UK Practice

An outline planning application for the first 4,045 homes in Scotland’s most sustainable new town have been submitted to Aberdeenshire Council.

The UKGBC launches its sustainability training survey.

A new software package which tells installers the best kind of renewable technology to install for a particular area has been launched this month.

An investment for design teams looking at strategies for low carbon buildings has been put forward, to aid in the development of resilience to climate change.

A £6.5m investment into renewable energy skills training has been announced by business secretary Vince Cable, which will see collaboration between universities and the industry.

Green Deal work undertaken by Birmingham City Council is to extend to non-domestic public buildings, spending £1.2bn on retrofitting over eight years.

The Government has insulated over 2.6m homes in the UK across three years, under its national energy saving scheme.

A survey of small and medium enterprises has revealed that while many are interested in energy efficiency and have made moves to implement such measures, a lack of information, cost and red tape are barriers to SMEs being able to take full advantage.

Heritage body the Society for the Protection of Older Buildings (SPAB) and a number of organisations and individuals in the conservation sector, have called for Government to consider the needs of pre 1919 buildings under the Green Deal.

Two former architecture students have established an organisation to help rebuild destroyed properties affected during the UK riots earlier in the month.

A health centre built to BREEAM Excellent is the first in Wales to achieve the rating.

A World Heritage city so named because of its historic architecture and unique landscape will eventually find itself running into crossroads as legislation progresses towards a cocktail of retrofitting, rebuilding and modernising buildings to carbon mitigating effect, writes Laura Day.

All applications for new builds and conversions within Brighton and Hove will need to be accompanied by a sustainability checklist from 13 July, the city council has announced.

New guidance detailing good practice in the installation of closed and open loop ground source heating and cooling schemes has been published by the Environment Agency, which is backing the scheme’s potential for renewable energy production.