sustainable

As we stand on the brink of potentially a major re-focus for the social housing sector and a new emphasis upon delivering affordable homes to meet an ever-growing demand, we must not lose sight of the need for maintaining quality, regulatory and environmental standards.

In the realm of fire safety, Vicaima has established itself as a leading manufacturer of timber doors and door kits, setting a benchmark in the industry with comprehensive certification and third-party accreditation. With a commitment to design quality and performance, Vicaima has consistently demonstrated its ability to produce doors that not only meet the needs of current living, but forever look to the future.  With an unwavering attention to sustainability goals, Vicaima products integrate seamlessly with the needs of the social build environment.

Panasonic has partnered with social housing provider, Together Housing, to deliver sustainable heating solutions to over 1,200 properties across the North of England. To date, Together Housing has switched hundreds of homes from gas boilers to Panasonic J Series Aquarea Monobloc air-to-water heat pumps. This year, the team is scheduled to retrofit a further 750 homes with many more to follow.

The impending introduction of Part L of the Building Regulations is the latest step on the journey to generate more low carbon and energy efficient social housing across the UK.

Add in the current unprecedented escalation in energy prices and the impending cost of living crisis for many tenants, and homes provided by the public sector must now, more than ever, be both sustainable and help to mitigate consumer energy cost worries.  

Stuart Nicholson from Marley says the strategic specification of proven, easy to install and energy efficient solar PV as part of a sustainable roofing solution, can have a positive impact for local authorities and their tenants.

With increasing pressure to specify building systems offering clearly defined sustainability, the use of materials that embody recycling as an inherent feature is becoming increasingly significant. Aluminium as a key building component is now used across a wide range of sectors and, as a matter of interest, is still very much the most valuable item in our recycling collection. From an emissions perspective, the use of pre and post-use aluminium greatly reduces energy consumption and adds tangible value to the economics of production. To put this into perspective, it saves around 95% of the energy consumed in the 'primary' production process.
For those specifying metal window and door systems, there is, therefore, a clear incentive to use a raw material that can be reused on an infinite basis. In terms of enabling building designs to achieve the highest level of BREEAM certification, aluminium can also provide tangible benefits when calculating an asset’s environmental, social and economic sustainability through the use of standards developed by BRE. In addition, it enhances specific aspects of technical performance such as thermal, acoustic and energy efficiency.

With pressure on the construction industry to utilise more sustainable building methods and product choices, specifying a PVC-U solution is increasingly being
seen as a way to further drive the green agenda.

Eurocell is supporting sustainability options for housebuilding and commercial projects through its market-leading PVC-U recycling and manufacturing processes that are substantially reducing the amount of plastic waste heading for landfill and helping to tackle the problem of carbon reduction. The company offers an extensive range of high performing PVC-U window and door solutions that not only look good,
but also help organisations satisfy their sustainability ambitions.

What do the pioneering ReFLEX Orkney project, the unique ‘Solopower’ solution, and the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Demonstrator all have in common? They are either led by or partnering with one innovative energy services company, SMS plc, which is on a mission to support housing organisations with long-term sustainability and fuel poverty targets.
The intelligent application of distributed green energy technologies – in tandem with new financing solutions that aim to make mass rollout across UK homes realistically deliverable and widely affordable – has potential not only to help Britain fully decarbonise, but also dramatically reduce rates of fuel poverty in the process.

On Thursday 1st July, Bath-based Consultancy Nine Feet Tall will be hosting a Virtual Round Table Event aimed at business and transformation leaders in the Housing sector.