The BuilderScrap.com team have been looking at more articles on Sustainability and climate change.  This extract discusses Government legislation and the devolution from central government to local government in strategic planning and therefore prosecution.  We find this very important as we believe in the accountability of local government and authorities to take responsibility and encourage sustainable projects are paramount.

‘In order to ensure compliance with all this primary and secondary legislation, the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006 means that local authorities will be able to prosecute for breaches of energy efficiency standards within six months of discovering the breach, rather than within six months of completion of the relevant work, as was previously the case.

The local Government White Paper, issued in Autumn 2006 will devolve greater powers and responsibilities to local authorities in respect of climate change policies. In Wales, all local authorities have signed a declaration committing them to producing a climate change action plan. In London, the Mayor has published London’s own energy strategy.

The much talked-about energy certification in respect of existing homes was deferred this summer, at least in part, through action taken by the RICS to challenge the legality of the Government’s proposals. Notwithstanding, the Government maintains a long-term ambition of carbon neutral development. To achieve this, it proposes the following:

*  to set energy efficiency levels for the Code for Sustainable Homes;
*  for these levels to govern the future direction of Building Regulation;
*  to renew the Building Regulations guidelines in order to improve compliance;
*  to require government-funded housing to meet at least level 3 of the code;
*  to introduce Energy Performance Certificates for new and existing houses;
*  to develop a new Planning Policy Statement on climate change;
*  to urge planning authorities to set ambitious policies on renewable energy.’

Most of the proposals are now a reality… including the home energy certification.  Now in 2006 it must have seemed a very difficult task to change peoples ideas about sustainability and energy performance legislation.  Now in 2009 it’s a reality!

Here at the BuilderScrap HQ we’re concerned about all aspects of the environmental climate cycle. We Believe all contractors and Local Builders should understand the challenges local government have targeted in emission reduction.

The UK Government has a goal of cutting the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions by 60 per cent on 1990 levels by 2050 with real progress in the region of reductions of 50–75 million tons of carbon being made by 2020. To date, we have achieved a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 16 per cent below 1990 levels and it is anticipated that that figure will increase to 24 per cent by 2010.

Following Europe’s lead by the introduction of the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), there has been a raft of legislative activity in the UK. The Government’s Energy White Paper was published in 2003, followed by its Action Plan for Energy Efficiency in 2004. In addition, an Energy Review was announced in November 2005 to review the progress made towards meeting the goals set out in the Energy White Paper. The 2006 Climate Change and sustainable Energy Act received royal assent on 21st June, 2006 and an EU Energy Efficiency Action Plan, to be implemented over the next six years, has recently been announced. This has a target of reducing energy consumption by 20 per cent across the EU by 2020 and will expand the EPBD (see below). Most recently, a white paper on energy has been published, called Meeting the Energy Challenge, which annexes the fourth annual report on progress towards the 2003 Energy White Paper goals.

As part of the Government’s implementation of the EPBD, effective from 6th April, 2006, the Government has amended energy requirements contained within Part L of the Building Regulations, in particular requirements relating to efficiency of boilers and ventilation systems and energy saving insulation and a Planning White Paper on climate change has recently been published, in which the location and design of new developments and the use of renewable energy sources is addressed.

www.blog.builderscrap.com will publish more of these targets and governement directives so let us know your thoughts

Another theory Michael Lemonick discusses is the relationship between the ever growing population and environmental issues.  This isn’t exactly a myth, as Lemonick says, but we here at BuilderScrap agree that it represents a false solution.

Myth 9: Sustainability is ultimately a population problem.
This is not a myth, but it represents a false solution. Every environmental problem is ultimately a population problem. If the world’s population were only 100 million people, we would be hard-pressed to generate enough waste to overwhelm nature’s cleanup systems. We could dump all our trash in a landfill in some remote area, and nobody would notice.

Population experts agree that the best way to limit population is to educate women and raise the standard of living generally in developing countries. But that strategy cannot possibly happen quickly enough to put a dent in the population on any useful timescale. The U.N. projects that the planet will have to sustain another 2.6 billion people by 2050. But even at the current population level of 6.5 billion, we’re using up resources at an unsustainable rate. There is no way to reduce the population significantly without trampling egregiously on individual rights (as China has done with its one-child policy), encouraging mass suicide or worse. None of those proposals seems preferable to focusing directly on less wasteful use of resources.

