If you are considering a new home for the future why not take a look at the eco friendly alternatives to living?  The BuilderScrap team have been looking into substitutes for conventional buildings which can be used for a variety of purposes including permanent homes, a holiday house, tree top dining or a hotel bar.  When I came across companies who specialise in building tree houses and eco lodges I was instantly enthralled with the idea of living Swiss Family Robinson style.  The tree houses are constructed in wood, and as implied by the name, are built in and around trees.  Many of the designs I’ve come across are beautiful and resemble something from a fairy tale, however I don’t know if I could bring myself to reside in one on a permanent basis, not only because of my fear of heights but also having lived in the UK all my life I know how cold and brutal our weather can be.  Trying to sleep in a tree house whilst one of the storms of the last winter are threatening to bring your idyllic castle in the trees down around you simply doesn’t appeal to me.  However, using the tree houses as holiday homes or as a relaxing part of a hotel experience are both appealing ideas and something I hope will become more available in the future. 

For those not quite radical enough to consider living in tree houses in the rather harsh and unpredictable climate of the UK there are other ways to help ensure your buildings are environmentally friendly.  Recycling is a great way to help the environment, whether you’re recycling your morning paper, old shoes or construction waste.  Research the best ways to ensure your home will be eco friendly for the future such as improving insulation and the use of solar panels.  And of course reusing as often as possible.  Using the builders exchange site BuilderScrap can help bring a stop to construction waste going to landfill and help to save our environment.  By seeing more building materials being reused by other contractors, charities and others in the third sector we are not only being more eco friendly but are also helping our local community.

Todays BuilderScrap.com post does not explain about our Builders Exchange. We have chosen to focus on our concern for the environment and people attitudes towards biodiversity.

The research included a number of attitude statements related specifically to biodiversity. Respondents were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with each. Three of the statements were new to the 2009 survey so trend data are only available for some of the measures.

The results show that the vast majority report being concerned about the loss of biodiversity in the world with 85% agreeing that ‘I do worry about the loss of species of animals and plants in the world’ (54% of these agreeing strongly).The vast majority also agreed that there were many natural places that they may never visit but they were glad they existed (91%, with 65% agreeing strongly).

The majority were also concerned about biodiversity on a domestic level – eight in ten (80%) agreed that they worried about changes to the countryside in the UK and loss of native animals and plants (with 41% agreeing strongly). Two-thirds (66%) agreed that we should subsidise farming in hilly and mountainous areas to maintain the landscape for recreation and wildlife. Two thirds (67%) agreed that they actively encouraged wildlife in their garden although the results indicated that not all of these people equated this with protecting biodiversity per se as a lower percentage (45%) of all respondents disagreed there was nothing they could do personally to help to protect the UK’s biodiversity while 26% agreed with this statement.

The majority (63%) of respondents agreed that climate change did have a direct impact on biodiversity and very few people disagreed with this statement. 13% said they did not know if climate change had a direct impact and nearly one in five said they neither agreed nor disagreed with this statement.

There had been no change in levels of agreement with the statement ‘I do worry about the changes to the countryside in the UK and loss of native animals and plants’ since the 2007 Defra survey (see Table 38). However, there had been a slight increase in the proportion of respondents agreeing that there is nothing they could do personally to help protect the UK‟s biodiversity, from 22% in 2007 to 26% in 2009. The proportion who disagreed with this had decreased from 51% to 45%.

The proportion who agreed that they actively encouraged wildlife in their garden appears to have decreased slightly since 2007 (from 74% to 67%). However, in 2007, this question was asked only of those who had a garden, whereas in 2009 this was asked of all respondents.

At our Builders Exchange we love to to look back at old surveys to compare and contrast results.

Reuse of items and use of own bags when shopping were also measured in the 2007 survey. There have been distinct increases in the numbers reporting that they were doing these behaviours (Figure 10). Since 2007, the proportion of respondents saying that they always or very often reused items has more than doubled, from 18% to 45%. Those saying that they never reused items had decreased by nine percentage points to 13%.

Figure 10 shows that those who always or very often take their own bags when they shop had nearly trebled since 2007 from 25% to 70%. In 2007 there was a larger proportion of respondents who would sometimes or occasionally take their own bags (22%), but the survey findings suggest that this has become more frequent for the majority of shoppers. In 2007, a third of respondents said they never took their own
bags – this has now reduced to just 10% of respondents.

