Entries for May 2010

DECC will make £85m of “savings” this financial year through “further efficiencies”, and stopping some uncommitted programme spend, including stopping all new funding to the Low Carbon Buildings Programme

A 1960s brutalist office building has been refurbished and extended to achieve a high BREEAM ‘Very Good’ rating

Northamptonshire Police, on behalf of Northamptonshire Police Authority, is seeking to award a JCT Build contract for the building of a Criminal Justice Centre

Platforms with clay-tiled pitched roofs and views across the reservoirs of the Lee Valley have won Gort Scott first prize in the RIBA Forgotten Spaces competition

If the new Government is to achieve its target of cutting carbon emissions across its estate by 10% it must focus on low-cost and established retrofit technologies

Guatemala’s plans for a national power grid that harnesses hydroelectricity and solar power have been boosted with an $11m grant from Japan

The Homes and Communities Agency is to cut over £200m of funding for affordable housing and stalled house building projects, as part of the new Government’s drive to cut departmental spending

Dr David Lowry examines the new coalition government’s bold ambition to be the greenest ever, and the evidence it has put before us so far

The Green Party would prioritise the low carbon economy if in power, according to an alternative Queen’s speech written by the Green Party leader

A Green Investment Bank, which both Labour and the Conservatives proposed in their general election manifestos, was the source of much concern from environmental and business representitives

Legislation has been billed to improve energy efficiency in buildings and promote low carbon energy, the Queen announced in Her address at the state opening of parliament.

This year’s annual RIBA lecture was from TV presenter and developer Kevin McCloud, who has taken on the mantle of a leader in the sustainable architecture community

The final IPF-commissioned report on European property depreciation confirmed that despite all of the thought and analysis on the subject, the answers are not sensible and data quality so poor as to be meaningless

Gordon Brown didn’t like using the word but cuts, repeat CUTS, are the order of the day not only for Big Government, which is to see its branches painfully pruned, but for most businesses and families too

The Con-Lib coalition government may have many conflicting views but on the issues of the environment and sustainability they at least appear to be reading from the same book, if not the exact same page