e/m²
Fit-out 1 · yr 0	190
Fit-out 2 · yr 5.5	380
Fit-out 3 · yr 11	570
Fit-out 4 · yr 16.5	760

760kgCO₂e per m² over 20 years, on one floor plate. The ladder attacks the repeat bars, not the first one.

Arithmetic on two sourced figures: 190 kgCO₂e/m² average Cat B upfront (Overbury, Carbon in Cat B Fit-out (2024)) × a refit every 5.5-year lease (Building magazine cost model (Q1 2024)). An illustration of accumulation, not a project calculation.

The rules · the decision ladder

Five questions, in order

Ask them of every element. Stop at the first yes.

1
Keep
Does it still do its job where it stands?
Leave it. Nothing beats the element you never touch.
2
Overlay
Is the substrate sound and stiff?
Finish over it. The old surface stays in the room.
3
Move
Was it built to come apart?
Demount and re-erect it on the new layout.
4
Change
Is only the face tired?
Swap the face, keep the frame.
5
Replace
Everything above said no.
Last resort, and now a decision you can evidence.

Rung 2 on site · overlay

Resin Over Tiles: No Strip-OutFilm page · Watch on YouTube

The systems, in detail

Overlay, move, change: how each one is built

Rung 2 · Overlay · Spaziocontinuo

Resin over the tiles already there

A 2–3 mm flexible epoxy system by Litokol, laid by our team over sound existing finishes. Nothing broken out.

Waterproof

As a system

Thickness

2–3 mm

Colour

Any RAL

Movement

Flexible

Substrate

Over tile

Check the bond, key the surface

Fill the joints and cracks

Bonding primer

First coat, with the mesh

Second coat — the mesh disappears

Two colour coats

Sealer and topcoat

Existing tile, staysBase coats, mesh in the firstColour coats, the layer you seeTopcoat

Resin over existing tile, in the order it goes on. 2VP drawing · explanatory, not to scale

The finished build-up, top layer first

Hydrolux EVO × 2polyurethane topcoat · matt, satin or gloss

Colour coats × 2SpazioResina or SpazioCemento, epoxy

Multifondo EVO, coat 2covers the mesh, at least 12 h later

Multifondo EVO, coat 1 + mesh2 × 2 mm glass fibre, 2 cm overlap

Key, degrease, joints filled

Existing tile — stays in placenothing broken out or carted away

Existing floor or wallmust pass the deflection test

Everything new totals 2–3 mm. Not to scale.

Section diagram of the resin build-up over existing tile: key and primer, two base coats with mesh, two colour coats and two sealer coats — **The build-up, in section.** 2VP build-up diagram

Before anything is laid

Tap test

No hollow tiles

Flatness

≤ 3 mm under a 2 m rule

Screed moisture

≤ 3–3.5% (cement)

Screed strength

≥ 25 N/mm²

Room temperature

Not below +5 °C

Humidity

Not above 80% RH

Six checks before anything is laid. Thresholds from the Litokol installation manual. Fail one and the surface is prepared or stripped, not overlaid.

Wet areas

1Corner tape bedded into every internal and external corner
2Three topcoats in a wet area, not two
3Topcoat taken into contact with the drain
4Sealant packed round every pipe before fittings go on
5A fall that lets no water stand

At the shower: the corner, the drain and the pipes. 2VP drawing · explanatory, not to scale

Sections over what is already there

Cut-away visualisation of resin layers over existing floor and wall ceramic tiles — **Floor and wall over ceramic tile.** Manufacturer visualisation

Cut-away visualisation of resin layers over existing wall tiles — **Wall over existing wall tile.** Manufacturer visualisation

Visualisation of resin taken over existing wall and floor tiles around a radiator — **Over tile, radiator left in place.** Manufacturer visualisation

Cut-away visualisation of a resin floor over a heated screed and decoupling layer — **Over underfloor heating.** Manufacturer visualisation

Cut-away visualisation of resin layers on concrete steps with nosing profiles — **Stairs and steps.** Manufacturer visualisation

The manufacturer’s test marks

AR 1 Wear

1,5 MPa Pull-off, against a 0,3 MPa requirement

B 2,0 Bond

IR ≥ 4 Impact

ΔL < 3 Staining

A+ · EC1 PLUS Low VOC emission — fine in an occupied home

What it cannot doMove the WC, the basin or the waste runs — they stay where they are. Correct falls — a wet-room floor that drains badly will still drain badly.

