Almost two years after the conflagration at Grenfell Tower that claimed 72 lives, the government has published a far-reaching consultation on how we build and operate multi-occupancy residential buildings. Hywel Davies outlines some of the more challenging proposals
Category: Opinion
Get smart: ensuring resilient power supply
ABB’s Russell Wood answers questions on how engineers can ensure resilience in smarter cities
Fossil futures?
Headlines have focused on Extinction Rebellion protests, teenage activist Greta Thunberg and the UK’s drive to be zero carbon by 2050, but the growing global fossil-fuel market underlines the scale of the challenge, says Hywel Davies
Climate action: what CIBSE is doing
The Institution has started mapping its activities around climate change, to allow members and others to understand and access the work being done. Julie Godefroy breaks down the main areas of action
Are we ready to switch to electric?
Decarbonisation of the Grid suggests a move from fossil fuels for heating, but Huw Blackwell says we are not ready to switch en masse
Going off track
As protestors caused chaos in Westminster, Committee on Climate Change witnesses claimed we were way behind with our energy-efficiency policies to meet current carbon dioxide emissions targets. Hywel Davies explain
Lessons from history
Bill Bordass warns about the ‘forgetting curve’ and looks again at the benefits of the 2+1 window
Method acting
After 15 years of mixed results, the Greater London Authority must take steps to ensure the methodology behind its new London Plan cuts emissions without exacerbating fuel poverty, says Cundall’s Simon Wyatt
Building design: a whole-carbon approach
To promote further understanding of how carbon should be minimised during a building’s lifetime, CIBSE co-hosted sessions at Futurebuild on embodied and operational carbon. Julie Godefroy outlines key outcomes
Back to the future
In February, the CCC gave a detailed analysis of the unreadiness of UK homes to handle climate change, while the Chancellor subsequently announced a new Future Homes Standard. Hywel Davies reports