Tackling climate change: The energy performance of new residential buildings in the UK

Purpose: Using the new build residential sector in England as its basis, this study examines how climate change is being tackled, and analyses the practicality of implementing the current carbon dioxide and energy requirements proposed by UK legislation, sustainability codes, and local authority planning requirements. Design/methodology: The paper outlines the current climate change facts, analyses the global, national, regional and local requirements for energy strategy and highlights the differences that have been found. The impact of different design strategies on achieving the various requirements is then modelled, using case study data. Findings: The preliminary findings of this study show that there are many conflicts in the interpretation on the requirements at different levels and that the methods being used in the residen- tial sector in England to tackle climate change are fraught with problems. They also show that the current additional cost of a sustainable building is prohibitively high. In order to success- fully implement environmentally sustainable solutions, there is a need for clearer regulations, guidelines and definitions, and for significant incentives. Practical implications and value of paper: The study highlights the difficulties of implementing the energy and carbon dioxide commitments using the UK as its basis and makes a number of recommendations to make the implementation successful and to overcome the existing barriers

Reducing climate change in the UK: the discrepancies between strategy and implementation in the domestic building sector

Purpose of this paper: Using the new build residential sector in England as its basis, this study examines how climate change is being tackled, and the practicality of implementing various commitments of current and proposed UK legislation. Design/methodology/approach: This paper outlines the current climate change facts, analyses the global, national, regional and local requirements for energy strategy and highlights the differences that have been found. The impact of different design strategies on achieving the various requirements is then modelled, using case study data. The design strategies tested in this case study includes the use of different levels of fabric insulation and airtightness, ventilation strategies, fuel types, and renewable energy systems. Findings: The preliminary findings of this study show that the methods being used in the residential sector in England to tackle climate change are fraught with problems and that there are many conflicts in the interpretation of the requirements at different levels. They also show that the current additional cost of a sustainable building are prohibitively high. In order to successfully implement environmentally sustainable solutions, there is a need for clearer regulations, guidelines and definitions, and for significant incentives. Practical implications/value of the paper: The study highlights the difficulties of implementing the UK energy and carbon dioxide commitments and makes a number of recommendations to make the implementation successful and to overcome the existing barriers

Sustainable buildings that encourage sustainable behaviour

This paper represents the ongoing study of theory and practice in relation to the development of sustainable buildings and the embedding of sustainable features to optimise their potential for teaching and learning about sustainability. It is hoped this will lead not only to a raising of awareness of the impact of buildings on the natural environment but to enable people to positively change their behaviours in terms of economic, environmental and social sustainability in and around their own built environments. The primary focus of the research is on the design, construction and use of the Twickenham River Centre as a leading example of sustainable design with environmental education at its heart

Assessment of flexible operation in an LNG plant

Process industries are becoming increasingly reliant on electrical power for reasons of efficiency and sustainability. A large industrial site typically has its own power management system to distribute electricity to the process and to manage electrical contingencies such as partial loss of supply. Recent work has illustrated more flexible alternatives to load shedding whereby an industrial process plant can continue to operate at a lower level making use of available electrical power. This paper presents a way for achieving such flexibility in a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant. It analyzes the consequences for production of varying the consumed power, and assesses the maximum flexibility within the feasible operating envelope of the process. The study has been conducted by modeling and simulation of an LNG plant using the Linde process with three refrigeration cycles. The results also show the relationships between electrical power consumption and production in terms of production rate and product characteristics. They also show that the vapour-liquid equilibrium plays a crucial role in establishing the operating points and setting the boundaries in which the process has to work. Thus, through the assessment and simulation of an LNG plant, this work demonstrates that flexible operation has benefits over alternatives. It achieves more operating points and therefore adds more flexibility

An Evaluation of the Timing and Use of Healthcare during Pregnancy in Birmingham, UK and Pretoria, South Africa

Objective. A pilot study to compare the rates of antenatal healthcare use in Birmingham, UK and Pretoria, South Africa, and identify differences in knowledge and perception of antenatal healthcare. Subjects. 62 women, 31 at each location <24 hours after delivery. Results. Women from Birmingham use healthcare services earlier (P ≤ .0001) and more often during pregnancy (P ≤ .0001). Women from Birmingham identified more conditions that may affect pregnancy (median 6 versus 3 reasons) and were less aware of HIV. In addition they perceived antenatal healthcare as relatively more important for advice and reassurance about pregnancy, whilst women from Pretoria had more problems with transport and clinic overcrowding. Conclusions. Increasing education on the importance of antenatal healthcare and medical problems during pregnancy may help improve antenatal healthcare use in Pretoria. Improving transport links and overcrowding in clinics in Pretoria may also help increase use. Measuring maternal outcomes and confirming these findings in a larger population are important for future studies

Lean and Sustainable Construction: A Systematic Critical Review of 25 Years of IGLC Research