What you inheritWhatever is behind the tiles: a slow leak or rotten timber gets sealed in. Repairs are less discreet — there is no joint to hide a patch at.

Where we say noWhere either test fails, a proper strip-out is the honest answer. Walls in gypsum skim, plaster finish or fine mortar do not have the surface strength.

Laid by our team

Resin counter with the same seamless finish carried down the front panel and across the floor beneath it — **Counter, front and floor in one finish.** Resin laid by our team

Seamless resin counter with a sink cut straight into the surface, no joint and no sealant line, in an office tea point — **Tea-point top, sink formed in.** Resin laid by our team

Resin worktop with a moulded upstand laid over white cabinetry, daylight raking across the finish — **Seamless top, no joints.** Resin laid by our team

Circular resin counter, the finish wrapped around the full curve without a single joint — **Curved counter.** Made and finished by our team

Island with a seamless worktop and an undermount sink in an open-plan office kitchen — **Office kitchen island.** Our joinery, resin laid by our team

End of a resin counter seen along its length, the top and the returns formed as one continuous surface — **Top and returns as one surface.** Resin laid by our team

The same circular resin counter from the window side, the curve and the flat top in one unbroken surface — **Curved counter, window side.** Resin laid by our team

Finishes and colours

Hand-applied sample board on a workbench with a smooth numbered colour disc laid over it — **Matching the colour.** Our sample board

Close-up of a near-black resin panel worked for relief, raised trowel strokes catching the light — **Heavy trowel.** Our sample board

Close-up of an oxidised resin panel, pale mineral bloom spread across a dark blue ground — **Oxidised.** Our sample board

Close-up of a rust-red metallic resin panel, rust activated and then neutralised — **Corten.** Our sample board

Close-up of a warm terracotta resin sample board with soft cloud-like trowel marks — **Terracotta, trowelled.** Our sample board

Close-up of a muted sage green resin sample board with light shading — **Sage.** Our sample board

Close-up of a dark charcoal resin sample board with faint diagonal trowel lines — **Charcoal.** Our sample board

A hand holding two small pale resin sample panels up against a grey resin floor outdoors — **Samples against a laid floor.** Our samples

In other settings

Cutaway visualisation of resin laid over existing wall and floor tiles, a radiator left in place — **Over tile, radiator in place.** Manufacturer visualisation

Bathroom with charcoal hand-trowelled walls, a floating timber vanity, a vessel basin and a backlit round mirror — **Charcoal bathroom.** Manufacturer image

Living room with pale stone-coloured walls and floor, and framed panels of the same finish in sand and greys — **Stone tones, walls and floor.** Manufacturer image

Graphite grey wall with cloud movement worked in by hand, behind a white side table with vases — **Graphite, clouded.** Manufacturer image

Slate blue matt wall with the trowel figure held back, above a mid-century timber sideboard — **Slate blue, matt.** Manufacturer image

Rung 3 · Move · Luconi

Glazed walls that are re-planned, not rebuilt

Demountable systems by Luconi of Ancona, installed in London by AtoZ Design & Glass, our own glazing company. Dry-fixed, and they come apart.

1Ceiling track
2Slim upright
3Glass pane, single or double glazed
4Doors and frames that match
5Shelves, timber and cables on the frame
6Floor track

A glazed run, taken apart. 2VP drawing · explanatory, not to scale

1. Damaged pane

2. Frame unlocked, one pane out

3. New pane in, run untouched

Replace one pane, not the wall. 2VP drawing · explanatory, not to scale

Rung 3, in plan: the same components, a new layout. 2VP drawing · explanatory, not to scale

Profiles, junctions and sections

Slim profile. Luconi system · manufacturer image

Glazed door set in a partition frame, the leaf and frame sharing the same sightlines — **Door and frame aligned.** Luconi system · manufacturer image

Corner of a glazed partition door showing the handle and the slim frame — **Door built from the wall's own profile.** Luconi system · manufacturer image

Double glazed, in section. Luconi system · manufacturer image

Glazed partition with shelves and a television fixed to its uprights — **Shelves and TV on the frame.** Luconi system · manufacturer image

Shelving and a low sideboard hung from the uprights of a glass wall — **Storage on the glass wall.** Luconi system · manufacturer image

Detail of a shelf bracket hooked onto a partition upright behind the glass — **Shelves hook onto the uprights.** Luconi system · manufacturer image