Double, trebled great work!

More from BuilderScrap.com on the recent Defra Survey. As a Builders Exchange we’re absolutely positive that you guys will know how well insulated your homes are…. check out the responses.

The survey also looked at home insulation. Again responses can be classified using the stages of change response scale. It should be noted that some respondents will have installed insulation or double glazing themselves but in many cases others will have moved into a property that already had insulation or double glazing. The group classified as “maintenance‟ in Table 7 includes both types of case.

It was most common for respondents (for whom it was practicable or relevant) to have already installed double glazing (89%) or loft insulation / top-up loft insulation (82%). Very few people were at the pre-contemplation stage (i.e. had either not heard of it or had not thought about doing this) or the rejection stage (i.e. had thought about it doing but had dismissed the idea). One in ten (10%) indicated that they were contemplating installing loft insulation or top-up loft insulation and 5% indicated that they were contemplating installing double glazing.

In the 2007 Defra survey a slightly higher proportion (94%) of respondents with lofts indicated that they had loft insulation. Similarly in tracker research carried out by the 28 Energy Saving Trust in August 2007, 94% of respondents indicated that they had at least some double-glazing, which is slightly higher than the 2009 survey. However, the question wording on these previous surveys was slightly different which may explain the apparent change – it seems improbable that the prevalence of loft insulation or double-glazing would have decreased over this period. In previous surveys respondents were asked simply whether they had any loft insulation in their home whereas in the current survey respondents were asked to respond using the stages of change scale described in this report.

Slightly more than half (57%) of those whose homes were constructed with cavity walls, had cavity wall insulation and around half of all respondents had draught exclusion for doors and or windows installed (46%). These levels are consistent with findings from previous research. The 2007 Defra survey showed that 59% of people in England who lived in homes with cavity walls had at least some cavity wall insulation. Research carried out by the Energy Saving Trust showed that 46% of people in England had draught exclusion in their homes. A relatively high proportion (19%) of respondents were at the pre-contemplation stage of installing draught exclusion suggesting that for many this was not something that they had considered.

Slightly more than one in ten (12%) of those whose homes were constructed with solid walls had solid wall insulation. Respondents were much more likely to be at the pre-contemplation stage for this behaviour – 31% were at this stage, indicating that a high proportion of those whose homes were constructed with solid walls “hadn’t really considered‟ this type of insulation. A relatively high proportion (21%) of respondents had rejected solid wall insulation as an option. There was also a high proportion of unclassified respondents due to people saying that this question was “not applicable‟ to them or because they did not know (31% of whose homes were constructed with solid walls).

Do you know about the construction of your own home?

At BuilderScrap.com we wish our Builders Exchange site got the coverage it deserved.

Check out this post on persuading others… environmentally speaking!

The survey also included three statements to measure the extent to which respondents discussed environmental issues with people they knew, and encouraged other people to be environmentally-friendly (see Figure 4). For the first statement (“I’ve suggested improvements at my workplace/the place where I study to make it more environmentally friendly‟), analysis is limited to respondents who were working or studying at the time of the survey.

Builders Exchanges are great for recycling

Nearly half (45%) of respondents who were working or studying agreed that “I‟ve suggested improvements at my workplace/the place where I study to make it more environmentally friendly‟. A similar proportion (43%) of all respondents agreed that “I try to persuade people I know to be more environmentally friendly‟. More than one third (37%) agreed with the statement “I often talk to friends and family about the things they can do to help the environment‟, although for this statement a similar proportion (36%) disagreed. For each of the three statements around a quarter of respondents said they neither agreed nor disagreed.

In the 2007 Defra survey respondents were asked to indicate which, if any, of these three statements applied to them. In essence this is similar to expressing (any) level of agreement with the statements as presented in Figure 4. There has been an increase in the proportion of respondents who agreed with “I often talk to friends and family about the things they can do to help the environment‟ from 31% in 2007 to 37% in 2009. The results suggest a significant increase in those claiming that they try to persuade other people to be more environmentally friendly. In 2007 20% of respondents selected the statement “I try to persuade people I know to be more environmentally friendly‟ whereas in the current survey, 43% of respondents agreed with this. Similarly, in 2007 15% selected the statement “I‟ve suggested improvements at my workplace/the place where I study to make it more environmentally friendly‟, while 29% of all respondents in the current survey agreed with this (the equivalent of 45% of those who were working or studying).