To achieve sustainable design, material selection, and construction are no different to those required to achieve any other aspect of good design. The process relies on an understanding of the potential environmental issues, to compliment and contextualise what is already known among these professional experts.
Sustainable construction has straightforward aims: to minimise waste on and off site; reuse materials and make use of those reused or recycled; avoid complex components that are difficult to recycle at end of life; and choose construction systems that can be delivered by local operatives by existing or 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 incorporate technologies for minimising resource demand that are appropriate to the site, the building occupants’ needs and their capacity to manage and operate them. Also, designing to enable future change of use, easy maintenance, and eventual disassembly and reuse will lengthen the lifespan of a building and minimise its overall impact.
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.
Salford Energy House provides a platform for academics to collaborate with industry in the development of products to reduce the carbon emissions.
Case studies from the Winner and Highly Commended for the Sustainable Construction category from the 06/07 Green Gown Awards
Green Gown Awards 2011 - winners' brochure from the annual Awards, recognising excellence in sustainability within the further and higher education sector
Harvard’s Green Campus Initiative developed the Green Building Resource which includes green building guidelines, implementation tools, LEED submittals, case studies, and...
Guidance on EPCs for rented dwellings has now been published and is available on the CLG website
EAUC Member responses about sharing experience of installing a green wall on campus.
A leaflet from the Green Task Force at the University of Essex, this document highlights some of the University's activities and achievements in sustainability
The Carbon Management Plan commits the College to a target of reducing CO2 by 25% by 2015 & underpins potential financial savings to the institution of £58553 per year by...
In this resource you can view and download the Environmental Aspects Register from Queen's University Belfast.
An occasional paper written for the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges in 2004 by Gareth Simkins and Andy Nolan.
The purpose of this paper is to test the validity of the curriculum auditing tool Sustainability Tool for Auditing University Curricula in Higher Education (STAUNCH).
This expert review was commissioned as part of Phase II of the Global Monitoring and Evaluation effort for The United Nations Decade in Education for Sustainable Development...
This resource consists of an ESD briefing document for Building Design & Construction by the University of Sunderland.
A big refurbishment programme carried out by Bradford University in 2007 saw students re-housed in newly furnished accommodation whilst managing to keep waste to a minimum
An Environmental Excellence checklist to measure your performance and help you build an effective EMS, from Stony Brook State University, New York.
Here are template documents from King’s College London, to support to 2012 Conference workshop, “The road to excellent operations is paved with internal...
Here are template documents from Institute of Cancer Research, to support to 2012 Conference workshop, The road to excellent operations is paved with internal environmental audits.
Energy Performance Certificates in Scotland - A Guidance Note on Obligations for Universities & Colleges
Daniel Curtis, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, asked EAUC Educational Members' Network for their assistance about the status of energy information...
A link to the Elmwood Campus page on the SRUC website, this is a great example of the working EMS in the sector.
This is a video of a presentation from the Day 2 Keynote Address at the 2011 Annual Conference from Martin Hulme, Managing Director, Co-operative Estates.
A presentation from the EAUC annual conference 2011 on sustainable master planning.
A presentation which helps you to continue the learning and inspiration from the EAUC Annual Conference 2011 held at the University of York between the 11th - 13th April 2011.
A presentation from the EAUC annual conference 2011 on post-occupancy evaluations
In this EAUC Member Spotlight, see how the University of Winchester deal with carbon management, energy management, waste and catering in the most sustainable way.
In this EAUC Member Spotlight, see how the University of Sussex gained initiation and full support to their environmental policy.
In this EAUC Member Spotlight, see how South Lanarkshire College adopted a philosophy to do things differently with a strong focus on sustainable practices.
In this EAUC Member Spotlight, see how Sheffield College is one of the city's greenest major developments to date.
In this EAUC Member Spotlight, see how Queen Margaret University's innovative new campus showcases the benefits of sustainable development in Higher Education.
In this EAUC Member Spotlight, see how Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College is implementing sustainability into their buildings through student engagement.
In this EAUC Member Spotlight, see how University of Bristol has had success in reducing its environmental impact over the last ten years.
In this EAUC Member Spotlight, see how University of Bradford's Ecoversity current and past achievements as well as future goals.
In this EAUC Member Spotlight, see how University of Southampton embed strategic direction, commitment, estate and change management into sustainability.
In this EAUC Member Spotlight, learn about University of Leicester's growing environmental team and how they are making an impact across the University and city.
A practical insight into the implementation of internal environmental audits, showing their huge potential to improve operations and form a strong Environmental Management System.
A presentation from the EAUC Annual Conference 2012 which helps you to continue the learning and inspiration. Held at the University of York between 27-29 March 2012...
A video of keynote from the 2012 EAUC Conference from Simon Wright, Director of Infrastructure and Utilities at the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA)
An introduction to how buildings are used to interact with communities, staff and students with a case study from a University and College.
A presentation from the EAUC Annual Conference 2012 which shares the University of Sheffield and Royal Northern College of Music’s bids to champion greener living
A video and presentation from Richard Jackson, Head of Environmental Sustainability, University College London about what the sector might learn from the Olympics.
A presentation from the EAUC Annual Conference 2012 about some of the projects being funded by HEFCE under the Revolving Green Funds and some good advice on how to plan for...
In this EAUC Member Spotlight, see how Kingston University has accelerated sustainability work across the urban campus.
In this EAUC Member Spotlight, see Keele University's commitment ‘to develop an environmentally aware and sustainable outward-facing campus community’.
In this EAUC Member Spotlight see how Lancaster University identified the need and constructed new build residences on campus that met four sustainability objectives.
In this EAUC Member Spotlight, see how Cambridge Regional College are leading the way in environmental sustainability achieving a top environmental accreditation.
In this EAUC Member Spotlight, see how City College Plymouth has made a difference to its approach to Sustainability over the last 10 years.
In this EAUC Member Spotlight, see how Coleg Gwent has made a pledge to embed sustainable development as a core principle of the college.
This is a letter by the Department of Communities and Local Government on the implementation of Display Energy Certificates.
An EAUC guide on the primary areas of impact and influence in relation to the contributing factors and intervention measures regarding climate change.
Intute Environment provides free access to high quality resources on the Internet. Each resource has been evaluated and categorised by subject specialists based at UK universities.