Entries for October 2008

There are many different types of green roof and buyers should choose carefully on the basis of their functional and climatic requirements says a new study at the University of Texas.

In his final move before losing the energy efficiency mandate to the new Department for Climate and Energy, the then environment secretary Hilary Benn held  several meetings with energy suppliers (in London) and the home insulation industry (in Coventy)  to discuss how to speed up work on increasing energy efficiency in the UK’s homes, following the unveiling of the energy package by prime minister Gordon Brown last month.

Dame Yve Buckland, head of the Consumer Council for Water, told a fringe meeting on sustainable water supply at the Conservative Party conference  on 29 September, that although service improvements have been brought about following water services privatisation, customers still questioned whether they benefited as much as shareholders.

The Carbon Trust has doubled the maximum size of its interest-free energy efficiency loans to small businesses to £200,000 and upped the amount available by 45% to £31m this year.

Architects and historic building consultancy Purcell Miller Tritton has been granted ISO14001:2004 for environmental management systems, one of the few design practices in the UK to do so.

DCLG has formally approved the methodology for calculating the energy performance of buildings including target emission rates, building emission rates, asset ratings and operational ratings of buildings.

A guide to the scope and requirements of regulations applying to energy performance certificates when homes are being sold or let has been published by DCLG.

More than half of UK architects believe it was the Victorians who left the country the greatest housing legacy while only 3.5% believe that honour belongs to the last decade.

The Government is considering extending smart metering to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) following its decision to require energy suppliers to provide them to larger companies.

Refurbishing around 25m homes to achieve an 80% cut in their carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 can be done, but the significant market failure in delivery will have to be addressed by fiscal and regulatory measures from Government, concludes the UK Green Building Council’s Low Carbon Existing Homes report.