Figure 3: Amount of emissions by buildings( BIS 2010)
Actions to reduce the impact of buildings on the surrounding environment have varied and from gov. uk, we can clearly read the main actions taken which can be summarized as follows:
• The government requires local planning authorities to ensure that new developments are energy efficient.
• The plan is to make sure all new homes to be zero carbon from 2016 and this extends to include all other buildings from 2019.
• The government has initiated‘ the green deal’ to enable people to pay for home improvements over time using savings on their regular energy bills.
As a result to this legislative framework, there are many case studies which show that citizens have been able to cut down their energy bills to keep their homes warm in the long cold winter in England, by some home improvements that was financed by the green deal,( total £ 60.76 million) and in the same time help reduce the carbon footprint of their homes. It is worth noting that one of the methods of assessing and rating the sustainability of buildings was initiated in the UK, which is BREEAM( Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology), in 1990, more than 250,000 buildings have been BREEAM certified in the UK and another 50 countries around the world. BREEAM sets the standard for best practice in sustainable building design, construction and operation( BREEAM 2014).
A new national standard for the sustainable design and construction of new homes all over the UK was initiated. This code helps reduce carbon emissions and make all buildings more sustainable in design, more than what is set by just building regulations.
The aspects for this standardisation as mentioned in the publication by the UK government( CfSH 2006) are; energy / CO2, water, materials, surface water runoff( flooding and flood prevention), waste, pollution, health and well-being, management, ecology. For the assessment, a star system is used to rate the sustainability performance, where 6 is the maximum. This code up till now is still voluntary, unlike regulations, and is separate from the zero carbon policy and the 2016 zero
196 ZEMCH 2015 | International Conference | Bari- Lecce, Italy