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Building a better South West is something that all of us in this glorious region can aspire to. In the coming months we will be adding as much detail as possible so that you can gain quick and easy access to the information you seek and stay updated with changing and emerging agendas and opportunities.
 
We represent the only fully comprehensive source for construction improvement in the SW.  As our name implies, we are batting for the South West and, we might add, all parts of it - the photographs featured in our banner at the top of the website come from all parts of the region. We are here only in the interest of the South West region itself. In the true spirit of sustainability we will support regional organisations where possible.
 
Please contact info@buildsw.org.uk if you have suggestions for improvement.

Construction industry carbon reduction plan unveiled

An industry action plan launched this week outlines an ambitious plan to cut the carbon footprint of construction sites in England by 15% over the next two years.

Developed by the Strategic Forum for Construction in partnership with the Carbon Trust, the plan was authored by Arup and garnered support from many leading names in the UK construction industry. It outlines a package of measures designed to cut the construction industry’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by 750,000 tonnes of CO2  and presents firms with annual energy cost savings of around £180m.

Cabins are identified  as one of the biggest opportunities for contractors to cut costs as well as carbon emissions. Other actions recommended in the plan to help reach the 15% reduction target include:

  • More fuel efficient driving for freight, waste transport and business travel, and more fuel efficient fleet vehicles. Predicted saving: £90m and 270,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
  • Using construction plant efficiently, which includes educating site staff on the fuel efficient use of equipment, collecting and analysing energy data from on site equipment, and  enabling all mobile plant to turn off automatically when not being used. Predicted saving: £19m and 84,000 tonnes of CO2  per year.
  • Connecting construction sites to the national grid earlier to minimise the use of diesel powered generators. Predicted saving: £7m and 45,000 tonnes of CO2  per year.
  • Improving energy efficiency in corporate offices. Predicted saving: £4m and 28,000 tonnes of CO2  per year.

Constructing Excellence South West will be developing a programme to help constructing companies measure, monitor and reduce their construction site impacts over the next few months. Contact us for further infomation.

Retrofit – Homeowner case study

 Ozzie and Mary ffield have bought a typical Victorian terraced house in Bath. This is a brief description of their ongoing journey to ‘retrofit their home’ and so live more lightly upon the planet.

Why did you choose to upgrade your home?
We are doing a retro refit ‘’because we can’’.
For us it was the ever-present and clear threat of climate change, particularly in the developing world that was the driving force behind the decision to reduce our carbon footprint.
As we explored the processes further we realised there are many attractive incentives such as the prospect of greater self reliance and reduced fuel bills.  As time goes by the price of fuel will go up. We are now on fixed incomes so the proportion of our spending money required for fuel will increase and our spending money will go down.
As we had already begun to downsize it seemed the most logical next step to increase our efficiency.
 
How did you start the process?
We began by considering building work to allow more sunlight into our new house. The back faces South, yet was in use as a toilet and coal shed. Then we decided to take the opportunity to eco-refit the property. We began by investigating similar schemes which were hard to find. Eventually, we found the precedents and contacts and had all of the necessary information to get the ball rolling.
Research was not easy, for example finding professionals who could explain to us what they could do to assist us. Useful information was obtained from Eco exhibitions and websites such as the Camden project, about a ‘Victorian house for the future,’ and the T-Zero project, an example of a retro fit of a solid walled property.
 
Choosing the team
Not all building professionals will be capable of undertaking and advising upon such works... You must choose your team carefully and do your research. Clean Footprint was appointed as the main contractor aiming from the beginning to exceed current minimum legal requirements. Indeed, building regulations will be revised upwards in a few years, therefore, the easiest time to consider a full retrofit of your property is when moving or working on your home.
 
What Measures are you taking?
-    Insulation not just in the roof space. It is not so difficult to do the walls and under the floor as well. After all it is the most cost effective way of reducing fuel bills.
-    Air tightness measures around open space and windows.
-    Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery for controlled fresh and warm air.
-    A highly efficient gas fire for occasional use.
-    Solar hot water panels combined with efficient domestic hot water.
-    A Condensing ‘A’ rated boiler.
-    Zoning and advanced heating controls to use heat where it is needed.
-    Under floor heating as a base to ensure a comfortable temperature
-    A wood & multifuel stove for direct space heating.
-    Triple Glazed windows with argon gas filling to achieve a U-value of 1.0.
-    A fully glazed south side to allow for solar gain.
-    Low Energy Light bulbs and appliances.
 
 
 
What progress have you made?
Construction started in March 2010 and building works are now in progress to make the best of the south facing aspect. The eco refit is underway including all measures suggested in the SAP report. The builders are making great progress and we expect to move in by the end of June or at the beginning of July. The journey so far has been an educational and exciting experience.
The inefficient gas boiler and living room fire have now gone and the solar panels are on the roof. The new boiler, tank and related kit are in position, and some radiators in place, with a gadget to deal with Bath’s hard water. The walls have now new insulation while in the roof the rafters have been deepened by a couple of inches to take thick insulation board. The contractors have cleaned the removed stone for reuse.
 
How will this benefit you in the future?
As we are concerned about our negative effect upon the world we are glad to have the chance toreduce our footprint. A good measure of this is the Code for Sustainable Homes which consider the building and life it supports holistically. The ffields are aiming for Level 5 of the energy sections of the code. Overall we hope for an improved quality of living, both for ourselves and, ideally, globally.
This is an idea embodied in the Transition movement principles: moving from an unsustainable way of living and using better the Earth’s resources. We are convinced that this is a worthwhile investment; there will be energy savings, lower emissions and a reduction in associated costs.
With energy efficiency and carbon environmental impact going up the ffields are working towards a future for all. This will require additional adjustments to their lifestyle, regarding transport and patterns of food consumption – other aspects of the Transitions movement programme. It fits also with our national policy, the surest way to increase energy security is to design for less energy consumption in the first place. Energy conservation measures, which can result in significant financial savings, higher comfort levels and health benefits for UK citizens.
 

