'Building': "The business case for sustainable buildings, as well as the risks"

Link to 'Building' web site
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"The need to deliver a more sustainable built environment is one of the biggest challenges facing the construction industry. It is a challenge that impacts on the entire supply chain, from funder to end user, and will become progressively tougher over the next seven years. 

"This white paper examines the drivers behind this agenda, the regulations and incentives being used to realise it, and how the industry is responding. The ability of firms to understand and respond to these challenges by delivering better performing buildings cost effectively is a key requisite for survival in today’s tough market.

"The government has set the target of reducing carbon emissions 80% by 2050, compared with a 1990 baseline, and says emissions from all buildings will have to be reduced to practically zero. As part of this trajectory, the government has set a goal of requiring all new buildings to be zero-carbon by 2019. 

"These demanding targets are being realised by increasingly onerous regulation, planning requirements, and for public sector projects, funding conditions. Each iteration of Building Regulations ushers in bigger carbon reduction targets, that are matched in turn by corresponding changes to these other requirements."