Questions: Are there connections and trade-offs between Lean Construction (LC) and Sustainable Construction (SC)? If so, what is needed to support their integration in theory and practice? What are the gaps in knowledge and the opportunities for bringing closer linkage between research and practice? Purpose: A growing body of knowledge has been emerging from the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC) community, in relation to synergies between LC and Sustainability. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to critically review the progress made towards integrating LC and SC in theory and practice, in order to provide a conceptual consolidation of this knowledge. Research Method: A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of ‘LC and Sustainability’ studies published in proceedings of the IGLC annual conferences over the past 25 years, using a qualitative approach to research synthesis. Findings: This study presents the main synergies and inconsistencies between LC and SC, reveals the main limitations in approaches to LC and SC, exposes potential enablers for integrating LC and SC, and divulges opportunities for further research Limitations: This SLR study only includes peer-reviewed papers published by the IGLC and excludes the wider construction literature. Implications: The findings of this study advance the research agenda providing the potential to develop sustainable improvements in practice

An evaluation of heating strategy, thermal environment and carbon emissions in three UK churches

Church buildings are an important part of our cultural heritage and their preservation is critical. Many are in poor condition, and now provide community activities in addition to religious worship. This requires reconsideration of environmental needs, and upgrading of services to provide efficient, comfortable and healthy conditions. Churches contain many culturally valuable artefacts and materials that are sensitive to the environment, yet have survived for centuries in their natural environment. Most churches in the UK have had heating installed, causing damage as a result of fluctuating conditions during intermittent occupancy. This study evaluates the optimum environmental needs for comfort and conservation and shows an overlap between these two areas if carefully considered. The performance of three churches has been measured, and the findings show that system selection has a significant impact on energy consumption, efficiency and cost, and that occupancy must be accounted for when considering the most appropriate solutions

Post occupancy evaluation of social housing designed and built to Code for Sustainable Homes Levels 3, 4 and 5

In the housing sector, carbon emissions arise primarily through the consumption of energy to heat, light and ventilate our homes. Significant improvements in UK housing energy performance have been driven both by changes in legislation, and by the introduction of the Code for Sustainable Homes in 2007. Compliance with certain levels of this Code has been adopted as policy by Local and Regional Authorities, and social housing providers. The evaluation of the performance of low carbon housing requires the assessment of increasingly complex building services technology, and occupant behaviour. This added services complexity, and the expectation that tenants understand how to use it, has led to a number of unintended consequences which have resulted in a higher risk of performance failure. This study comprises the detailed evaluation of seven new social housing dwellings, designed and built to Code levels 3, 4 and 5, including comprehensive environmental monitoring, measurements of the consumption and generation of resources, and social surveys of the occupants. The results show that as the Code levels increase there is a reducing energy and water consumption rate, and an increasing energy generation rate, but only at the expense of a significantly increased risk of services system failure

iRun: a situational, neo-assemblage perspective of information and records in running.

Running is a popular leisure activity, and there is great interest and use of data and information amongst its participants. Researching information about running has attracted scholarly attention in human-computer interaction (HCI) and digital sociology through self-tracking studies. There has also been limited attention in research on information behaviour upon embodied representations in short-term information use. Archival science has not considered long term running data practices despite some runners keeping information about their leisure pursuits for a long time. Both information behaviour and archival science have attempted to understand personal information and record creation contexts outside of running. This study provides a new lens to understand the interconnected complexity between people who run, technology and information environments. It uses the concept of the neo-assemblage to achieve this understanding. The research also gives a renewed understanding of the types of information runners collect and use, whether they value their running information, and to what extent runners are concerned about its long- term existence and third party involvement with their data. An innovative mobile method using a 360-degree action camera collected data whilst the researcher ran with four participants asking them questions. The four participants then participated in virtual interviews to understand how they used information created during their running. A virtual interview method collected data from four more participants about their information use in their running activities. The researcher applied situational analysis and a complementary neo-assemblage theory analysis to the collected data. Runners use both embodied information and information derived from devices when running. Both types of information are valuable to a runner’s short-term running goals. Most participants gave little thought to their represented information in the distant future. There is evidence that such information can have emotional meaning for some participants because it is central to their running identity. There was very little concern about how third parties held their personal information, such as running watch companies. Underscoring this is using the neo-assemblage theory lens to understand the interrelated complexity of the human, information and technology in these findings. The originality of this work is drawing together the study of information behaviour and archival science in a poststructural perspective using situational analysis and neo- assemblage theory. The result contributes a new perspective on the complex relationships between embodied and recorded forms of information, including records, people, and technology. This thesis makes an empirical contribution by documenting the creation and use of information during and after physical activity. This thesis contributes to data collection methods by considering the ethical implications and practicalities of recording data with a 360-degree camera. This data capture method led to a further contribution in using a virtual reality viewer as an immersive technology for data analysis