sustainability
Water conservation is the key to reducing energy bills. Heating water accounts for nearly 1/5th of energy use in UK homes.
Reducing hot water demand is an effective way to help occupants conserve energy and reduce bills. Some uses are fixed, e.g. the washing machine or dishwasher. However, many are not.
Peter McAteer, CEO of Sysmax, the compliance, risk and competency software platform now deploying across housing providers and contractors, discusses scalable solutions to solve the Golden Thread and Building Safety Act compliance and competency management conundrum which the sector is currently wrestling with.
Born of involvement in some of the biggest industrial disasters in history, including Piper Alpha and Deep Water Horizon, I established Sysmax driven by a passion for, in its simplest terms, ensuring people with the right skills are in right place, doing things properly. After many years of investing to get Sysmax recognised as ‘the competency and compliance platform against which all others are judged’ in the oil and gas industry, we decided to share our software’s unparalleled benefits across other sectors. After all, whether in energy, manufacturing, farming, utilities, tourism and even on Hollywood movie sets, we need competency and compliance to keep things safe and efficient. The Grenfell tragedy resonated deeply with me due to personal loss and threat to my own and my family’s lives. I offered to be an expert witness based on two highly explosive properties I had experienced. The publication of the Hackitt Report made social housing and the construction supply chain appropriate markets for our platform.
ISO Chemie’s thermal insulating and load bearing bracket support system and sealing tapes have been specified for a new energy improvement initiative being carried out by a northern housing association.
The move sees WINFRAMER units being retrofitted at three 1940s – 1960s built houses in Northallerton and Stokesley as part of Yorkshire-based Broadacre Housing Association’s (BHA) pilot project. This will eventually bring hundreds of poorly insulated properties up to zero carbon ready standards and provide improved housing for BHA customers along with long-term cost savings.
Daniel Lintell, Sustainability Manager at Triton Showers, discusses why energy efficient electric showers are perfectly placed to make a difference when it comes to sustainability, and explains what Triton is doing to lead the market and help housing providers move towards a more environmentally friendly future.
71 per cent of UK adults think we’re in a large ‘climate emergency’ but serious divides emerge when it comes to levels of personal responsibility for tackling it.
• 71 per cent of UK adults think we’re in a large climate emergency.
• 37 per cent of UK adults feel ‘powerless’; 32 per cent ‘frustrated’; 29 per cent ‘anxious’ about climate change.
• 68 per cent of UK adults think that global action to tackle climate change needs to begin immediately but they are divided over how much personal responsibility they have in helping to tackle climate change:
- 43 per cent say they have a large personal responsibility.
- 46 per cent feel they have little or no personal responsibility. Of these individuals, 30 per cent said there are too many conflicting opinions about climate change, 26 per cent said they can’t afford to make any changes, and 16 per cent said they don’t know where to start.
• In the next five years, 41 per cent of UK adults said they would be willing to reduce how often they eat meat and animal products on a weekly basis to help lower their carbon footprint.