ECOSHOWCASE Newcastle - SUSTAINABLE BUILDING PRODUCT EXHIBITION

With building regulations changing every 3 years and the efficiency of buildings becoming a higher priority within these changes, the whole issue around cost and how to achieve the right balance is becoming a major issue.  To reduce these costs and to help introduce new products and solutions, Travis Perkins is producing a series of standard construction details which will help maximise the fabrics contribution in SAP.  By reducing the need to use default figures and by making very small simple changes to standard build methods the fabric can be used to its maximum capability.   With this information available to designer and specifier, it should make keeping abreast of the changes considerably easier.  There are no simple right answers any more but these details and the findings from them will provide a simple base line for all domestic construction.

Sustainable retrofit and refurbishment is top of the Government’s agenda in terms of dealing with the carbon footprint from existing properties in the UK.  The UK’s carbon budgets, as set out in the Climate Change Act, require tough decisions to be made over the next 5- 10 years about how we go about dealing with inefficient 19^th and 20^th century properties.  Around 50% of all the UK’s carbon emissions come from energy use in buildings.  However, the balance between the economic, social and environmental impacts of carbon emissions from buildings is not always straightforward.  New materials and technologies have the potential to revolutionise the way we refurbish our properties, but the short term payback is not always visible to the consumer/owner.  Concepts such as the Government’s Green Deal, Feed-in-Tariffs and the Renewable Heat Incentives aim to reduce the gap between supply and demand of sustainable refurbishment, but these are not yet set in stone.  This seminar will cover some of the key issues surrounding sustainable refurbishment in contrast to newbuild.