The processes needed to achieve sustainable design, material selection and construction are no different to those required to achieve any other aspect of good design. They rely on an understanding of the issues, an ability to respond to site and client specifics and a wider understanding of the cultural, regulatory and technical context.
Sustainable construction as a process has a set of simple goals: minimise waste on and off site; reuse materials and make use of reused or recycled materials; avoid the use of complex components that are difficult to recycle at the end of life; and choose construction systems that can actually be delivered by local operatives either through existing or by introducing new skill sets.
Design is a holistic process that seeks to create the best solution across a broad range of requirements, which includes social and economic sustainability as well as environmental responsibility. A good designer will always look first at exploiting the opportunities of the site and the client's brief to produce a building which, as far as possible, works passively to minimise energy and resource use. The next step is to design in technologies that minimise resource demand, that are appropriate to the site, the building occupants’ needs and their capacity to manage and operate them. Designing to allow future flexibility, changes of use, easy maintenance and eventual disassembly and reuse will lengthen the useful life of a building and minimise its impact at the end of its life.
EAUC-Scotland's Sustainable Construction Topic Support Network (TSN) is open to all, providing an opportunity for those working in or with the further and higher education sector to share ideas and questions and to get together to hear from particular speakers or discuss topics of interest. Find out more about the TSNs here.
Leicester for Life
From coal to cloud - Newcastle University Urban Sciences Building
Towards zero waste – mainstreaming waste minimisation and recycling
Campus Transformation – a campus for the 21st Century
New College new learning
This interactive workshop explores how collaboration can be used to measure and communicate the benefits provided by campus greenspace.
As a practical case study in answering such questions, an ongoing examination of the Sustainability Hub at Keele University is presented.
Guide to the Intelligent Campus
Smart Minds = Smart Buildings – A ‘neural network’ approach for energy efficient buildings Researchers and students from the School of Mechanical...
Nurturing the Future – University of Tasmania, Inveresk Student Apartments The University of Tasmania’s Inveresk Apartments project is an innovative,...
AUDE's Higher Education Estates Management Report (EMR) 2017
The Lincoln College Group - carbon reduction case study with Salix funding
University of Reading - carbon reduction case study with Salix funding
The Green Guide to Specification – An environmental profiling system for construction materials
Maintaining the green. Living the sporting dream
Smashing 35
Medical School carbon reduction strategies
Achieving carbon reductions above and beyond the basics!
Greening West Anglia
The Public Bodies Climate Change Duties came into play in 2016 with annual reports due each November. The universities and colleges of Scotland are supported by SSN and the...