Let us know your opinion!

Alongside our efforts at Builderscrap.com of the reduction of waste sent to landfill and the recycling of surplus supply… we’re conscious that energy performance of buildings is high on the Government’s agenda. Fifty per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions come from buildings and with a goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 60 per cent on 1990 levels by 2050, the Government has its work cut out. Amongst the raft of legislation, both national and international, the European Performance of Buildings Directive has particular significance. The UK is presently working its way towards complete compliance with the directive as it applies to the energy performance of new and existing buildings. Energy certification is a reality and with the EUs Action Plan on Energy Efficiency set to expand upon the requirements already in place, this is one bundle of red tape that cannot be ignored.

In our next post we will discuss this more

We have been conducing research here at BuilderScrap.com about waste management practices, construction waste and surplus supply sent to landfill.  We’re passionate about recycling and try to engage our readers, contractors and builders about the potential waste and environmental issues associated with sending  builders surplus and construction waste to landfill.

Here is a poignant snippet from a research paper about recycling practices outside of the UK

‘Waste generated from construction and building demolition work constitutes about 68% of all solid waste generated each year in South East Queensland. Consequently, it has created a serious waste management problem. The State Governments of Victoria and New South Wales have been encouraging the use of recycled materials from construction and related waste; they have also promulgated specifications for their use. In Queensland, however, similar regulations are not anticipated in the near future, which explains the lack of funded research conducted in this important arena. This paper presents an evaluation of the prevailing waste recycling practices in Queensland. Nine sites were visited, including two construction sites, three demolition sites, three recycling plants and one landfill in South East Queensland. The difficulties encountered by the recycling programme operators and their associates at these sites are described and the benefits of recycling construction materials are presented. One of the major barriers is that the local councils disallow the use of recycled materials in new construction work. To help rectify these impediments to recycling, recommendations are given to increase the use of recycled construction waste in South East Queensland’.

Journal of Building Appraisal (2007) 3, 231–235. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jba.2950077

In summary contruction waste and building materials must be recyclable. Uk building contractors must understand the responisbilites of waste management. Trade surplus supply and dramatically reduce the amount of material sent to landfill

The eighth sustainable myth we have found from Michael Lemonick is that new technology is always the answer. 

Myth 8: New technology is always the answer.
Not necessarily. During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama made the tactical mistake of pointing out that proper tire inflation could save Americans millions of gallons of gasoline through better fuel economy. The Republicans ridiculed him, just as they did President Jimmy Carter for appearing on TV in a sweater during the energy crisis of the late 1970s. Both Carter and Obama were right, however (California’s Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for proper tire inflation as well).

In other words, sometimes existing technology can make a huge difference. Sometimes it takes a creative business model. Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, for example, wants to electrify the world’s car fleet—widely acknowledged as a big step toward cutting down carbon emissions—not by inventing a battery that gets 200 miles on a charge but by inventing a better system for letting drivers go as far as they want without recharging. His proposal, which has been adopted on a pilot basis by Israel and Denmark, would create battery exchange stations along highways, analogous to the gas canister exchanges that people now use for barbecue grills. What do you do if you are out on the road and your battery is running low? You pull into a station, your dead battery is swapped for a fully charged one and you’re on the road again in a few minutes.

“He’s delivering distance, not better batteries,” says Mark Lee, CEO of the London consulting firm SustainAbility. “There’s an Italian utility that’s selling its customers hot water, not energy to heat water. It’s a different way of measuring, and it gives the company an incentive to be more efficient so it can be more profitable.”

BuilderScrap uses existing technology – the internet and mobile phones to help the construction industry use each others surplus building supplies.  Let us here at BuilderScrap know your opinion!

The seventh myth from Michael Lemonick we have been discussing here in the BuilderScrap office is all about who offers the quickest root to “sustainability“, the government or activists.

Myth 7: Consumer choices and grassroots activism, not government intervention, offer the fastest, most efficient routes to sustainability.

Popular grassroots actions are helpful and ultimately necessary. But progress on some reforms, such as curbing CO2 emissions, can only happen quickly if central authorities commit to making it happen. That is why tax credits, mandatory fuel-efficiency standards and the like are pretty much inevitable. That conclusion drives free-market evangelists crazy, but they operate on the assumption that wasteful use of resources and the destruction of the environment is without cost, which is demonstrably untrue.

