A wide range of interesting articles that help you make informed decisions and deliver the best projects for your clients authored by our team of NBS subject specialists and construction industry contributors.
Sustainability
NBS Guide: Embodied Carbon Calculations
Learn how to align your carbon assessments with BIM workflows. This guide to Embodied Carbon Calculations, developed by NBS and Circular Ecology, sets out a practical, standardised approach to calculating the embodied carbon of building materials and products, and how to apply this data to BIM objects.
Must Reads
design-and-specification
The hidden cost of compliance: why architects are demanding a new era of product transparency
Few pieces of legislation have reshaped the UK construction industry as significantly as the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA). Introduced to improve accountability, traceability and safety standards ...
Design and Specification
Brick slip cladding systems – the need for robust specification
This article from the NBS technical team outlines specification for brick slip technology, including history, technology, design, safety and testing.
design-and-specification
When product data creates risk, AluK delivers the clarity and support architects need
The need to build more homes, more quickly, has not changed. If anything, the pressure has intensified. However, the conversation around Modern Methods of Construction has evolved.
Brick slip cladding systems – the need for robust specification
This article from the NBS technical team outlines specification for brick slip technology, including history, technology, design, safety and testing.
Design and SpecificationConstruction Products
Reduce embodied carbon from the start
Measure, compare and reduce upfront embodied carbon using trusted UK data and pre-built assemblies.
Best practice specification for modular construction products
Executive summary Modular construction aims to deliver projects more efficiently, with improved quality and a lower environmental impact. Its success, however, depends on careful specification at ...
Design and SpecificationStandards and Regulations
Our top webinars in 2025
In 2025, we hosted dozens of free events and webinars throughout the year to help construction professionals keep pace with regulatory change, sustainability expectations and digital transformation. ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
2025 Recap: The tools, insights and events moving construction forward
From advancing digital best practice and delivering new sustainability tools to driving industry conversations, this year at NBS has been defined by progress. Across our products, insights and ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
Specifying water efficiency
Introduction It is a common observation that the UK still thinks of itself as a ‘wet’ nation with ample reserves of fresh, flowing water. However, the droughts and significant water scarcity events ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
Key Takeaways from the Construction Leaders’ Summit 2025
The Construction Leaders’ Summit 2025, hosted by NBS, brought together leading voices from across the built environment, including architects, contractors, specifiers, and building product ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
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Refurbishing flat roof areas
I’m sure we’ve all been there: the client wants to refurbish their flat roof areas, and “Oh, while you’re at it, could you install a timber deck area where our staff could have barbecues and maybe a ...
Design and Specification
Specifying plant enclosure and platform systems
Plant enclosures and platform systems are essential components in modern building design. Typically, they provide structural support, noise attenuation, aesthetic improvement, and environmental ...
Design and SpecificationStandards and Regulations
Performance-based partition filtering now in NBS Source
The challenge NBS Source is a library of hundreds of thousands of systems and products from construction product manufacturers. Within this library, there are over 1000 different Gypsum board ...
Design and SpecificationConstruction Products
Specifying for biodiversity net gain
With BNG now firmly embedded in planning policy and practice, most specifiers – particularly architects and landscape architects – are familiar with its requirements. Since becoming mandatory for ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
Supporting smarter, lower-carbon design
The built environment is responsible for around 40% of global carbon emissions and in the UK, new build construction alone accounts for approximately 25% of the country’s total emissions. On most ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
The EU Construction Products Regulations 2024 and Digital Product Passports
Background This article is about the rules concerning placing construction products on the market in the United Kingdom. It has been written in light of the EU Construction Product Regulations 2024 ...
