Most people think that car emissions and plane emissions are the main problems in leaving a bad carbon footprint behind us, but that's not necessarily
Most people think that car emissions and plane emissions are the main problems in leaving a bad carbon footprint behind us, but that’s not necessarily true. Energy used by the buildings in their lighting and heating composes 50% of UK’s carbon monoxide emissions, and the production of building materials add up another 10%.
But that’s not all, building materials makeup one-third of the total waste amount in the UK and to make things worse twenty percent of all building materials are dumped on the spot. The construction sector which makes ten percent of UK’s economy is starting a path towards ecologically sustainable future.
A group of 36 leading construction companies in the UK launched the UK Green Building Council which has the goal to improve “”building environment”” in the period of next ten years. The idea behind the project is to unite one very fragmented industry around a core set of purposes. The industry needs to set itself a set of achievable goals in the next six months period.
Their goal is three zeroes, zero carbon, zero water and zero waste. Sustainability will have to be ensured in all production levels – starting with providing money, to design, over the operation and at the end – marketing. Truth to be told, the environment isn’t the only reason to fight waste, because, at the bottom line, the companies are sure to have profit at the end of it all.
The problem in the industry these days is that a lot of customers are asking from the construction companies that their new homes become more eco-friendly which wasn’t a concern before. This doesn’t reflect just on new buildings too. Many old buildings are the subjects of renovation and improvement of insulation which is a move towards a greener environment.
This would also improve the situation of many old people who live in houses where they can’t afford fuel based heating, and these new forms of insulation would significantly improve their financial situation.
According to GBC, 30 percent of carbon emissions could be cut without problem with the technology that we use nowadays. In the construction circles, it is said that with sound insulation, the need for heating could disappear. The problem with a large part of the industry is that it is trapped in the old way of thinking. The technology is on point and just needs to be implemented in the process of modernisation.
The far reaching goal of the GBC is to drastically reduce harmful carbon emissions until 2050, and that is the primary goal that the company has set for its distant future. The GBC saw its debut at the Ecobuild trade show which had a great number of people who visited it (it was twice the size of the last year edition) which shows a keen interest in improved and eco-friendly materials.
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