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 fourth stage of the Buildability cycle is the management and maintenance of facilities and buildings.  Through managing each stage of the process, care can be taken to ensure that a complete construction project is as sustainable as possible, with as little adverse effect on the environment as is possible.  The following stages should be considered after a building project has finished, during the lifecycle of the building.

Energy performance certificates and monitoring
Manage running costs by efficient maintenance of high spec plant, therefore reducing carbon emissions
Observe all legal requirements and statutory obligations
Prevention of “sick building syndrome”
Life cycle costing

The final phase of this process, is to look at what happens at the end of a buildings life – the ‘deconstruction’ of said building.  Watch out for the next post which looks at this.

BuilderScrap is pleased to announce an exciting new collaboration with Construction Centre for Innovation North West (CCINW) and Salford University.  The partnership has been created in order to develop a technology to accurately measure the amount of carbon saved by members of the BuilderScrap website.

The BuilderScrap website launched a year ago and, at the time of writing, has 900 members using the site, a figure which is growing continually.  The website works simply, effectively, and is free to use.  Members can register and upload any leftover, surplus construction materials to the website.  Other members can then search for these materials, and contact the seller to make an exchange.  The website has been received very well by the construction industry, as this partnership with CCINW shows.  The initiative is supported by CCINW through the North West Opportunities Programme, which is linked to the region’s Carbon Reduction Targets.

The development of the ‘Carbon Calculator’ is still in the very early stages, and it is hoped that this will be up and running by the New Year.  The aim of the Calculator is to provide statistics on carbon reductions to the individual companies involved in an exchange, and also to local councils and corporate clients.

 BuilderScrap is pleased to be part of WRAP’s Halving Waste to Landfill commitment and is also partnered with Envirolink Northwest and Envirowise.The main benefit of using BuilderScrap, is that by encouraging reuse of surplus materials within the industry, less waste is sent unnecessarily to landfill, offering significant cost savings to the user.  The introduction of the Carbon Calculator service will allow members and corporate clients to quantifiably prove their individual savings, which can potentially help them to gain new clients and work and improve their Corporate Social Responsibility.

This is us receiving our fantastic Green Apple Award and certificate showing the carbon emissions used in our journey to London was partly off-set by the planting of trees.