Wall of shelves with a television mounted on partition uprights — **TV and cable runs in the frame.** Luconi system · manufacturer image

Slim sliding track. Luconi system · manufacturer image

Freestanding glazed pod standing on an open-plan office floor — **A room inside the floor.** Luconi system · manufacturer image

In situ

Warehouse-style black-grid glazing around a lounge with leather sofas, London — **Warehouse Style partitions, London.** Luconi system · installation by the manufacturer and partners

Open-plan office with magenta and yellow glass meeting rooms, Milan — **Coloured glass meeting rooms, Milan.** Luconi system · installation by the manufacturer and partners

Glass office with curved corners on a planted office floor — **Curved-corner glass office.** Luconi system · installation by the manufacturer and partners

Black-framed glazed office with timber floor and an orange accent wall — **Black-frame glazed office.** Luconi system · installation by the manufacturer and partners

Meeting room behind yellow-tinted glass with white chairs, Rome — **Tinted glass meeting room, Rome.** Luconi system · installation by the manufacturer and partners

Meeting room behind black-framed glazing with statement lighting, Milan — **Black-frame meeting room, Milan.** Luconi system · installation by the manufacturer and partners

Warehouse-style glazing across an open office with timber beams, London — **Warehouse Style open office, London.** Luconi system · installation by the manufacturer and partners

Full-height glazed entrance screen into a timber-floored lobby — **Glazed entrance lobby.** Luconi system · installation by the manufacturer and partners

Glass-walled room standing inside a period hall with arched windows — **Glass room in a period hall.** Luconi system · manufacturer image

Full-height glazed sliding wall opening onto a white office — **Full-height sliding leaf.** Luconi system · manufacturer image

Single glazed divides space and light; double glazed divides sound. Acoustic and fire performance are confirmed in writing for the exact build-up before ordering, and checked room by room against Approved Document B, Table 6.1. Installation photographs show schemes by the manufacturer and its partners; 2VP is the London installer.

Rung 4 · Change · Chameleon

Change the face, keep the frame

An aluminium frame with design panels held by magnets. A refresh changes the panels and nothing behind them.

1Aluminium frame
2Magnets on the rails
3Design panel, lifted off
4Pressure-fitted at the ceiling
5Shelving on the same uprights

Panels off, frame stays. 2VP drawing · explanatory, not to scale

Wall cladding

Shelving

Booths

Room dividers

Headboards

Display walls

One frame, many uses. 2VP drawing · explanatory, not to scale

Frame drawings and fixing details

Visualisation: brass pressure fixing at the top of a wall-system upright against the ceiling — **Pressure-fitted at the ceiling.** Chameleon system · visualisation

Line drawing of shelving and panels on an aluminium frame in a hotel room — **The frame behind it.** Chameleon system · drawing

Line drawing of a framed booth with a glazed door — **Rooms and booths from the same frame.** Chameleon system · drawing

Applied

Visualisation: office meeting space with a full-height shelving wall on an aluminium frame — **Shelving wall.** Chameleon system · visualisation

Phone booth clad in geometric black and white panels in a shared office — **Panel-clad booth.** Chameleon system · manufacturer image

Visualisation: floor-to-ceiling shelving divider between a living area and a kitchen — **Floor-to-ceiling divider.** Chameleon system · visualisation

Visualisation: hotel bedroom with a full-height textured panel wall behind the bed — **Hotel room panel wall.** Chameleon system · visualisation

Visualisation: close view of a textured panel headboard wall beside a bedside lamp — **Headboard panels.** Chameleon system · visualisation

Visualisation: hotel room vanity with shelving fixed to a panelled frame — **Vanity and shelving.** Chameleon system · visualisation

Visualisation: overhead view of glass shelving on a divider frame above a blue sofa — **Display shelving on the frame.** Chameleon system · visualisation

The rules you design against

Why a refit is now inside the carbon boundary

July 2024RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment, 2nd edition. Modules B4 and B5 count every replacement, so a refit is inside the carbon boundary.
January 2025ARB mandatory CPD topics. Environmental sustainability became one of two mandatory subjects, alongside fire and life safety.
March 2026UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard. Sets upfront carbon limits that include retrofit, not only new build.
15 October 2026Draft London Plan consultation closes. Retention-first is the direction of travel for referable schemes.
AlwaysApproved Document B, Table 6.1. A reused wall or ceiling lining still has to meet a fire classification in its new location.

