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.
Ska Rating – The environmental assessment tool for sustainable fit-outs
The new tool is designed to help organizations achieve more sustainable fit-outs. Anybody interested in fitting out an office building in a more environmentally sustainable way can use the method to ...
SustainabilityVideo
Reduce embodied carbon from the start
Measure, compare and reduce upfront embodied carbon using trusted UK data and pre-built assemblies.
NBS Building, NBS Landscape and NBS Engineering Services have been updated significantly during Updates 2009-3 and 2010-1 and now include extensive guidance on the BRE Environmental Assessment Method ...
Sustainability
Biodiversity: the new challenge for architecture
The political focus on global warming has tended to reduce the importance architects attach to protecting biodiversity. Yet the impact architecture has upon ecosystems, both at the building and ...
Sustainability
Construction Health and Safety
In 2001 the Government promised to look at construction health and safety. A document was produced called Revitalising health and safety, which produced some challenging targets, including:
SustainabilityGovernment policy
Designing for biodiversity
Biodiversity (biological diversity) sustains the living systems that provide us with health, food and fuel, all of which are vital for our quality of life and the long-term sustainability of our ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
BREEAM and the Plan of Work
Sustainable development is becoming an everyday part of life for property developers, designers and contractors, as many people both inside and outside the construction industry are demanding that ...
SustainabilityRIBA Plan of Work
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UK Government timber procurement policy and BREEAM
Nick Moss, of the Central Point of Expertise on Timber Procurement , discusses the importance of the UK government timber procurement policy and its relevance to BREEAM.
SustainabilityTimber
Healthy, efficient and sustainable buildings
In this exclusive extract from The Whole Building Handbook: How to Design Healthy, Efficient and Sustainable Buildings by Varis Bokalders and Maria Block, we look at the increasingly pressing need to ...
SustainabilityClimate change
The role of mycorrhiza for plants in stressed environments
In a changing climate, horticulturalists and landscape professionals are looking for ways to ensure the establishment and healthy growth of plants, whilst minimizing the use of both water and ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
Compost specifications for the landscape industry
Working with the Landscape Institute (LI) , the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) and leading consultants Enviros, NBS collaborated in a project led by the Waste and Resources Action ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
The growth of living walls
A growing trend for green walls is emerging, boosting biodiversity in our towns and cities. According to a recent report by the UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC) , Biodiversity and the Built ...
Design and SpecificationSustainability
Sustainable architecture
In the past there has been a perception in some quarters that "green" buildings are worthy but dull. This is a misconception, and good design and sustainability can indeed go hand in hand, with a ...
