sustainability

BRIMEE: Cost-effective and sustainable bio-renewable indoor materials with high potential for customisation and creative design in energy efficient buildings.

The challenge of today lies in the accomplishment of sustainable and low-energy buildings, which can combine at the same time the thermal insulation properties with healthy, comfortable, accessible and safe indoor environment. Reduction of the energy demand through the use of insulating materials still remains a challenge for European architects and building designers as well … Continue reading “BRIMEE: Cost-effective and sustainable bio-renewable indoor materials with high potential for customisation and creative design in energy efficient buildings.”

21st August 2017 Affordability, Environment Performance, EU, KH, People, Research, sustainability

Healthy Cities Index

The predicted growth of cities around the world provides opportunities to build places that will promote equality, reduce our impact on the environment and ensure economic success. Preparing for the challenges of cites in the future and managing the risks of today’s cities goes beyond smart urban-scale infrastructure. Technologies and solutions range from the scale … Continue reading “Healthy Cities Index”

21st August 2017 Dissemination and Demonstration, Environment Performance, Healthy Cities, Indoor Environments, KH, Place Government funded, Research, sustainability, Wellbeing

Quantum

QUANTUM, a new research project funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, is aiming to close the estimated average 25% gap between designed and actual energy performance and 1.5% for comfort performance in European buildings. Research indicates that poorly commissioned and operated building management systems are often responsible for this gap, generally … Continue reading “Quantum”

21st August 2017 Environment Performance, EU, KH, Property, Research, sustainability

Hit 2 GAP: Highly Innovative building control Tools Tackling the energy performance gap

The actual energy consumption of buildings in Europe often significantly exceeds the expected energy requirements. This gap in energy performance can arise from construction errors or from differences between the way a building was intended to be used and how it is actually used. An energy management platform could help to reduce this energy gap … Continue reading “Hit 2 GAP: Highly Innovative building control Tools Tackling the energy performance gap”

21st August 2017 Environment Performance, EU, KH, Property, Research, sustainability

BRE DataLabs – An open platform for data sharing and reuse in the construction sector

There is a lot of data that BRE collects and not all of it is utilised properly. Access to data and information for things like programmes for computer software is key as building information modelling (BIM) and new technology comes into play and the ‘Internet of Things’ becomes more prevalent, the access to this data … Continue reading “BRE DataLabs – An open platform for data sharing and reuse in the construction sector”

21st August 2017 BRE Trust, Operational Efficiency, Property, Research, sustainability

South ZEB IEE Project

The core objective of the project is to define cost-benefit optimised “packages of measures” based on efficient and quality-guaranteed technologies for the refurbishment of the public building stock towards nZEB that are standardised and adopted by builders and building owners. From this stems three basic objectives: – State-of-the-art assessment of the public building stock through … Continue reading “South ZEB IEE Project”

21st August 2017 EU, KH, Operational Efficiency, Property, Research, sustainability

International Standards Review

There are now a plethora of standards/schemes for assessing the sustainability performance of buildings that are operating from different regions around the world, including in Europe (e.g. BREEAM, HQE, DGNB), North America (e.g. LEED, Green Globes, Living Building Challenge, WELL Building), the Middle East (e.g. Pearl), Asia (e.g. CASBEE, BEAM, Three Star, Green Mark) and … Continue reading “International Standards Review”

21st August 2017 BRE Trust, Environment Performance, Places, Research, Standards, sustainability

Delivering sustainable buildings: Savings and payback

There is a growing need to demonstrate the value and benefits of BREEAM in order to increase voluntary uptake of BREEAM schemes. The recent part BRE Trust funded publication ‘Delivering sustainable buildings: Savings and payback’ reported research by BREEAM and Sweett Group that applied cost data from real construction projects to three case study buildings … Continue reading “Delivering sustainable buildings: Savings and payback”

21st August 2017 BRE Trust, KH, Operational Efficiency, Property, Research, sustainability

Design for deconstruction – helping the construction unlock the benefits of the circular economy

The emerging principles of the circular economy are driving greater resource efficiency. Construction and the built environment is the single biggest user of materials and generator of waste in the UK economy. Effectively dealing with buildings at the end of their life has the potential to unlock significant economic value. However the value that can … Continue reading “Design for deconstruction – helping the construction unlock the benefits of the circular economy”

21st August 2017 KH, Operational Efficiency, Property, Research, sustainability