Are you concerned about packaging, the BuilderScrap.com team are. Check out this defra survey. Respondents were asked how frequently they decided not to buy something because it has too much packaging (using a six-point scale ranging from always to never). Just 6% of respondents said they always decided not to buy for this reason, while 8% said they did this very often, 7% quite often, 14% sometimes and 14% occasionally. Come on UK lets Recycling gb

The largest group of respondents (46%) said they never decided not to buy something because it had too much packaging. It should be noted that this is less than the proportion of respondents who were at the pre-contemplation or rejection stage for this behaviour (58% of all respondents said they hadn’t really thought about the behaviour or had rejected it – as shown in Table 15). This implies that some people who said they had rejected or had not really given any thought to not buying things because they had too much packaging were actually (at least occasionally) avoiding products because they had too much packaging.

Come on guys… lets make Recycling gb our priority!

Here at BuilderScrap.com we look out for our Building contractors uk, Todays post looks at a number of purchasing behaviours. This study assesses using the stages of the change response scale . The results from these questions are presented in Table 15.

For each of the three behaviours covered, respondents were most likely to be at the pre-contemplation stage (between 30% and 42% of respondents) where they had either not heard of them or thought about them. In addition, for each of these behaviours at least one in ten respondents said they had rejected the behaviour. That said, there were still significant proportions who had adopted these behaviours: around a third (30%) said they were not buying things because they had too much packaging and intended to keep this up, and one in five respondents said they were buying wood and wood products from certified sustainable sources and buying peat free compost and intended to keep this up (21% and 19% respectively).

Here in the office we’re always looking at ways to help small businesses cut Construction Costs. It’s also our aim to make our readers aware of their potential clients attitudes to current topics related to environmental issues. This survey that BuilderScrap.com has found, measures respondents’  attitudes towards using water. All respondents were presented with two statements and asked to indicate how much they agreed or disagreed with each, using a five-point scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Responses are summarised in Figure 7.

The majority (87%) of respondents agreed (either strongly agreed or tended to agree) that we should all try and save water. Only a small minority 3% disagreed with this viewpoint. Around one quarter (24%) of respondents agreed that they did not ‘pay much attention to the amount of water I use at home’ in comparison to a third (33%) of respondents who agreed with this statement in the 2007 Defra survey. Two-thirds (66%) disagreed with this statement in 2009 in comparison to half (53%) who disagreed in 2007. Opinion therefore had changed substantially since the time of the 2007 survey.
Attitudes towards saving water were linked to presence of a water meter in the home. Respondents who had a water meter in their home were less likely to agree that ‘I don’t pay much attention to the amount of water I use at home’ than those who did not have a meter (17% compared with 28%), and were more likely to agree that ‘we should all try and save water regardless of whether it rains or is sunny’ (91% compared with 86%).

Some of us from the BuilderScrap office have this week been in Boston, Massahusetts.  Apart from being a stunning city with great restaurants and fascinating places of interest, we have met with some extremely interesting people, including representatives from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Habitat for Humanity, The Green Roundtable, Tocci construction and NASDI.  Everyone we have met have found the BuilderScrap idea an exciting one, and we are looking forward to working with our American colleagues to determine the potential for BuilderScrap in the states. 
I am writing this blog in the lobby of a very nice hotel, waiting for the Build Boston exhibition to open, so we can go and have a look at what is happening in the industry over here.  Looking forward to meeting with more American businesses, builders and contractors, and to learning more about the construction industry and the ‘green movement’.
Here are a few snaps I have taken whilst over here in this stunning city.

The Boss

Not your usual use for a crane!

We like this one! Everybody out there involved with Building services, plumbing and electrical installation such as installing a ‘hippo’ toilet or Aerated shower… get your business cards out! Opportunities are here.

The survey looks the stages of change response scale to assess the types of things that people were doing to use less water. In total, the survey covered seven behaviours which would use less water. Responses to these questions are summarised in Table 14

Building Services

The majority of respondents were already doing each of the ‘repeated’ behaviours shown in Table 14. Three-quarters (74%) said they already only washed full loads of laundry, and around two-thirds said they already made an effort to cut down on water usage at home (69%), took showers instead of a baths (68%) and turned the tap off whilst brushing their teeth (66%). Only a small proportion had adopted any of the behaviours only to relapse (between 4% and 7% across the four behaviours covered). Similarly small proportions of respondents said they were contemplating these behaviours but were yet to do them. Those at the pre-contemplation stage and those who had already rejected these behaviours were in the minority.

