Sustainability Flashcards
What does ‘BREEAM’ stand for?
Building Research Establishment Environment Assessment Method
What does ‘MEES’ stand for?
Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (2018)
What does ‘EPC’ stand for?
Energy Performance Certificate
What RICS document explains how to conduct whole life carbon assessments?
Whole Life Carbon Assessment for the Built Environment (WLCA), RICS, 2nd edition, effective 1 July 2024
(mandatory professional statement)
What is the Whole Life Carbon Assessment (WLCA)?
The WCLA is a comprehensive approach to evaluating a building’s environmental impact, exploring carbon emissions throughout its life cycle, from construction to demolition.
What is Whole Life Cycle Carbon?
Whole life carbon refers to the carbon impacts over the entire life cycle of a built asset, from its construction through to its end of life. A whole life carbon assessment (WLCA) is the calculation and reporting of the quantity of carbon impacts expected throughout all life cycle stages of a project, but also includes an assessment of the potential benefits and loads occurring beyond the system boundary.
What recent change has there been to EPC requirements?
What is the Paris Agreement?
An international treaty on climate change that was adopted in 2015.
What is COP26?
What are the UKs Net zero targets?
What do you and your employer do to promote sustainability?
What are green roofs?
What are the benefits of BREEAM?
What does ‘net carbon zero’ mean?
No longer adding to the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
What are some sustainable design methods?
How long to EPCs last?
What is sustainability?
Sustainability is meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future. I.e. providing energy for ourselves now without making the planet worse subsequently.
Why is sustainability important?
An ecosystem, a lifestyle, or a community that is sustainable is one which supports itself and its surrounding. Sustainability itself can be defined by three core elements, each of which must be carefully considered in relation to the others:
Environmental Protection
Social Development
Economic Development
What are the factors to consider with sustainability?
- Economic
- Social
- Environmental
What are 7 elements of a sustainable building?
- Insulation
- Air tightness
- Thermal Mass
- Natural Light
- Sustainable Material
- Structural Systems
- Deployment of renewable technologies
What is sustainable development?
Economic development that is conducted without the depletion of natural resources.
Over what period do you measure/assess the impact of a building?
The entire lifecycle, not just construction.
What is brownfield land?
‘previously developed land that’s no longer being used’
What issues are associated with developing brownfield sites?
Risk of pollution and contamination from previous use
