Association for Environment Conscious Building
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The Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB) is the leading[
Low-carbon building
While the AECB recognises that all aspects of
Low-carbon standards
To promote low-carbon building, the association has developed three advanced energy standards, in order to provide three steps to low energy and low carbon buildings achievable by the UK over the next 40 years. These standards are largely based on the methodology and principles underlying the German Passivhaus movement, developed by the
The AECB standards are : the New Building Standard, Retrofit Standard 1 and Retrofit Standard 2.
The AECB has aimed these Standards at those wishing to create high-performance buildings using widely available technology at little or no extra cost. It estimates that these low-risk options, will reduce overall CO₂ emissions by 70% compared with the UK average for buildings of each type – a result it feels is highly significant given the relative ease and low cost with which these standards could be met.
The AECB, believing that rigorous alternative approaches based on successful overseas' experience for sustainable design and construction have a complementary place alongside UK government initiatives, has been lobbying for the Government's Code for Sustainable Homes to be aligned with its CLP, or at least for the CLP (despite its methodological and base-line measuring differences) to be treated as an alternative official route for effectively designing and delivering low energy and low carbon buildings. The AECB has taken the stance of inviting the design and construction industry to judge for itself, based on actual real world performance of the resulting buildings, which low carbon design codes and programmes best deliver genuinely low energy and low carbon performance cost effectively.
Low Energy Buildings Database
A guiding principle of the AECB is to focus on what really works in practice, to deliver buildings with genuinely improved environmental performance. The AECB established the Low Energy Buildings Database with the support of the
The database includes information on both refurbishment and new build projects, in both the domestic and non-domestic sectors. The database shows the performance of each building, in both figures and clearly presented graphs. Design intention can easily be compared with built reality, and projects can easily be compared with each other. For each project you can see detailed design strategies, descriptions and illustrations of the building type, the measures taken and technologies employed. As the monitoring figures accumulate, the database will offer increasing numbers of well-illustrated and robust benchmarks for the energy and carbon performance levels that can be achieved, across a wide range of building types.
Less is More
On 30 January 2012 the AECB released its report Less is More: Energy Security after Oil
Less is More contends that an electric future is more costly and could be slower to deliver significant CO2 reductions than the alternatives. Vigorous pursuit of energy efficiency, plus
Less is More contains a critique of the dysfunctionality of UK energy markets. The authors note that water is supplied by vertically-integrated and regulated local monopolies, which have access to capital at near-public sector interest rates, especially if they are debt-funded. They pose the question of why such arrangements cannot be used again in the energy sector, paralleling as it happens the situation with some private US utilities and with utilities in Denmark. The report does not offer the prospect of an easy path to energy independence and decarbonisation. It makes it very clear that all options pose acute difficulties. But it warns policy-makers not to reject technologies just because they appear difficult without making sober comparisons with the reality of the other technologies under consideration.[5]
Other AECB Resources
The AECB followed up Less is More with the Post-Fossil Fuel Building Construction and Materials report and continues to publish original material, training courses and podcasts. In 2022, it launched its own free magazine "Setting the Standard" which contains original commentary, analysis and thought pieces from the world of sustainable, green building.
See also
References
- ^ "Technology Strategy Board - stimulating UK innovation - innovateuk". Archived from the original on 8 February 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
- ^ "Contractor License Bond Pros - General Liability Insurance and Surety Bonds". Contractor License Bond Pros - General Liability Insurance and Surety Bonds.
- ^ Ll, AECB PO Box 32. "Less is More : Energy Security after Oil".
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "The Fourth Carbon Budget Review - part 2: the cost effective path to the 2050 target".
- ^ Extract from Foreword by Prof. Robert Lowe Deputy Director and Prof. Tadj Oreszczyn, Director Energy Institute, UCL