Energy management in the built environment: a review of best practice

Posted on: 1 February 2012
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ISBN 97818480623451  £35.00

This new report explains a step-by-step approach to energy management, together with the use of a matrix tool for implementing energy management initiatives in an organisation. The tool can help identify areas for improvement, prioritise energy management activities and maximise benefits. It also examines how data from sources such as BREEAM assessments, energy audits, energy performance certificates, display energy certificates and monitoring and targeting can underpin energy management, and addresses asset and operational performance and discusses how information from both is needed to adequately assess the energy performance of a building

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Changing focus? How to start taking adaptive capacity seriously

Posted on: 1 February 2012
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Drawing on evidence from the Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA) project, a research and advocacy consortium in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Uganda, this Briefing Paper aims to understand better how different kinds of development interventions affect the characteristics of adaptive capacity.

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Resilience: A risk management approach

Posted on: 1 February 2012
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This Background Note explores the concept of ‘resilience’ in relation to framing current thinking about sustainable futures and investigates whether a common definition and understanding can be reached and whether resilience can be translated into a practical set of tools and approaches.

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Transforming disaster risk management: a political economy approach

Posted on: 1 February 2012
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This Background Note looks at research undertaken in recent years by disaster researchers on the complex role of institutional arrangements in shaping policy decisions. In doing so it identifies some key research issues that need to be addressed to promote the kind of institutional transformation required to deal with current and future climate extremes, including the need for more multidisciplinary perspectives on disaster risk management (DRM).

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Energy efficiency improvements in tenements in Bellshill

Posted on: 1 February 2012
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CIC Start Online is to hold a webinar on 9 February 2012 to consider a study carried out in Bellshill near Motherwell to explore the possibilities of improving the energy efficiency of the apartment’s fabric and energy for space and water heating. This feasibility study addressed options and elements in which the apartments can be thermally improved and to also explore the improvement of heating services which at present have become difficult to maintain and are costly for the tenant.

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Natural England’s climate change risk assessment and adaptation plan

Posted on: 1 February 2012
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This report has been produced to meet requirements of the Climate Change Act (2008). It follows an interim report Natural England produced in 2010 and presents Natural England’s completed assessment of the risks that climate change poses to its objectives, under the present reporting round. It then presents natural England’s plans to address them in the form of an Adaptation plan.

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Did Durban deliver? The 2011 climate conference and its implications for land transport

Posted on: 1 February 2012
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This paper presents a summary of the proceedings from the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa in 2011, and their significance for the land transport sector. The paper also provides recommendations and suggests opportunities for the land transport community.

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Building Regulations consultations

Posted on: 1 February 2012
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The government has published consultations for changes to several sections of the Building Regulations as well as proposed changes to the Building Control system. The Part L changes include proposals for tighter carbon dioxide emission standards for new homes and requirements for additional energy efficiency improvement to existing homes when extensions are built. There are also proposed changes to Part P, on electrical safety in dwellings, and Parts A, B, C. K, M and N. The draft Building Control changes are aimed at, among other areas, improving the private sector Approved Inspector arrangements and strengthening enforcement. The Part L consultation ends on 27 March 2012, one month earlier than the other consultations which run to 27 April 2012. The Department for Communities and Local Government has published a document which aims to provide an easier to read overview of the Government’s 2012 consultation on changes to the Building Regulations for England, highlighting areas the Department thinks will be of interest to consumers. It does not contain all the detail of the consultation and should be read alongside the other consultation documents which are available from the Department for Communities and Local Government web site.

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Planning and flooding

Posted on: 27 January 2012
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This note describes Government policies to prevent building on unprotected flood plains.

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Light rail schemes

Posted on: 27 January 2012
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This note looks at the policies of successive governments towards light rail and provides information about reports that have been published about the same over the past eight years.

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