Almost 50% of UK carbon dioxide emissions come from buildings and around 10% come from the manufacture, transportation and erection of building materials. The construction industry produces around 120,000,000 tonnes of waste a year. You may not be called George Wimpey and may only tinker with a little DIY at weekends, but you can still make a difference by being actively eco-friendly.
A DTI consultation document of 2007 raised the interesting point that achieving zero carbon emissions is impossible for most buildings in most locations in the UK. What is achievable, with effort, is a 75% reduction on the UK average. This gives a target of 1 tonne of CO2/year for homes and 25kg of CO2/year/m2 for non-domestic buildings such as shops, offices, the National Gallery etc.
Hopefully the following pages will help you get there.
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