Sustainability and eco-building for
the future
Sustainability is increasingly at
the heart of the UK economy. The
Government has adopted a clean
growth strategy, which means growing
national income while cutting
greenhouse gasses. Progress is being
made across a number of sectors,
including transport, energy, waste and
water to limit environmental impact.
But sustainable building is also a
key area as the built environment
accounts for a significant amount
of carbon emissions, which does
need to be addressed and at astudio
we have developed methodologies
and tools that help us minimize the
environmental impact of our projects
and contribute to the building of a
cleaner, greener society.
Having a more sustainable approach
will help boost UK productivity, career
opportunities, enhance people’s
earning potential and help protect the
environment and climate upon which
we and future generations depend.
The impact of this focus is already
evident across the economy.
Take waste and energy. The UK
increased the share of municipal
waste recycling from 12% to 40%
between 2001 and 2010 and the ratio
has continued to improve, while the
carbon factor of grid electricity was
495 grams of CO2 for each kWh of
electricity generated in 2014, by 2016
it was 412 and it is projected to fall
to just 66 grams in 2035. Critical to
further progress are heat networks,
as they use low carbon heat sources
and the Government has announced
a £320-million fund initiative
to accelerate the growth of heat
networks across the UK.
Another key area is the built
environment, as it accounts for 39%
30
of global energy-related carbon
emissions. But sustainable eco-
buildings are already gathering
momentum, such as The Co-op’s HQ
in One Angel Square Manchester or
the Eden Centre building in Cornwall.
There are a number of assessment
tools and standards available, such as,
BREEAM, Passivhaus, SAP and LEED,
which all seek to help developers and
architects to deliver more sustainable
projects.
At astudio we follow three general
principles that many local councils
endorse; ‘Be lean’: Make sure that you
design out as much energy as possible,
‘Be Clean’: Using an optimum system
and ‘Be Green’: take the best product
on the market you can get at the time,
for example choose the best system
possible to get the most out of the
power that you are using.
In addition, we use tech and tools to