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.
Organised by the University of Oxford and the University of Warwick, the EAUC chaired an event exploring approaches to capital project delivery.
A look at the 'Wider Influence' section of the Scottish Public Bodies Climate Change Duties Reporting which is due each year on 30 November
EAUC-Scotland Energy TSN and ALUC Utilities UIG Meeting in St Andrews. Minutes include APUC-Scotland, Presentations from University of St Andrews and JRF Chimney
This workshop presentation is from the “Global Goals: Local Action” EAUC Annual Conference 2017, presented by Rob Callaghan, Sustainability Officer - University...
This workshop presentation is from the “Global Goals: Local Action” EAUC Annual Conference 2017, presented by Fraser Lovie, Policy Adviser - University of Aberdeen....
Resources from the 'Financing and Managing Projects for Change' Summit from the EAUC-Scotland Conference 2017.
John Bailey, Head of Sustainability, University of London emailed the Members’ network asking, “We are hoping to create some guidance for architects and designers...
This link provides an overview of the BREEAM In-Use scheme. BREEAM In-Use International is an assessment method which assists property investors, owners, managers and occupiers...
This link provides an overview of the BREEAM refurbishment and fit-out (RFO) standard and a link to the standard itself. The RFO scheme allows real estate investors, developers...
This paper sets out the future strategic approach for the materials category within the BREEAM schemes.
This briefing paper gives an overview of how the schemes and assessment methodologies have evolved in response to changes in industry knowledge and practice, how they might...
This paper sets out some of the issues in BREEAM which aim to improve the mitigation, adaptation and resilience in buildings.
This document aims to bring together the findings of such publications and in doing so present the business case for maximising sustainability through BREEAM certification of...
This briefing paper sets out the future direction for health and wellbeing in BREEAM and how we are collaborating with international partners to promote a healthier and safer...
This link provides an overview of the BREEAM Communities scheme and a link to the actual scheme manual. BREEAM Communities is a simple and flexible route to improving, measuring...
New research demonstrates how improving the energy performance of housing can also generate substantial savings for social landlords.
Two London based projects explore the potential for homes to balance the national grid Recent advances in technology offer some exciting opportunities to improve energy...
Moat has worked with the RE:NEW Support Team since 2013, mainly on its Pollards Hill project in the Borough of Merton. We spoke to Caroline to find out how Moat is working...
Like many housing providers Peabody is facing cuts to its domestic retrofit budget. This means demonstrating value for money is now more important than ever and Peabody is...
The RE:NEW Support Team has worked with Family Mosaic since 2014 to overcome the challenges in delivering retrofit initiatives across its London-wide housing stock.