building

The UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC) has launched a new research to explore how building performance can be improved. It will focus on energy consumption, water use and other aspects which impact the environment. It follows an previous project which looked at how the building sector could deliver a zero carbon policy for non-domestic buildings by 2019. […]

A group of European businesses have committed to deliver ultra low energy buildings. The ‘Moving towards net zero buildings’ initiative was proposed by the Prince of Wales’ Corporate Leaders Group in Paris at COP21. It aims to help deliver ‘nearly zero energy buildings’ (nZEB) for new build by 2020 and refurbished buildings by 2030. Heathrow, British Land, Lloyd’s […]

Perhaps they were inspired by the snow of Switzerland’s famed mountains. A team of researchers in Switzerland is claiming a world first after creating white solar panels. They say the panels can blend into a building’s skin and become virtually invisible. Most PV modules, built to absorb as much sunlight as possible, appear blue-black. Their new […]

Building has begun on more than 40 energy efficient houses at a former swimming pool site in Cumbria. Costing £6 million and due to be ready in 2015, developers say the homes for rent at Grange-over-Sands will bag a level three in the Code for Sustainable Homes based on the building fabrics alone. The national […]

A coalition of 34 organisations from the housing sector has called on George Osborne to cut VAT on renovation and repair work. In an open letter to the Chancellor ahead of his Autumn statement the group asks for VAT on domestic building work to be cut down from 20% to 5%, in order to make […]

Energy efficient lighting for sports stadiums is one of a handful of projects to get a slice of $4.8 million (£3m) of funding announced by the Governor of New York this week. The cash is meant to help make the state’s buildings more energy efficient and boost its green economy. It will go to technologies ranging from lighting […]

The leaders of more than 50 top UK building companies wrote to the Prime Minister this week asking him to leave the Energy Companies Obligation (ECO) alone. David Cameron has launched a review into “green levies” raising the prospect some could be chopped in the Government’s Autumn Statement in December. The letter from the UK […]

Bath University has secured a grant of £1.5 million from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council for research into energy efficient behaviour. Academics are investigating attitudes to energy use in the home and aim to design an innovative ‘smart system’ to change habits and reduce energy-driven carbon emissions. The team says the UK’s move […]

Home owners replacing their boilers should also have to install efficiency measures like insulation, according to government climate advisers. Lord Adair Turner, Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change this week wrote to the Communities and Local Government department to ask for the two home improvements to be linked under new building laws. In a […]

Telecoms giant BT has awarded a major new contract to a company that saved them £6.2m last year through energy efficiency. WEMSInternational system manages the energy usage of a building’s operations including lighting, air conditioning and heating. The web-enabled system, which can be accessed via smartphone, delivers energy savings of 15-30%. The company will install […]