Sustainability

Towards Sustainable building
In the UK, approximately 50% of energy is attributable in buildings, 25% in industry and 25% in transport. It becomes clear that the way we organise our cities and build our buildings is essential to reducing overall energy use.

Reducing building energy use
Currently approximately 90% of building energy use is ‘energy-in-use’. There is considerable knowledge about the design of energy-efficient buildings, which can reduce ‘energy in use’ by up to 75%. Building Regulations in the UK are also still inferior to those of many other European countries in terms of insulation standards to reduce heat loss. 

What is Sustainability?
The classic definition of sustainability comes from the Brundtland Report of the World Commission on Environment & Development of 1987, Our Common Future: "Sustainable development is development which meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

More simply: "An activity is sustainable if, for all practical purposes, it can continue for ever." Sustainability involves the maintenance of all our environmental resources. It implies the need to conserve both energy and material resources, to maintain biodiversity and to reduce pollution to stabilise planetary conditions.