Delivering Sustainable Buildings: An Industry Insider's view

Description

The UK government has committed to reducing the nation’s carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. Buildings currently use almost half of the UK’s generated energy and they are now the focus of an unprecedented drive to cut energy use in our homes, offices, schools, libraries – in fact in almost every building, public or private.Delivering Sustainable Buildings: an industry insider’s view offers peer-to-peer insights and advice from a leading practitioner in this field and brings together in one book an overview of the main issues to consider when creating energy-efficient and sustainable buildings. A resource to dip into for practical advice, which is both highly readable and also backed up by in-depth technical knowledge, giving the important points to note and common pitfalls to avoid.  Based on observations of an author with hands-on experience of dealing with the various elements of the building services engineering industry, the book gives a unique insight into the particular challenges faced by designers, project managers, contractors and installers working to deliver lower carbon and sustainable building projects and operation.There is a lot of guidance on sustainable buildings available from reputable sources including BRE, CIBSE, B&ES, ECA and BSRIA. This book is different in that it speaks directly to contractors and practitioners, with practical messages dealing with real on-site challenges, offering practical advice based on experience. Many contractors are now faced with a business choice of offering services related to issues of the energy hierarchy, minimising energy use, providing good building automation and controls and then looking further at microgeneration/renewables.  Here they must decide what technologies might be suitable for their businesses, as well as considering what level of training is required before they or their employees can start to work with these technologies. Delivering Sustainable Buildings: an industry insider’s view will help specialist contractors and facilities managers understand sustainable buildings at the strategic level (legislation, finance, training) and then to offer practical advice on various aspects of sustainable buildings (water use, energy-efficient building services, commissioning and keeping the building maintained to optimum performance) to their clients.Content: Chapter 0 Introduction (pages 1–11): Chapter 1 Making the right choices – the sustainability dilemma (pages 13–24): Chapter 2 Planning ahead – the role of planning authorities (pages 25–36): Chapter 3 Legislative overview and meeting your legal obligations (pages 37–51): Chapter 4 Paying for it – the finance question (pages 53–65): Chapter 5 Delivering an energy?efficient and sustainable building (pages 67–79): Chapter 6 Managing energy and reducing its use (pages 81–98): Chapter 7 Water – a forgotten issue (pages 99–113): Chapter 8 Putting it together – the contractor's role (pages 115–127): Chapter 9 Main plant and building services – HVAC systems (pages 129–144): Chapter 10 Getting and keeping control – building energy management systems (pages 145–160): Chapter 11 Commissioning and handover for energy efficiency (pages 161–174): Chapter 12 Keeping it all going – the importance of maintenance to sustainability (pages 175–199): Chapter 13 The skills challenge (pages 201–212): Chapter 14 Changing behaviours (pages 213–219): Chapter 15 Putting my own house in order (pages 221–232): Chapter 16 Sharing our technology and expertise with the developed and developing world (pages 233–242):