So my time as an eco-warrior has come to an end. I’m rather glad I didn’t accept the staple-picking job I was offered; I had faith that something else would come along; and it did!

I started out somewhat naïve and with no experience in the construction industry, and within 6weeks with the one man and his dog, I can safely say I’ve learnt more than I ever would elsewhere.

I will be taking away a modified outlook on the world around us, and a sense of personal responsibility. Just because I’m living a prudent student lifestyle, it doesn’t prevent me from contributing- Tesco’s slogan is apt; every little does help. As part of my Psychology degree, I spend hours completing questionnaires and partaking in experiments, some of which aim to test people’s attitudes towards the environment. Whereas before I would have ticked ‘neutral’ on my views, I will now be pronouncing myself as ‘highly aware.’

I am also thinking of writing to Cardiff Council to request a wheelie bin for our refuse sacks. In fairness, we have received green recycling bags and food caddy bags for organic waste. But the plot thickens; when we have accumulated a dozen or so of these sacks (easily done with 5 students) there is no storage for them, apart from the 3metre square yard or the road. Both of these lead to smelly, unhygienic and pro-rat/fox situations. Shouldn’t all houses have adequate storage space for waste and recycling nowadays?

My thoughts follow like so; we are lazy, for us to change our behaviour we need the easiest possible solutions. Currently, 80% of our household waste is easily recyclable, but that figure alone isn’t enough to whip us into shape. Hence, if the local authorities were to provide waste storage to make our lives easier- a wheelie bin, compartmented bins etc, it may provoke change. I’m not saying that giving people a Grundon will move the world. However, say we may not intend to recycle those potato peelings, but if we get to the bin and there’s a little section right there waiting for them, it would surely be rude not to?

Of course there are people that will do this regardless of prodding from the council, and people that will never recycle even with unlimited eco-gadgets. Yet most of us rely on these implemented systems that will make living a greener life as simple and attainable as possible. This is absolutely fine, as long as the authorities do provide and introduce these solutions for our growing population.

My departure from Meadow Energy coincides with its transition to Get Eco. The e-commerce site will provide products and services to help make a sustainable life easy.

I am going to miss these weekly rants, but I’m grateful to Neil for the insight I’ve gained working here and wish him all the best with the new venture!

Sophie

Us Britons are creatures of habit; resilient to change, renowned for tradition and our ability to drink tea. Understandably, without clear results the incentives to change our lifestyle become more and more fragile. This is why adverts and government schemes are adopting shock tactics and setting deadlines. It was only this morning I saw the new Defra water campaign packed with facts like “the average household uses enough water per day for 2000 cups of tea”; it was completely fitting of the past month, and I was pleasantly surprised that I already knew most of the information.

One way that may motivate us to live a more planet-friendly is to witness the end product of our actions. Ever wondered where your plastic milk bottles go after they’ve been collected from that green box? Nope, the whereabouts of my 4pints of semi-skimmed hadn’t crossed my mind either. Not until I was sourcing the loft insulation for a project, and whilst discussing what kind of ‘woolly stuff’ we had in our roofs, Neil told me his insulation was made of 85% recycled plastic bottles. I thought it was pretty cool, that the results of recycling can be seen in the flesh, and that we, in turn, are benefiting from materials that we have recycled.

The recycled Eco-wool is one alternative to man-made mineral wool. But hemp, derived from the plant flax can also provide a similar product for insulation. The other fluffy object that springs to mind is of course the humble sheep. Sheep’s wool insulation is environmentally conscious as it reduces the reliance upon man-made materials and harbours the resources that nature has given us. Indeed the circle of life continues further, as the sheep’s wool can be composted at the end of its use (50+ years) rather than contributing towards a landfill eyesore like the man-made insulation does. Re-re-cycling seems to be the way to go.

