Green Deal Update

This seminar will be presented by Asset Skills on behalf of the Green Skills Alliance (Asset Skills, CITB-ConstructionSkills, SummitSkills).

The GSA acts as a one-stop-shop to advise employers looking to become involved in Green Deal. We can offer information on the likely business opportunities for Green Deal advisors and installers, as well as how Green Deal sits within the wider energy efficiency agenda for the built environment.

This seminar will specifically focus on the Green Deal as a vehicle for achieving sustainable retrofit within the existing housing stock. It will include discussions on the important role that housing associations can play and how Green Deal advice can act as a gateway to energy consultancy.

Presented by Asset Skills (A member of The Green Deal Skills Alliance)

Energy reduction for buildings in use

The Green Deal is the government's new 'energy saving' flagship designed to be the main driver for the UK to meet it's global obligations for carbon reduction targets originally set at Kyoto in 1997. 

This presentation will provide an informed assessment of some of the methods and measures available to reduce energy use, and how they might integrate with the Green Deal.

Retrofit of energy saving measures can be notoriously difficult, not only to implement, but most importantly to realise a positive result as a consequence. The presentation will examine some of the pitfalls and difficulties that are likely to be encountered by building owners and installers in striving to meet their obligations under the Green Deal's 'Golden Rule'.

Mark Wilson is a Chartered Architectural Technologist and practitioner in architectural and building design solutions. He has a passion for building design technology and innovation that is affecting the construction industry now and that which will govern its future. He has also developed BuildingDesignExpert.com which provides a free web based information hub to construction industry professionals

Presented by Mark Wilson MCIAT

Sustainability by BIM means

BIM is currently concerned with improving traditional methods and processes in the creation of a project lifecycle information asset whatever the scale or duration of the project. This may be thought of as overhauling the traditional design and construct activity. Government policy aims at achieving these highly significant changes to basics as quickly as possible.

As the construction industry adopts improved co-operative and co-ordination methods, there are far wider applications of BIM on the horizon for the way we create and maintain the built environment.

BIM principles offer the ability to explore a wider and more holistic view of sustainability and provide owners, designs constructors users and operators with additional eco-friendly ways of managing their property stock. The BIM information asset is a valuable resource for confronting the challenges of sustainability

BIM techniques can inform the procurement of environment friendly materials, help conserve energy and contribute to there being less waste.

The challenge is to use the BIM context to formulate and make better decisions about the environment. This presentation gives a few pointers to the way this might be achieved.

Presented by The Construction Industry Council

Assessing and Reducing the risks of greener construction

Innovative "eco" products and conventional building materials, which use new greener raw materials, may now pose inherent risks due to lack of evidence of long term reliability and safety.

As a result procurement and specification professionals should consider the need to interrogate manufacturers and revisit bibles of specification documents to exclude themselves from potential liability claims.

Specifiers should interrogate manufacturers to ensure that listed chemicals are not present in their products. They might also ask to be made aware of products that have been subject to REACH regulations and be informed of the nature of any substitutes including data that demonstrates (or otherwise) a continuation of performance quality.

For many in industry, REACH will appear as a draconian and potentially ruinous intervention, but to others, concerned with public health and the environment, it is a long-awaited development that will help boost initiatives and legislation that promote a healthier and more sustainable future