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
sustainability
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.
sustainability
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.
Excess heat (2/8)
This is the second in an eight-part series of articles, Climate Change Adaptation in Buildings, examining the impact of climate change on the built environment, and the responses that can be made to ...
SustainabilityVentilation
Reduce embodied carbon from the start
Measure, compare and reduce upfront embodied carbon using trusted UK data and pre-built assemblies.
This is the first in an eight-part series of articles, Climate Change Adaptation in Buildings, examining the impact of climate change on the built environment, and the responses that can be made to ...
SustainabilityClimate change
Twelve faces of sustainability
Sustainability is a multi-dimensional concept. NBS Live on 26 November 2013 managed to cover many of the dimensions in a short space of time. How did they do it? Melanie Thompson of Get Sust! ...
Sustainability
An introduction to renewable materials
This article provides a definition of renewable materials and considers some common characteristics – carbon sinks, flammability and biodegradability. It derives from PRO 10 Renewable resources: an ...
Sustainability
WRAP - Recycling and Waste Reduction
The government's Strategy for Sustainable Construction (published in June 2008) aims to reduce waste from construction, demolition and excavation (“CD & E” waste) to 50% of 2008 figures by 2012. ...
SustainabilityVideo
Unstabilised rammed earth
As well as looking at the properties of rammed earth, or pise, this programme asks whether concrete should be added as a stabiliser, the issue of cost, and along the way we look at some high-profile failures and successes.
SustainabilityConstruction Products
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Now is the time to get sustainable!
We expect our buildings to be tested, certified and badged to prove they are 'sustainable', but what about the people who design, build and manage the buildings? With the new academic year dawning, ...
SustainabilityCPD
Ecobuild 2013 Round Table: State of the art
At Ecobuild 2013, John Gelder of RIBA Enterprises hosted a conversation with Sofie Pelsmakers of UCL and Architecture for Change, and Martin Townsend of BRE.
Sustainability
Code for Sustainable Homes - UPDATE 2011
This programme explains the main differences in the revised Code for Sustainable Homes and looks at where the Code is headed in the future.
SustainabilityVideo
Young people shape sustainable future
The shortage of affordable, sustainable housing is rightly grabbing the headlines, but we need to pay attention to the spaces between the homes if we want to create truly sustainable communities, as ...
SustainabilityClimate change
Achieving sustainability in construction projects
As part of the series of BITESized talks at the RIBA Village auditorium at Ecobuild 2013, Koko Udom of RIBA Enterprises discusses how to achieve sustainability in construction projects.
SustainabilityVideo
Wimbish Passivhaus
This programme will be of particular relevance to architects and developers with an interest in Passivhaus principles, and for those working on schemes where the aim is to achieve Level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH), and beyond.
