Sustainability

Industry figures have criticised Rishi Sunak for creating uncertainty and confusion after he pushed back climate targets on home insulation, boiler replacement and electric cars. Yesterday (20 September), the prime minister scrapped plans to force landlords to upgrade their properties to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C or above by 2025.…

Major installer bodies have launched a coalition body that is working on a plan to address the green-skills crisis. The new Engineering and Building Services Skills Authority (EBSSA) will bring together existing members of engineering-services alliance Actuate UK with other bodies, including energy-infrastructure-technologies trade association BEAMA and the Chartered Institute…

LHC Procurement Group wants specialist contractors to help shape a new energy-efficient retrofit and decarbonisation framework for public sector buildings and social housing. The non-profit public sector construction framework provider will open a market-engagement and feedback process on 20 September on initial proposals for its Decarbonisation and Retrofit (N9) framework.…

The government has announced measures to lift the effective ban on onshore windfarms following a concerted backbench campaign. Pressure from rebel Tory MPs has been led by COP26 president Sir Alok Sharma to scrap a rule that allowed English local authorities to reject an application to build a windfarm on…

The Building Research Establishment (BRE) is to discard its NABERS energy performance rating tool in order to focus on the better-known BREEAM scheme. A new administrator is being sought for the UK version of NABERS – a system for measuring the energy efficiency of office buildings – after BRE announced…

Housebuilders have given a warm welcome to government plans to scrap regulations aimed at mitigating river pollution in a move ministers said could allow thousands more homes to be built in the next decade. An amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill repealing EU-era requirements for nutrient neutrality on…

Balfour Beatty Group's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions rose last year, official documents have revealed. The business, a major subsidiary of the UK's largest contractor, reported an 18 per cent rise in its scope 1 and 2 emissions. This figure, calculated using the standard market-based approach, means the entity was responsible…

Insurance firm Aviva has announced that it is expanding its “underwriting appetite” to include engineered timber in commercial developments. There is growing interest in the use of timber to increase buildings’ sustainability and meet net-zero targets. But Aviva admitted earlier this month that insurers’ appetite for risk had not kept…

The construction industry is on track for less than half of its government-backed “net-zero priorities”, according to the Construction Leadership Council (CLC). The CLC has published its sixth progress update to its CO2nstruct Zero Performance Framework, which was launched at COP26 in November 2021 as a universal tool to collect…

The City of London Corporation is calling for urgent action and investment to meet “growing demand” for workers with the skills needed to deliver sustainable buildings. The Skills for Sustainable Skyline Taskforce report, released by the organisation on 9 August, said one of the biggest barriers to tackling the built…