To cite just one example, economic devastation is very likely under even the mildest plausible climate change scenarios, in the form of disruptions to agriculture from shifts in rainfall patterns and growing zones; densely populated coastal areas will be rendered unlivable as sea level rises, and so on. Yet the price currently being charged to people who add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere is zero. Putting a per-ton tax on carbon emissions would be wildly unpopular, but it would for the first time account for the real costs of unsustainable energy use.

Free-market purists also argue that with respect to the depletion of natural resources, rising prices will automatically push people into more efficient behavior. True enough—but the transition can be painful and disruptive. The primary reason U.S. automakers are in such trouble is that they have been depending for years on high-profit, gas-guzzling SUVs. When the price of oil shot up last year, the market for big cars plummeted (gas prices have only come down since then in the face of a worldwide recession, which hasn’t helped the auto industry). So car buyers may have changed their behavior, but only at the cost of potential disaster for some of America’s biggest companies and their employees.

Still, rising energy prices have had the effect of again galvanizing research into wind, solar and other alternatives—and if you leave economic disruption aside, we can at least count on car companies to make more efficient vehicles and on utilities to find more sustainable sources of energy.

What do you think?  Let us know at BuilderScrap

The sixth sustainability myth from Michael Lemonick is all about the effects of sustainable living on quality of life.  At BuilderScrap we agree with Lemonick that one doesn’t lower the other.

Myth 6: Sustainability means lowering our standard of living.
Not at all true. It does mean that we have to do more with less, but as Hawken argues, “Once we start to organize ourselves and innovate within that mind-set, the breakthroughs are extraordinary. They will allow us to achieve greatly superior rates of resource productivity, which in turn allow us to be prosperous, fed, clad, secure.” Moreover, he and others maintain that the innovation at the heart of sustainable living will be a powerful economic engine. “Addressing climate change,” he says, “is the biggest job creation program there is.”

BuilderScrap helps those within the construction industry to be more sustainable in their work, but by utilising surplus, unused materials, quality is not compromised.

No it isn’t! Back to the Michael Lemonick article about sustainable myths, we here at BuilderScrap.com totally disagree with the opinion that sustainability is expensive.

Myth 5: Sustainability is too expensive.
If there is an 800-pound gorilla in the room of sustainability, this myth is it. That’s because, as Gabriel observes, “there’s a grain of truth to it.” But only a grain. “It’s only true in the short term in certain circumstances,” Cortese says, “but certainly not in the long term.” The truth lies in the fact that if you already have an unsustainable system in place—a factory or a transportation system, for example, or a furnace in your house, an incandescent lightbulb in your lamp or a Hummer in your driveway—you have to spend some money up front to switch to a more sustainable technology.

In general, governments and companies can take that step more easily than individuals can. “Over the past seven years,” Cortese explains, “DuPont has made investments that have reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 72 percent over 1990 levels. They’ve saved $2 billion.” The Pentagon is determined to cut its energy use by a third, both to save money and to reduce its dependence on risky foreign oil supplies.

BuilderScrap is completely free to use and can have very real benefits both environmentally and financially.

Here at BuilderScrap.com we encourage the reuse of builders surplus wherever possible.

Michael Lemonick’s fourth sustainability myth is that sustainability is just about recycling.

Myth 4: It’s all about recycling.
“I get that a lot,” says Shana Weber, the manager of sustainability at Princeton University. “For some reason, recycling was the enduring message that came out of the environmental movement in the early 1970s.” And of course, recycling is important: reusing metals, paper, wood and plastics rather than tossing them reduces the need to extract raw materials from the ground, forests and fossil-fuel deposits. More efficient use of pretty much anything is a step in the direction of sustainability. But it is just a piece of the puzzle. “I deal with the people who run the recycling program here,” Weber notes, “but also with purchasing, dining services, the people who clean the buildings. The most important areas by far in terms of sustainability are energy and transportation.” If you think you are living sustainably because you recycle, she says, you need to think again.

Reuse comes above recycle in the waste hierarchy and as such BuilderScrap.com aims to encourage members to reuse each others surplus building materials.