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.
City, University of London - UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development Report 2020
Sustainability Leadership Scorecard (SLS) Annual Report 2020
AASHE recently released the 2020 Sustainable Campus Index, a publication that recognizes top-performing colleges and universities in 17 sustainability impact areas and overall...
Awareness of climate change is at its highest ever and continues to grow, as are pledges to tackle a climate emergency by countries, companies and Universities. With an...
The Salix ‘Love our Colleges’ webinar is aiming to support colleges in England and Wales with their energy efficiency projects, resulting in a wide range of benefits...
BREEAM UK New Construction 2018 update
Sustainable refurbishment of heritage buildings - How BREEAM helps to delivet
Strategic approach to the selection and procurement of construction materials and products
BREEAM UK Strategic Ecology Framework
UN Sustainable Development Goals and the BREEAM Family of Standards and Tools
The Case for BREEAM Communities
Delivering Sustainable Buildings: Savings and Payback
University of London - Zero Carbon Estates Handbook
Sustainability: our sector’s current best chance of responding to the urgent demands of climate science – new report A cross-sector partnership advocating for...
Greening Universities Toolkit V2.0
The Benefits of Urban Greening
On Tuesday, 16th April 2019, the EAUC-Scotland Sustainable Construction Topic Support Network held a virtual meeting to discuss the current issues and opportunities...
Challenge of learning conceptual design of sustainable concrete-framed buildings at universities
The University of Edinburgh's Social Responsibility and Sustainability Department have published the institutions progress since 2012. The 2017-18 Report is now...
November 2017 was the second year for Scottish universities and colleges to submit their Public Bodies Climate Change Duties (PBCCD) reports as named 'major players'...
Building Pathways to Zero Carbon in Higher Education
The EAUC-Scotland 2018 Conference, A Decade of Progress, celebrated successes from the decade past, and visioned the decade ahead, to coincide with the EAUC-Scotland...
Celebrate Camberwell!
Catching fire for carbon reductions
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 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...
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.
With £180 million to invest in 13,500 homes over five years as part of the Decent Homes programme Tower Hamlets is looking to demonstrate value for money by carrying out...
Ealing Council is investing in energy saving measures to improve SAP ratings and value for money of its investment programme.
Hackney Council has worked with the RE:NEW Support Team for two years and has already replaced over 600 boilers with affected residents’ fuel bills being halved.
The RE:NEW Support Team has developed a comprehensive technical risk toolkit to help protect your investment and minimise the risks associated with retrofit projects.
The RE:NEW framework is designed to help organisations procure energy reduction and generation measures efficiently, effectively and economically.
RE:NEW helps organisations such as London boroughs, housing associations, and universities to implement retrofit projects and alleviate fuel poverty. It is doing this through:...
Read the latest edition of the RE:NEW newsletter and the Support Team blogs.
The RE:NEW Team has completed extensive analysis with Orbit Group to gather evidence on how poor energy performance contributes to wider housing management costs. This report...
The £25 million Biomass Energy Centre & District Heating Network for the University of St Andrews has been celebrated at one of Scotland’s most prestigious...
45 min webinar focusing on how to use staff engagement to increase workplace energy efficiency of
On Tuesday 4th October the Sustainable Construction Topic Support Network met at the University of Edinburgh to discuss current issues and priorities in sustainable construction...
On Tuesday 4th October 2016, representatives of the RICS SKA for HE team presented to the EAUC-Scotland Sustainable Construction TSN as part of their national...
Global modular flooring specialist, Interface, has helped the University of Coventry to create a flexible, open-plan space in its Frederick Lanchester Library.
Extracting carbon savings from our science labs A £1.025 million estate-wide review and upgrade of science laboratory ventilation, covering 252 fume cupboards to...
EAUC Silver Company Member BuroHappold present their case study ''University of Strathclyde Health and Sports Sciences".
Major energy and carbon reduction works at Grade II Listed 1934 -2010 Built Environment – Cambridge University Library This project has successfully demonstrated how...
4C – Co-generation Carbon Climate Care The University has built an energy centre with a combined heat and power (CHP) plant and introduced a range of energy saving...
Soft landings: Keeping it REAL At the University of the West of England (UWE) Bristol, Soft Landings is all about keeping it REAL: Realistic – Embedded – Active...
The Enterprise Centre: Celebrating localism and low carbon futures at UEA The University of Anglia’s (UEA) Enterprise Centre (TEC) is one of the UK’s most...
Sustainable refurbishment of the Cockcroft Building, University of Brighton In repurposing the Cockcroft Building for the University of Brighton, one of the largest retrofits...
Actively reducing energy use by going ‘passive’ Presented with the challenge of building a fit-for-purpose, early-years childcare facility for the children of its...
ESRI - The Energy Safety Research Institute – The first BREEAM OUTSTANDING Educational Building in Wales The Energy Safety Research Institute (ESRI) is a 3900m2,...
Mainstreaming sustainability South Lanarkshire College, East Kilbride, constructed the first building in the UK accredited as “Outstanding” BREEAM (2014) for...
“The Pavilion” Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is one of the largest and most popular universities in the UK. Nearly 27,000 students study with us across three...
AECOM, in partnership with the EAUC, delivered this webinar looking at how higher and further education organisations can integrate their findings from climate change risk...
This webinar, first presented on the 20th July 2016, is the second of two adaptation presentations delivered by Adaptation Scotland. Part one provided an introduction to...
This guide, written by AOSEC (Association of South East Colleges) is a product of Building for the Future - an inter-regional collaboration, part-funded by the GROW EU...
This webinar, first presented on the 13th July 2016, is one of two adaptation presentations delivered by Adaptation Scotland as part of the three-part EAUC-Scotland...
This webinar took place on 30th June 2016, with the video providing an introduction to the Carbon Scenario Tool background, structure and capabilities, and a live demonstration...
This Exchange presentation is from the “Learning and Legacy: The Role of Education in Creating Healthier and Happier Cities” EAUC Annual Conference 2016, presented...
This Exchange presentation is from the “Learning and Legacy: The Role of Education in Creating Healthier and Happier Cities” EAUC Annual Conference 2016, presented...
In October 2011, Bryce Hutchinson, Senior Building Information Officer, from the Facilities Management Operations department of the University of Technology in Sydney approached...
Dan Fernbank, Energy Manager, University of Reading posted the following message on the Members’ network. “We’re currently reviewing our application of...
To say Liverpool Hope University’s hospitality and catering department has gone through a period of change over the last five years would be something of an...
This example is from Interface's Net-Works programme, an inclusive business model that collects discarded fishing nets from coastal communities and recycles them.
The students arriving on campus these days are very discerning. Their goals differ from those of the previous generations. And they bring a strong sense of community,...
Interface, global modular flooring manufacturer, and Dulux Trade, leading paint manufacturer, were enlisted to help to bring to life the industrial...
Global modular flooring manufacturer, Interface, has helped Birmingham City University (BCU) create a contemporary, open-plan culture for its...
“£5 billion spent on new buildings each year, these buildings use 2-3x more energy than designed” - 2014 Green Construction Board Report Building on...