The proportion of people who reported making an effort to cut down on water usage at home has increased from about half (52%), as reported in the 2007 Defra survey, to 69% in the 2009 survey. Respondents were less likely to have adopted any of the one-off measures to use less water in their home. While a third (32%) had installed a water butt, a relatively small proportion (13%) were using a water displacement device, and almost no one (3%) had an aerated shower. While a small proportion of respondents were contemplating installing each of these items – 13% were thinking about installing a water butt, 7% a water displacement device and 6% an aerated shower – overall people were much more likely to have rejected the idea of installing these items (around one in five for each item). In the case of water displacement devices and aerated showers the largest group of respondents were at the pre-contemplation stage ‘i.e. they hadn’t really thought about doing this’ or ‘hadn’t heard’ of the item – 55% for water displacement devices and 65% for aerated showers.

Frequency of using less water

Respondents were also asked how frequently they made an effort to cut down on water usage at home – selecting a response from a six point scale ranging from always to never. Around a third (35%) of respondents said they always cut down on water usage, with the same proportion (31%) indicating that they did this either very often (15%) or quite often (16%). A fifth (21%) said they cut down on water usage sometimes (12%) or occasionally (9%), while 11% indicated that this was something they never did.

This post reflects energy saving behaviours in the home. At BuilderScrap.com we want to inform our readers, builders and Contractors how the regular public (taken from a sample) feel about those energy saving devices in the home.

What is a water meter?

A water meter is a device that records the amount of water being used in your home for billing purposes, similar to your gas and electricity metering. Your water company checks your water meter to calculate how much to charge you.

Should I get a water meter?

If you have a water meter fitted your charges would be based on the amount of water you use, rather than being a fixed amount each year based on the rateable value (RV) of your property.

Any savings depend on how much you pay now and how much water you use.

At the time of the survey a third (33%) of respondents said they lived in homes with water meters, 63% lived in homes without a meter and 4% indicated that they did not know if there was a water meter in their home. To ensure an accurate response, respondents were given a description of what a water meter was if they were unsure. Compared with the 2007 Defra survey, the proportion of people living in homes with water meters appears to have increased slightly (from 29% in 2007).

The BuilderScrap.com team love this type of post. They keep us grounded on public attitudes to energy conservation and environmental issues

The survey asked respondents to indicate how many light bulbs, including energy saving light bulbs, they had in their home. The mean average for the total number of light bulbs per home was estimated to be 20 per home which is consistent with research carried out by the Energy Saving Trust in February 2008 (which indicated a mean number of 19 light bulbs per home).

Note
8 Light bulbs, cars and most electrical appliances (e.g. refrigerators, stoves, washing machines) carry the EU Energy Label. The energy efficiency of the product is rated in energy levels ranging from A to G on the outside label. ‘A’ stands for the most energy efficient and ‘G’ for the least energy efficient.

The mean number of energy saving light bulbs per home was just over half this number (12) indicating that in an average home around 60% of the light bulbs were energy saving light bulbs. Comparisons with research carried out by the Energy Saving Trust in February 2008 and the 2007 Defra survey data indicate that the average proportion of energy saving light bulbs in people’s homes is increasing. In 2007 the equivalent figure was reported as 4 energy saving light bulbs per home, increasing to a reported 7 per home in February 2008 (and 39% of all bulbs). This is shown in Table 13. The 2007 question only asked for an estimate of the number of energy saving light bulbs in the home.

Energy Saving Lightbulbs

Here at BuilderScrap we understand the importance of lowering our carbon emissions, hence our recent collaboration with Salford University to measure carbon reductions for our users.
This week I came across an article on the COP15 website which announced that several countries have already met their carbon reduction targets set out by the Kyoto agreement.

Britain, France, Germany, Greece and Sweden can all claim the title of climate’s heroes. The five countries have already met their targets for reducing emissions below the levels required to be met by 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol. Notably these countries have met their targets through reduced domestic emissions and have not needed to buy offsets abroad. This is according to a new report by the European Environment Agency (EEA).

Looking at the EU as a whole, the Kyoto targets are well on track to be met by 2012 – although some countries will need to supplement their domestic reductions with offsets to get there. Only Austria is in real danger of missing out on its obligations.

“It is encouraging that Europe’s climate-changing emissions are expected to continue decreasing, outperforming the objectives set by the Kyoto Protocol. Such an accomplishment should encourage all countries to agree on much larger reductions of global emissions, sealing a global deal in Copenhagen this December,” Jacqueline McGlade (photo above), EEA Executive Director, comments in a press release.

