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Comment by entsust.com on March 24, 2014 at 11:05

Ahead of a Radio 4 You and Yours programme to be broadcast today at midday, the BBC reports that it has seen a letter from City of Westminster Council implying that ageing materials were at least partly to blame for the Apollo Theatre ceiling collapse in December.

Urgent checks are apparently requested for all such ceilings to investigate the potential degredation of crucial hessian sacking material that is used to secure sections of plasterwork to supports.

The final report into the cause of the partial ceiling collapse is yet to be released.

Comment by entsust.com on August 22, 2013 at 17:38

CIBSE has released a new Technical Memorandum, TM54, 'Evaluating operational energy performance at the design stage'. The guide takes an in-depth look at how to plan for a building's actual energy use and profile far ahead of implementation.

David Cheshire, Lead Author, Regional Director of Sustainability, AECOM said: "The aim of the guidance is to enable designers to make better estimates of operational energy, identify the range of possible outcomes and therefore show how designs can be improved to deliver on the predictions."

The Technical Memorandum includes a preface in which Justin Snoxall, Head of the Business Group, British Land, explains that buildings account for nearly half of the UK's carbon emissions. As CIBSE Carbon Champion of the Year 2013, British Land is an exemplar company committed to increasing the performance of its buildings and has now reduced energy use across its London portfolio by 60%.The valuable insight into predicting energy use from TM54 can help dramatically reduce running costs and help minimise energy demand.

All CIBSE guidance is available free of charge to its members, or can be ordered by non members, via the CIBSE Knowledge Portal 

|     www.cibse.org

Comment by Tim Atkinson on July 23, 2013 at 13:50

£100m funding available to invest in "Green Retrofit" - BRE Press Release

BRE along with partners Sustainable Development Capital Ltd have launched a new scheme to provide capital investment for non-domestic energy efficiency retrofit projects in the UK.

The new Green Retrofit Investment Programme has up to £100 million available for investment in building retrofit projects and energy infrastructure projects where clear energy and carbon emissions savings will result. £50m of the fund has come from the Government’s Green Investment Bank.

The scheme will support projects that deliver reduction in energy demand, cost and greenhouse gas emissions for four areas:

• Building retrofits
• Renewable heat
• Combined heat and power (CHP)
• Urban infrastructure.

Speaking at the fund launch, Rufus Logan, Director of BRE Scotland said that BRE’s role would be to provide strategic and technical support: “We will provide the hard evidence to help in assessing the risks, delivering performance and ensuring that projects get the recognition they deserve, through standards like BREEAM.”Jonathan Maxwell, founding partner and chief executive of SDCL said, “As a fund we have significant capital to invest in the UK. If you have a project that is ready, we would be happy to look at how we can help.”

The fund is open to projects of £2 million plus and provides backing for up to 100% of project cost. The return on investment will come from a proportion of the savings in energy bills. The programme is now open for applications; contact Rufus Logan, email [email protected].

|     www.bre.co.uk          |www.sdcl-ib.com

Comment by Tim Atkinson on May 3, 2013 at 12:24

Roofing company Marley Eternit have announced the addition of  a Mixed Brindle to their range of clay roof tiles. Usable on roof pitches as low as 30 degrees, the variable nature of the clay makes for an attractive appearance.

Marley Eternit claim that independent assessors have certified the roof tile's embodied carbon at 27 grammes of CO2e/m2, and it has an A+ environmental rating in the BRE Green Guide and a 'very good' certification under BES 6001. As a result, the tile achieves maximum BREEAM credits.

You can see more on Marley Eternit's sustainability programme here... 

Comment by Tim Atkinson on January 29, 2013 at 10:36

Well, it appears the Guardian video won't embed properly, so you'll have to pop over there to see it on their site, in Leo Hickman's piece on the Green Deal....

Comment by Tim Atkinson on January 29, 2013 at 10:31

Where the Green Deal is concerned, far be it from me to act as any form of Government mouthpiece, but if you're curious, here's their own video looking at what the Green Deal's all about. Below that, you'll see a short video from the Guardian's Adam Vaughan, who questions whether it will achieve the government's goal of transforming the energy efficiency of 14m homes...

Comment by Ruth Atkinson on January 14, 2013 at 17:40

The Building Conservation Directory 2013 is out now to buy or to download the digital version for free - http://www.buildingconservation.com/books/bcd13.htm