Just look at these statistics from Defra:

13% of all the solid materials delivered to construction sites goes unused

Each year 400 million tonnes of solid materials are used in the UK construction industry but only two-thirds is added to the building stock.

The rest is sent directly to landfill

In addition waste crime is stopping us from achieving a sustainable construction sector

fly-tips around the country, many of which are made up of construction and demolition waste, adversely affects the quality of life in many communities

Not surprisingly then, projects over 250,000 will be required to produce detailed Site Waste Management Plans (SWMP’s) predicting how much waste will be created, and how it will be recycled or disposed of responsibly.

Projects worth more than £500,000 will face even higher scrutiny.

Do you have a view on this? – if so the Defra Government proposal consultation closes on July 5th

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From this months Business Eco’s Environmental Legislation e-zine services: http://www.eco.uk.com/

The Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 were enacted on the 23^rd March.

These regulations will enter into force in stages. They implement a range of initiatives from the Energy Performance of
Buildings Directive, relating to energy performance certificates, air-conditioning system inspections and energy assessors.

The Regulations require energy performance certificates to be produced when buildings are constructed, sold or rented out.

The e-zine also picks up on other construction and facilities relevant legislations.

To view the regulations, go to: www.opsi.gov.uk

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The above title came from the recently received e-newsletter from the USA 2030 Challenge. The 2030 challenge seeks to reduce carbon emissions from new and existing buildings by 2030. The newsletter and the 2030 challenge makes for excellent reading, in particular:

• targets set for each building sector – new and existing
• informative background information on climate change
• global case studies of design and construction that address sustainability and environmental impact
• archived web casts

But what really caught my interest was the contribution that the building sector makes to the total US carbon emissions…

Combining the annual energy required to operate residential, commercial, and industrial buildings along with the embodied energy of industry-produced building materials like carpet, tile, glass, and concrete exposes buildings as the largest energy consuming and greenhouse gas emitting sector….the architecture and building community is responsible for 48% almost half of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions annually. Globally the percentage is even greater.”

What is the UK figure? With the exception of housing do we have targets set for each building type – new and existing? What is the UK building sectors annual carbon emissions and what is the trend? (the USA is 700 million tonnes per annum – a three fold increase since the 1960’s)

Check out and consider adopting the 2030 Challenge?

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