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.
NBS Sustainability Survey 2012
Richard Waterhouse, CEO, NBS and RIBA Enterprises introduces the 2012 NBS Sustainability Survey...
SustainabilitySurveys
Reduce embodied carbon from the start
Measure, compare and reduce upfront embodied carbon using trusted UK data and pre-built assemblies.
In 2013 architects face uncertainty in volumes of work, but steadily increasing demand for more sustainability in outcomes, i.e. built environment projects that deliver economic and social value, and ...
SustainabilityGovernment policy
A seismic shift in the wrong direction
Back in February 2012, Melanie Thompson of Get Sust! wondered what, if anything, the new chief at DECC would deliver. It took a while to build up steam, but by the end of the year Ed Davey's ...
SustainabilityClimate change
Ecological consequences
While the UK government reports on the success of its natural environment policy, scientists have found that top-down environmental protection strategies can be counter-productive. It's a complex ...
SustainabilityGovernment policy
Building sustainable role models
As well as providing many outstanding athletic performances, the London 2012 Olympic Games have put sustainability back on the agenda. Our athletes are being rightly heralded as fantastic role models ...
SustainabilitySports grounds
Earth Bricks
If the construction industry's attitude towards the environment today is compared with that of 25 years ago, it is apparent that modern practices have more empathy with natural materials. Industry ...
Sustainability
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Solar power and the Feed In Tariff
The government encouraged domestic property owners to: "invest in small-scale low-carbon electricity in return for a guaranteed payment for the electricity they generate and use... as well as a ...
SustainabilityVideo
RIBA Guide to Sustainability in Practice
On Tuesday 20 March 2012, the Royal Institute of British Architects launched an invaluable new sustainability guide for architects at Ecobuild.
SustainabilityVideo
Architects and the Green Deal
The much talked about, but apparently little understood, Green Deal is due to come into force in October 2012.The initiative will see millions of pounds loaned to building owners in a drive to make their properties more energy efficient. In this studio programme we look at how the Green Deal will work in practice, and identify opportunities it may offer to architects and other construction professionals.
SustainabilityVideo
New broom sweeps in at DECC
Just last week (7 February 2012) the government published the most up-to-date data on UK greenhouse gas emissions. Things don't look too good: despite a dip in emissions in the previous year due to ...
Sustainability
Retrofit - meeting 2050 carbon targets
In this programme we look at two very different properties that have been retrofitted as part of the TSB trial: a London terrace house, and a modern semi-detached property in Crawley, Sussex.
SustainabilityVideo
BREEAM 2011
This programme explores the key drivers for and changes in the new document compared to the 2008 version.
