NBS Sustainability Discussion
I was invited to join John Gelder (NBS) and Martin Townsend (BRE) for a discussion around the NBS sustainability survey results. A transcript of this discussion is now online and the full discussion can be watched online here.
Some of what I say below:
Some of what I say below:
"...with regards to carbon, I was surprised that respondents didn't regard carbon as a priority..."
"there seems to be a little bit of a disconnect between, for example, water, waste issues, biodiversity and the fact that they are also interlinked with energy or carbon and carbon reduction measures." "There's always a danger that people see meeting regulations as a 'good thing', when the building regulations are in fact a minimum standard to meet." "...active systems such as renewables, have been incentivised and unfortunately we haven't got any equivalent for fabric improvements. This is I believe the biggest missed opportunity of the Green Deal: its lack of incentivisation to use less energy." |
"...as we are reducing operational carbon, the proportional impact on the environment of embodied carbon (the stuff we make our buildings out of) is going to become more important and it will end up being legislated for as well."
"...we need to understand that all these issues are interlinked...if you were to retrofit the existing housing stock and you make everything more airtight and you externally insulate, the opportunity for birds and bats to nest is reduced and as a result you directly impact biodiversity while building or refurbishing low energy buildings." "...if you are trying to use rainwater or grey water harvesting you are likely to increase energy use (and therefore usually increased carbon emissions) because you are going to need energy to run some of those systems, depending on design and specification." |