The Kyoto Protocol, established in 1997, commits a number of industrialized nations to bring down their emissions from a 1990 baseline. The 15 European countries that were EU members in 1997 jointly committed to an eight percent reduction. According to the new EEA report, they will exceed this target and may even reach a 13 percent reduction.

Interesting stuff.  We believe that, with the right support, BuilderScrap can help contributing to the country’s total carbon emissions reductions.

The fifth and final stage of the Buildability Process is all to do with what happens at the end of a buildings life cycle.  Many buildings are demolished, whereas we believe that, wherever possible, disassembly and reuse whould be encouraged and employed. 

The following points should be looked at when arriving at this stage:

Use the reverse of the installation process to minimize damage
Allow realistic tolerances in the deconstruction process
There should be no “false economy” solutions
Identify markets for reused materials before commissioning deconstruction
Engage with all local third sector and voluntary organisations as potential ‘reusers’
Deconstruction/re use supply chain
Look for “outside the box” proactive reuse and recycling initiatives

So that finishes our series of blog posts concerning Buildability – Managing the Lifecycle of Your Building.  The following points offer a summary of the whole process:

1) Minimise the number of different types of components – this will simplify the process of sorting on site and make the potential for reprocess more attractive due to the larger quantities of same or similar items

2) Use an open building system where parts of the building are more freely interchangeable and less unique to one application – this will allow alterations in the building layout through relocation of component without significant modification

3) Use modular design – use components and pre-assembled subassemblies that are compatible with other systems both dimensionally and functionally

4) Use assembly technologies that are compatible with standard building practice – specialist technologies will make disassembly difficult to perform and may require specialist labour and equipment that makes the option of reuse more difficult

5) Provide access to all parts of the building and all components – ease of access will allow ease of disassembly, if possible allow for components to be recovered from within the building without the use of specialist plant equipment

6) Use components that are sized to suit the intended means of handling – allow for various possible handling options at all stages of assembly, disassembly, transport, reprocessing, and re-assembly

7) Provide a means of handling components during disassembly – handling during disassembly may require points of connection for lifting equipment or temporary supporting devices

8 ) Provide realistic tolerances to allow for movement during disassembly – the disassembly process may require greater tolerances than the manufacture process or the initial assembly process

9) Design joints and connectors to withstand repeated use – to minimise damage and deformation of components and materials during repeated assembly and disassembly procedures

10) Allow for parallel disassembly rather than sequential disassembly – so that components or materials can be removed without disrupting other components or materials.  Where this is not possible make the most reusable or ‘valuable’ parts of the building most accessible, to allow for maximum recovery of those components and materials that are most likely to be reused

11) Use prefabricated subassemblies and a system of mass production – to reduce site work and allow greater control over component quality and conformity

12) Provide spare parts and on-site storage for them – particularly for custom designed parts, both to replace broken or damaged components and to facilitate minor alterations to the building design

13) Sustain all information on the building manufacture and assembly process – measures should be taken to ensure the preservation of information such as ‘as built drawing’, information about disassembly process, material and component life expectancy, and maintenance requirements.

I’m sure we all know about recycling. Now let us see how much the general public know about Energy Saving! Here at BuilderScrap.com we want encourage Interdependence and the merits of both.

Respondents to the Defra survey who had bought an appliance in the last twelve months were asked if they had looked for the Energy Saving Recommended logo on it. This logo was developed by the Energy Saving Trust to help consumers identify the most energy efficient products available. Respondents who had bought more than one appliance in the last twelve months were asked this question in relation to one of these which was selected randomly. In the 420 purchases covered by the survey, the purchaser claimed to have looked for the logo in 71% of these, while in 24% the purchaser had not. In the remaining 5% of purchases the respondent did not know whether they had looked for the logo. A tracker survey carried out by the Energy Saving Trust in August 2007 showed that the logo had been looked for in 60% of purchases, showing an increase in the proportion of purchasers reporting that they are looking for the logo.

Respondents who had bought an appliance in the last twelve months were also asked whether the appliance they bought had the Energy Saving Recommended logo on it. In the 420 purchases covered by the survey, 72% of appliances were claimed to carry the logo (1% higher than the 71% of purchasers who had looked for the logo). The results suggest that most purchasers who reported that they had looked for the logo thought that it was on the appliance they bought. The tracker survey in August 2007 showed that the logo was said to be present on 62% of appliances purchased. It is possible that there is some confusion between the EU (A-G) label 8, which was not asked about, and the Energy Saving Recommended label, which only covers the most energy efficient products.

Not sure about you guys think but I’m sure any salesmen worth his salt would have pointed this logo out. The Government could do more to let people know about this label and what it actually means.