It is well known that Germany has made impressive inroads into a decarbonised economy with renewables, but even at the local scale, it leads on retrofitting of buildings, boosted by powerful incentives. Dr Paul K Hatchwell looks at key examples of progress and what lessons there could be for the UK sustainable building industry and microgeneration.

Despite a growing emphasis on sustainable building in the construction industry, now rapidly becoming mainstream through revised and new Government planning policies, regulatory reforms and Government-backed initiatives such as BREEAM, Dr Paul K Hatchwell finds little hard data on how well these changes are reflected in actual building performance.

Do Dynamic Simulation Modelling (DSM) methods offer a better approach to designing buildings with good energy performance than conventional options, asks Simon Napper?

Ben Kochan explains why timber is being increasingly used as a building material.

Sustainable building practices are slowly moving into the commercial refurbishment and retrofit market, driven by both legislative requirements and good corporate housekeeping considerations. In the final part of a series on sustainable retrofit, Dr Paul K Hatchwell looks particularly at energy issues facing the sustainable offices sector

The conference run by Climate Change Solutions was a heady mix of high level policy initiatives aligned with practical examples of how different sectors in their efforts to reduce carbon.

The development aims for 900 habitable rooms per hectare at Code Level 4. Ben Kochan explains

By 2050 there could be as many as a million ground source heat pumps in use. Ben Kochan investigates

The Conservative Party Quality of Life Policy Group has released its much awaited findings with implications for the sustainable building industry.