Sustainability Focus – Page 17
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FeaturesSolar shed roofing: Hello, sunshine
Large industrial sheds are difficult and expensive to heat but a new system that turns the building into a huge solar collector can warm the inside space, cut carbon emissions and meet the demand for renewables. Stephen Kennett reports
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FeaturesI regard it as a badge of honour when people say I’m over the top about nuclear power
INTERVIEW: Margaret Thatcher’s former press secretary, Sir Bernard Ingham, has spent much of the past 10 years lambasting the ‘mad mullahs’ of the anti-nuclear lobby and subjecting their arguments to an unrelenting barrage of ridicule. And don’t think the government’s decision to build a lot of nuclear stations is going ...
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FeaturesCole Thompson Anders scheme gets go ahead in East London
Architect Cole Thompson Anders selected to work on a project in Forest Gate, East London
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FeaturesEco-friendly flooring: Down to earth
What you see before you is not a luscious field but an eco-friendly carpet. And judging by the way the industry is heading, very soon all your flooring could be as green as grass.
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FeaturesThe secret life of buildings
We hear an awful lot about architects’ splendid low-energy designs, but information about how they actually work when built is rarer than hens’ teeth. So we should all be grateful to Simons, which not only built itself a green office, but collected a year’s data on how it functioned. ...
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Features
Aylesbury Vale eco-town could fund Oxford rail link
Planned Buckinghamshire development could contribute £15m to £150m East-West railway
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FeaturesThe path to power
News analysis: The government has willed the creation of the first nuclear reactors since 1995, but to get them it needs to erect a new planning system, overcome opposition from a host of enemies – some within the construction industry – and work out a way to store toxic waste ...
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FeaturesSustainability: Heat pumps
Can the technology that powers the humble fridge contribute to reducing carbon emissions in a cost-effective way? Simon Rawlinson of Davis Langdon looks at what heat pumps can, and cannot, offer a future development
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FeaturesGlobal PV Production up 50%
With solar energy usage on the increase globally, it's predicted a third of all new electricity production installed each year will be PV by 2015
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FeaturesThe nut cracker
Gary Lawrence, Arup’s urban strategy leader, has advised Bill Clinton on climate change and turned Seattle green. Now he’s taking on the world’s first eco-city project in Dongtan, China. He tells Olivia Boyd about his approach to sustainability – and explains why it begins by hitting moles over the head ...
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FeaturesWith knobs on: Barratt's energy-saving technologies measured
These houses have had all manner of wonderful energy-saving technologies fitted to them by housebuilder Barratt. But are they any good and are they worth spending money on? Barratt asked researchers at Manchester university to find out …
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FeaturesThe new waste minimisation guide explained
Recycling advisory group Wrap has released a guide on using materials from demolished buildings to build those repalcing them. Its head of waste minimisation talks us through the new document
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FeaturesEco-towns analysed
News analysis: Brown’s Big Idea on becoming prime minister was to build 10 towns on 10 new sites. But it seems developers are using the eco-towns to add spoilers, fog lamps and go-faster stripes to schemes that have already been rejected.
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FeaturesSweden's green utopia
This new Stockholm suburb demonstrates how simple, robust, centralised systems can outperform flashy designs bristling with turbines. But can it work as a model for Gordon Brown’s eco-towns?
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Features
What it costs: CHP (combined heat and power systems)
Peter Mayer of Building LifePlans looks at the cost and environmental dividends from combined heat and power systems.With Combined heat and power (CHP) or co-generation systems, heat that might be lost as a by-product of electricity generation is captured for space and water heating. Locally supplied electricity incur lower transmission ...
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FeaturesFollow the team leader
Building users are getting used to recycling their waste, but what about the people who construct it? British land is one client that knows the benefits from meeting sustainability targets and feels a responsibility to take a lead
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FeaturesBetter by design
Designing out waste at the very start saves time and money, and it’s green
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FeaturesStay ahead of the rules and regs
Construction might be ahead of the game, but with waste mired in a legal minefield, make sure you know what your obligations are By Joe Griffiths, a partner in Manches
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FeaturesBehind the wall
Her majesty’s prisons are already great at recycling. now they’re setting ambitious targets on waste reduction and building materials
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Features
The right tool for the job
How many recycled products have you specified on that project? how could you use more? wrap’s recycled content toolkit can tell you. Here, three users explain how it works