
Building Henri le Worm gardens - where food and pride come from
What do you get if you take one giant wicker worm, six chickens, 20 BAM volunteers, 1,000 plastic bottles, two plots of earth and celebrity chef, Raymond Blanc?
What do you get if you take one giant wicker worm, six chickens, 20 BAM volunteers, 1,000 plastic bottles, two plots of earth and celebrity chef, Raymond Blanc?
Since starting our sustainability journey in 2007, BAM has improved its environmental, social and economic impact on the sites and in the communities we work in. Here's what to expect beyond our 2015 targets…
The challenge has been set for the construction industry to reach the Government’s ambitious 2025 targets. These include lowering construction costs and the whole life cost of built assets by 33%, lowering emissions by 50%, and delivering projects 50% faster. So how are we going to do it?
We spend on average 20 hours a day indoors, so knowing how we can reduce Volatile Organic Compound concentrations in buildings is important as Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) directly affects building users’ productivity. To help with this, the BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) 2014 includes four Health and Wellbeing 02 Credits for IAQ, for project teams to aim towards and help improve IAQ for building users.
Routines, habits and finding comfort in what we know are strange quirks of human behaviour which influence our actions, as much at work as they do at home. We all probably have a favourite mug, pair of trainers, holiday destination, brand of beans or side of the bed. But is resorting to what is familiar limiting us? Is it worth stepping out of our comfort zone to be more productive?
Whether you got a clear view of the recent solar eclipse or not, you probably noticed the sky got much darker. The end of the world isn’t quite here yet, but it does make you think about how much we rely on energy, and how we need to preserve it to be a sustainable society.
Another year, another interesting three days at Ecobuild, the annual sustainable design, construction and energy exhibition at Excel. With an upcoming national election and an EU referendum round the corner, the future of sustainability in the UK was hotly debated: retrofitting (or not) houses, green infrastructure, and how buildings can improve health and wellbeing were all prominent themes.
The three pillars of sustainability are widely known as People, Planet and Profit. A type of systems theory, the idea is the three pillars have to all be strong for a sustainable world to become a reality. But maybe Pleasure is the fourth pillar that could make the other pillars more stable?