Worked example

What leaves the building

One restaurant, at its second refresh

Waste leaving the building, kilograms

Strip out and replace
Keep · overlay · move · change

Waste in kilograms leaving the building for each element, comparing strip-out-and-replace against the keep, overlay, move and change ladder
Element	Strip out and replace, kg	Keep · overlay · move · change, kg
Floor tiles, 80 m²	2,240	112
WC wall tiles, 30 m²	630	0
Dining screen, 6 m	571	0
Feature wall, 10 m²	100	130
To the skip	3,541	242

−93%by mass, on the same four elements, without buying anything the replace route does not also buy.

Floor tiles, 80 m²: overlaid; 5% loose tiles cut out and replaced first. WC wall tiles, 30 m²: overlaid in place. Dining screen, 6 m: demounted and re-erected on the new layout. Feature wall, 10 m²: panel faces swapped, frame retained — the one row where the ladder sheds more mass. Masses are typical rather than weighed on this job. Carbon is deliberately not netted here — the overlay has no published EPD yet, so its whole-life figure is not something we can evidence.

Joinery board

The same cabinet, in five boards

kgCO₂e per cabinet. Declared GWP-fossil A1–A3 per m³ from each maker's EPD, converted at 18 mm. Gold: two makers of the same chipboard.

Chipboard, maker A2.6

Melamine-faced chipboard4.1

Chipboard, maker B5.4

Birch plywood6.4

Chipboard, laminate both faces10.2

Where our data stops

Four things we will not claim

Outstanding from the manufacturers. Until they arrive, we do not assert them.

Product EPDs for the resin overlay and the partition system are still outstanding from the manufacturers.
Net carbon of overlay against new tile is unknown until those declarations arrive. We weigh the waste instead, because a skip on a weighbridge can be checked.
Tested Rw for the partition ranges is outstanding, so we make no acoustic claim for them.
Fire classification for profiles, glass and panels is outstanding. Check every room against Approved Document B, Table 6.1.

Portfolio

Stone, glass, joinery and resin, finished to a luxury standard.

Work we have built in London, and the partition and wall systems we supply and install, shown in the best settings they have been used in.

Built by 2VP

Moncler shopfront in stone and bronze on a London street — Stone and bronze shopfrontMoncler, London · retail

Marble portal framing a lit display bay in a retail fit-out — Marble portal and display bayMoncler, London · retail

Green marble walls and floor with a brass inlay beneath a mirrored ceiling — Moncler, London — Green marble and brass corridorMoncler, London · retail

Dark marble stair and portal leading onto the shop floor, with a glazed balustrade — Moncler, London — Dark marble stair and portalMoncler, London · retail

Green marble service counter under a dark timber ceiling in a retail fit-out — Book-matched marble counterMoncler, London · retail

Corridor lined in book-matched marble with lit display cases either side, in a retail fit-out — Stone and timber corridorMoncler, London · retail

Geometric marble floor laid between painted columns in a gallery — V&A Museum fit-out, South Kensington SW7 — Geometric marble gallery floorV&A Museum, SW7 · out of hours

Portoro marble column and beam framing the shopfloor in a retail fit-out — Marble column, chevron floorMoncler, London · retail

Calacatta chevron marble floor with a dark marble border and brass strip — Moncler, London — Calacatta chevron floor, brass stripMoncler, London · retail

Marble-topped cafe tables on a restored parquet floor — V&A Museum fit-out, South Kensington SW7 — Café stone tops, restored parquetV&A Museum, SW7 · hospitality

The systems we install

“Built by 2VP” is our own work. “The systems we install” shows Luconi and Chameleon systems in schemes delivered by the manufacturer and its partners; 2VP is their London installer, not the contractor on the schemes shown. Visualisations are labelled as such.

Your CPD record

Log it, then bring it to your team

RIBA asks for 35 hours a year, 20 on the core curriculum; ARB names 2 mandatory topics, sustainability among them. Log this as self-directed learning with your certificate as evidence. 2VP is not a RIBA-assessed CPD provider.

Book the session at your studio

45–60 minutes, in person or online.

For the scheme on your desk

Put a real cost against it

Fill in a scope template and you get an elemental cost plan back by RIBA element — from a contractor building in London this week, not a rate book. Free, and it stays yours whoever ends up on site.

Book a CPD session 020 8050 8968