Resources
Knowledge sharing in the building industry has a key role to play in the world meeting its climate change goals. Here are some built environment sustainability resources that I hope you find useful.
Action Networks
Architects Climate Action Network
Join the discussion on what architects can do to make a positive difference to the environment. Then help put some of these ideas to action.
London Energy Transformation Initiative
The London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI) is a network of over 1000 built environment professionals that are working together to put London on the path to a zero carbon future. Check out their climate emergency design guide.
Climate change action group in Yorkshire.
Groundwork was established over three decades ago as a radical experiment to bring together communities, businesses and government in a joint effort to improve the quality of life and promote sustainable development in places that had become run-down and neglected.
Architects declare a climate and biodiversity emergency.
C40 is a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change. C40 supports cities to collaborate effectively, share knowledge and drive meaningful, measurable and sustainable action on climate change.
Research
Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB)
A great knowledge base with lots of in depth information, training courses, links to network groups and a useful register of experts who can provide consultation.
Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT)
Useful information, resources, courses and training on alternative sustainable building.
Energy efficiency in buildings research by the UK government.
A charity championing sustainability in the built environment by carrying out research, creating links between its members, challenging standards and influencing policy.
Lots of useful information on renewable energy sources.
The Energy Saving Trust are an organisation that help people save energy. Their experts speak with millions of householders every year, deliver programmes for governments and provide consultancy to UK businesses and international companies.
CSE are an independent national charity that shares knowledge and experience to help people change the way they think and act on energy.
The Green Register trains construction professionals from all disciplines of the industry to build better, more sustainable buildings.
Scottish Ecological Design Association
SEDA is a membership organisation that promotes ecological design across Scotland.
The Sustainability Exchange provides sector professionals with up to date resources, insight, webinars, news, events and jobs connecting together sector professionals across the world, stimulating debate and the sharing of knowledge.
The Good Homes Alliance promote higher quality sustainable housing and standards via collaborations with industry and government, creating active knowledge exchange networks, sharing best practice, running events, leading campaigns, lobbying for change, partnering on research and commissioning publications.
BRE (Building Research Establishment) Group
BRE are a group of researchers, scientists, engineers and technicians who want to make the built environment better. They generate new knowledge through independent research which is used to create beneficial products, standards and qualifications.
Independent advice to government on building a low-carbon economy and preparing for climate change.
Since the 2017 publication of the New York Times bestseller, Drawdown, the organisation has emerged as a leading resource for information and insight about climate solutions.
Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA) is a non-profit distributing, member-based association promoting knowledge and providing specialist services for construction and building services stakeholders.
Design Standards/Frameworks
Low energy design standards which go well beyond the building regulation standards.
A leading sustainability assessment method.
Framework on how to conduct energy efficient retrofits.
Bioregional - One Planet Living
Using learning from the BedZED eco-village, Bioregional created the One Planet Living sustainability framework – comprising ten simple principles and detailed goals and guidance – and developed it together with WWF. Backed by science and many years of hands-on experience, it’s a highly flexible framework that is helping organisations around the world to achieve their vision of a brighter, better future.
International Living Future Institute - Zero Carbon Certification
The ILFI Zero Carbon Certification is the first worldwide Zero Carbon third-party certified standard. This program recognises the growing interest and focus on a broad-based tool for highlighting highly energy efficient buildings which are designed and operated to fully account for their carbon emissions impacts.
Building with Nature Standards
Standards promoting high quality green infrastructure at each stage of the development process, from planning and design, through to long-term management and maintenance. The Standards enable nature-friendly features to be integrated throughout the development.
Energiesprong is a whole house refurbishment and new build standard and funding approach. Energiesprong works with independent market development teams. These teams intervene in the market by creating mass demand for these retrofits. This is all to drive an industry that creates better, cheaper and more desirable retrofit solutions overall.
Biodiversity
The Woodland Trust have a number of great campaigns you can get involved with to help safeguard our woods and trees. Putting pressure on the government to plant more trees to help us meet our climate change goals is one of them.
City of Trees is a movement transforming underused, unloved woodland and planting 3 million trees - one for every person across the city region, within a generation. City of Trees is the Greater Manchester part of the Northern Forest.