For the retrofit case study please click here.

Insulation Man – the Martin Chandler story

  Martin Chandler

Martin Chandler has worked in construction all his life. Some years ago he moved to Spain. He bought some land and decided to build his home himself rather than leave it to Spanish builders. The hot Spanish weather makes insulation essential. Many years later when Martin returned to the UK he noticed that his heating bills were literally going the roof and walls of his home. He decided to go for high levels of insulation and airtight construction on his home. As Martin says, "You wouldn’t open a window and start pushing £5 out through it but that’s what the average home owner in the UK does, due to a lack of airtightness and insulated build."

 
Martin is going to share his story with other local builders on our new ‘Sustainable Tick’ training programme and we recently filmed him at a project in Bath. See Martin’s website at www.thecleanfootprint.com  We need more builders like Martin if we are going to mainstream the upgrade of our existing housing stock! As Martin's website says, "To lead the orchestra you have to turn your back on the crowd." At CESW FF we really appreciate pioneers like Martin.

Sustainable ‘Tick’ for Local Small Builders

If we seriously want to achieve carbon reduction in our existing housing stock then we have to mainstream low carbon upgrade of existing homes. This means training the local builder. CESW are embarking on a region-wide training initiative with LABC to do this. The training will include low carbon techniques plus health and safety. We want to achieve a once a year 1-day update programme for the local builder delivered in partnership with LABC. See Martin Chandler story in the June/July 2010 issue of the CESW FF newsletter.  

 

Building Control Officers’ Safety Update

 

Pete CreeseCESW are working in partnership with HSE and the Working Well Together Campaign to give local building control officers a workshop on the topic of better coordination of health and safety. Pete Creese of ISG Pearce has toured the region on our behalf. Pete has a knack of making health and safety interesting. He once challenged a group of Cornish builders to guess the weight of a bag of sheep food. (Pete is Welsh and he keeps sheep.) When one of the audience read the weight off the packet he congratulated him on the fact that he could read! Things are never dull when Pete speaks and we sincerely thank him and ISG Pearce for their tremendous help with this important initiative.

Ten Tips for Design Health and Safety

 

Paul Clark

As RIBA prepare their next CPD programme, Paul Clark of Provelio has worked with HSE and CESW to prepare the training content and put together a ‘Ten Tips for CDM’ from a designer’s perspective.

Tom Harper says: "Whilst we have produced a great set of DVDs for designers which are RIBA CPD approved (see same link below), we felt that there was also room for a Ten Point Guide - anything that makes this subject easier to grasp has got to be a step forward. This short guide will be very helpful." The Ten Tips for CDM are currently listed on our website and will soon be available on the RIBA website. 

Construction Carbon Footprinting Survey

As part of a prgramme aiming to assess the feasibility of identifying a widely acceptable method for construction contractors to effectively measure and report their project-based carbon footprints to clients and principal contractors,  CIRIA, HVCA and ECA are surveying approaches to carbon footprinting buildings as products until 30th June.

The survey does not take long to complete. If you can spare a few minutes in the next few days please do take the opportunity to offer them your views and experiences. CESW/FF will be feeding into this initiative.

Do the survey or read more

Whole Life Carbon Film for Clients – it’s in the can!

 

 
 
Mark Wray is seen here being filmed at the exemplar Okehampton Business Park development. Mark was explaining a retrospective study that has been carried out by SWRDA on the whole life carbon performance of three recently completed buildings and SWRDA guidance for clients called 'Carbon Compass'. Three days intensive filming in Devon and Bristol has produced a great DVD (our second for clients!), with experts travelling from all over the UK to be filmed.
 
Whole life Carbon Assessment considers the carbon related emissions from the building over its entire life. This means that three phases of a building's life have been scoped. These are:
 
Initial Impacts
These are the emissions that occur before the building is put into operation and include the carbon embodied in the construction materials, as well as, the carbon emitted during the construction process.
 
Operational Impacts
These are the emissions that occur once the building is complete and operating and is essentially made up of operating emissions (day-to-day emissions from operating heating, ventilation, lighting and ancillary equipment) and maintenance emissions (embodied carbon of materials that need to be replaced during a building’s operating life)
 
End-of-life Impacts
These are the carbon emissions that occur at the end of a buildings useful life and are made up of deconstruction site related emissions and the emissions that result from construction materials being disposed into landfill.
 
Details of film purchase, those SWRDA studies, the SWRDA Carbon Compass Guide, and other relevant industry links are listed for you as "Key Information for Whole Life Carbon Assessment" – on our client films pages at http://www.buildsw.org.uk/clientsdvds

CESW FF Newsletter June 2010 - Editorial

 
CESW FF Director Tom Harper writes: 
How can we deliver change in industry performance more effectively, at lower cost and accessible to the widest possible audience? This requires ‘smart strategies’. In the last three months some of our dynamic new approaches to delivering change have started to bear fruit: two remarkable new films for clients are helping to spread good practice ‘top down’, and a major new initiative with LABC is working at local grassroots level to involve local small builders in the low carbon retrofit. All change requires true partnership and we are grateful to the wide range of people, companies and other organisations that we work with. There is a great sense of adventure and achievement when we all aim high, stick at it, and get a result. You will see further examples of ‘smart strategies’ in this newsletter and on our website. Whoever you are in construction, we aim to assist you.

 
I must also congratulate all winners and those highly commended and shortlisted for our recent South West Built Environment Awards, jointly organised again this year by CESW and CIOB – read about the celebratory Awards Dinner on 11th June in our article below.