Problems resulting from absent insulation: - Tony Cowling has returned to the family home that he visited during the DraughtBusters project, as reported in the last issue of Green Building (Autumn 2013, Volume 23, No 2, page 16). This home had lots of problems and his team returned to undertake further remedial work. Here Tony explains what they did...

Worcestershire sustainability - Worcestershire County Council has long delivered high quality, environmentally sustainable buildings, but in 2010 a new Framework gave the Council the opportunity to go even further. Andrew Peasgood, Framework Manager for the West Midlands Contractor Framework at Worcestershire County Council, explains how they’ve got on...

Passivhaus refurb: - Groovy wood-clad eco-houses in stunning rural settings, sharply angular, striking contemporary urban design : we’ve grown used to images of visually exciting ‘green’ developments, but what if your passive build project centres on a typical 1970’s family home? Many people are delaying planned house moves until confidence in the economy and the property market pick up. House extensions and refurbishments represent a safer option, and after a bitterly cold winter with increasing concern about rising fuel heating costs, improvements in insulation and fuel economy are high on the priority list. But is it possible to integrate advanced passive house technology and up-to-the-minute design into a forty year-old home – and at a manageable cost and without overly complex building works? Helen Beare reports...

Living in a Passivhaus: - By now, we’ve all heard about Passivhaus - the latest 'Holy Grail' of the green building world, Passivhaus has, until recently, been a rarity introduced with phrases such as ‘German technology’, ‘common on the Continent’ ‘Scandinavian design’. Now Passivhaus is gaining acceptance in the UK. Over the last 5 years increasing numbers have been constructed in Britain, not just private homes, but also social housing, schools, and offices. A growing trend – but what is it like to occupy one? Well, we asked Olwyn Pritchard to go and find out...

Best practice sourcing: - Responsible sourcing of materials is becoming increasingly important. Consumers are more discerning; clients want to be reassured that they are not buying into something that has a hidden unethical or damaging background. Marks such as ‘Fair Trade’, ‘Soil Association’, ‘FSC’ and ‘Rainforest Alliance’ have become familiar benchmarks against which we measure our day to day purchases, confident in the knowledge that people and/or the planet have not been exploited in order to provide those goods. The construction industry is no exception; the right accreditation can make all the difference in winning a tender. Derek Hughes and John Garbutt report...

Karuna rises!: - In the Spring 2012 edition of Green Building magazine we covered the history behind Karuna and the granting of planning permission for this low impact dwelling on a greenfield wildlife, nature friendly site in Shewsbury. A successful crowd funding campaign raised £6000 towards building the foundations and floor...

Airtightness in retrofit (cover story): - Renovating and retrofitting an existing property is challenging for so many reasons. When you add the requirement for airtightness to this it throws up a whole new bunch of challenges and expectations, many of which builders are still to learn how best to approach. Kate Ball has kindly taken the time out to tell us of some of those challenges and how the design and build team helped her achieve the objectives that she had hoped for...

Porters - a carbon negative home: - “We had been away for a week so we lit the stove for a few hours and we haven’t lit it since, that was a month ago”. 15th May 2013 - David Learmonth explaining his amazement at the minimal heating required for his home, and the brilliant use of solar thermal. During the freezing winter of 2012 a 3 hour burn on his small log stove, with back boiler, provided all the heating and hot water requirements for a 24 hour period. On days with winter sun, the solar thermal charged the thermal store sufficiently for a day’s energy requirements instead. Pat Wilkinson introduces us to 'Porters', a home built by his company, Touchwood Homes ...

AECB Local Groups: - The AECB has a network of local groups across the UK. These provide a great opportunity to meet with fellow AECB members. For more details of dates and venues visit the AECB website (www.aecb.net) or contact debbie@aecb.net. The following reports from local group events give a flavour of some of the activities you could get involved with. Members are keen to share their knowledge and expertise on different aspects of sustainable building.

Also:
The forum debate
Insiders - reports from around the industry

And loads more. 64 pages

VAT applies to this product (UK only).