CFT provides a voice for community forestry organisations that are working to plant trees, bring woodland back into use and connect people to the natural world.
Plantlife is a British conservation charity working nationally and internationally to save threatened wild flowers, plants and fungi . They own nearly 4,500 acres of nature reserve across England, Scotland and Wales.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
A charity dedicated to protecting nature and biodiversity. Looking to help nature? Through their Giving Nature A Home initiative they’ll create a personal plan and suggest six simple activities to help you give nature a home where you live.
Joint Nature Conservation Committee
JNCC is the public body that advises the UK Government and devolved administrations on UK-wide and international nature conservation.
The Orchard Project are a charity dedicated to the creation, restoration and celebration of community orchards. Their aim is for every household in the UK’s town and cities be within walking distance of a productive, well-cared-for, community-run orchard.
People’s Trust for Endangered Species
People’s Trust for Endangered Species was set up in 1977 to help protect endangered species and places.
Building Merchants
Stocks a wide range of sustainable building materials.
An independent, employee owned business that stocks a good range of sustainable building materials.
Traditional handmade brickworks in Buckinghamshire who also stock natural building blocks including hempcrete and terratherm blocks, earth mortars and plasters, lime mortars and renders.
Ty-Mawr Lime Ltd was established in 1995 and has made an enormous contribution to resurrecting the use of traditional building methods and is now one of the market-leaders in the design, manufacture and distribution of environmentally-friendly building materials and systems.
Green Building Store has been supplying pioneering sustainable building products since 1995. They also have some very useful learning resources.
Mike Wye supply a comprehensive range of traditional, natural and sustainable building and decorating products to builders, conservation specialists and home owners throughout the UK.
Celtic Sustainables specialise in natural plant based paints, clay paints, lime and organic and other environmentally friendly products.
NBT are a leading distributor of thermal performance products and solutions that provide; thermal, moisture, acoustic and overheating control.
Retrofit/Existing Buildings
Carbon Co-op is an energy services and advocacy co-operative that helps people and communities to make the radical reductions in home carbon emissions necessary to avoid runaway climate change.
Low Carbon Homes facilitate national and local knowledge-exchange in cities and regions across the UK, focusing on the practical application of retrofit best practice.
Research into deep retrofit housing from Catapult, Future Cities.
Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance
The Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance is a collaboration of organisations that acts as a forum for sustaining and improving traditional buildings.
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) help protect old buildings from cottages to castles and from churches to cathedrals. They offer training, courses, advice and carry out research. They have also done lots of research in how to retrofit old buildings to make them more sustainable and energy efficient.
Better Homes Yorkshire has been created to help residents across Yorkshire pay less for energy and live in healthier, warmer homes. Residents in the participating 10 Local Authority areas will be able to take advantage of the latest Government funding options to make energy efficiency improvement works to their homes. Better Homes Yorkshire is open to homeowners, private tenants and landlords in the Leeds City Region. Participating councils include: Leeds, Bradford, Kirklees, Calderdale, Barnsley, Wakefield, York, Craven, Harrogate and Selby.
Futureproof is a service managed by the Centre for Sustainable Energy, a Bristol based charity with 40 years experience offering energy saving advice to households.
Embodied Carbon
Carbon Smart Materials Palette
Developed by Architecture 2030, with support from members of the Embodied Carbon Network (ECN), the Carbon Smart Materials Palette provides attribute-based design and material specification guidance for immediately impactful, globally applicable and scalable embodied carbon reductions in the built environment.
The Carbon Leadership Forum at the University of Washington is accelerating transformation of the building sector to radically reduce and ultimately eliminate the embodied carbon in building materials and construction.
The Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator
The Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool, is a free and easy to use tool that allows benchmarking, assessment and reductions in embodied carbon, focused on the upfront supply chain emissions of construction materials.
Design Tools
2030 palette is a resource for the design of zero-carbon, adaptable and resilient built environments.
Post Occupancy Evaluation
CarbonBuzz is an RIBA CIBSE platform for benchmarking and tracking energy use in projects from design to operation. It is intended to encourage users to go beyond compliance of mandatory Building Regulations calculations and refine estimates to account for additional energy loads in-use. The platform allows users to compare design energy use with actual energy use side by side to help users close the design and operational energy performance gap in buildings.