A further instance of resource scarcity I witnessed was during the drought in Australia, which led to chronic water restrictions. The drought severity is measured in terms of stages, and whilst I was in the outback the drought had reached stage 6 of 8! This meant no sprinklers, no topping up of pools and only washing cars with buckets at certain hours of the day. I suppose because the residents were faced with these conditions on a regular basis, they were incredibly co-operative and vigilant; and I was intrigued to see how any rebel washing his car with a hose was damned.

Although Australia has a completely contrasting climate to ours, it leads me to question whether we would ever reach this extreme?

Amazingly, here each of us has a water footprint of 150 litres per day. “What!” I hear you cry, but realising a ten minute power shower equates to that 150 litre quota, it doesn’t allow us much scope in today’s rash society.

The Government’s ‘Future Water’ initiative aims to reduce our daily consumption to 125 litres per person, which has surely got to be a good thing. Within the Code for Sustainable Homes the target could be less than 80 litres per day! This can be achieved without compromising one’s hygiene - tools like “Shower Bobs” and aeration shower heads don’t stop us utilising water, they just enable us to be more mindful whilst we use it.

From working here I have learnt there are many dimensions to constructing a sustainable home and life. Slowly but surely I have begun to understand the business hierarchy that exists when building houses, and seen the implications of stringent building regulations.

Writing and tailoring the Home User Guide for new homes was a means to convey a message that I hadn’t initially considered. Adding information about local amenities and tips on how best to maintain an energy-efficient home all come under the Management category of Code Assessments. It may appear to be a tenuous link but informing new home owners of the nearest shop/bus station/dentists may, in turn, reduce the amount of car journeys they make and so forth. A one liner, which informs them how they could save 10% on their heating bill by turning the temperature down just 1°c, may just promote an active environmental commitment. In the words of the great Diana Ross, we can only hope that kind of attitude follows a chain reaction.

So after 2 weeks here I am starting to feel like a seasoned environmentalist. I caught myself asking my friend what insulation she had in her new house - perhaps I have found my calling! She proceeded to claim her energy-efficient lightbulbs didn’t work with dimmer switches, but I was sure Neil would have an answer; some do – there’s a green way for everything!

I can now say I’ve seen the practical side of sustainable homes - i.e. donning the high vis jacket and hard hat to visit a site in Thornbury. Besides being the only female in a square mile radius, it allowed me to visualise the projects I have been working on. I recognised the materials I had spent hours of internet trawling to find a certificate for, and it all felt worth it. In the ruthless world of code assessments, having timber certification for the staircase could equal the difference between a pass or fail.

Conserving our resources is an issue that is only going to become more prominent in years to come; this morning I read about the introduction of ‘green taxes’ and fines for businesses who fail to declare their energy use.

The work I’ve seen here on energy efficiency takes me back to living in South Africa on my gap year and experiencing the lack of power first hand, due to an unexpected demand for electricity. There were many sporadic power cuts across Cape Town and from where we were staying we could see the lights flicker across the neighbourhoods in a domino fashion. The locals had become accustomed to this rationing, gold mines were closing due to the ‘electricity emergency’, yet it seemed ironic that in a country with such a wealth of sun and natural resources that there was no other way out of it. It’s not just an African epidemic. We take turning on the lights for granted yet within the next decade, without building new power stations to replace the decommissioned ones, we will probably experience such blackouts.

I’ll stop preaching and blog off now.

Sophie

We are all accustomed to the environmental warnings and signs that appear to be popping up left, right and centre. I’m sure practically any material is now recyclable and that energy-efficiency has become a major selling point for commodities.

Although I do not always adhere to these guidelines, being a student is, rather unintentionally, conducive to this frugal and attentive attitude. I walk everywhere, I am cautious of locking doors, windows and turning off lights, our house regularly recycles, albeit exclusively glass bottles. Admittedly this was propelled by a lack of money, but after working here, I’m sure my motives will be more environmental than economical.

Forgive me for being naive, but mention the words ‘energy rating and code for sustainable homes’ and you too will most likely be faced with a perplexed expression.

So I wasn’t sure of what to expect before meeting Neil. My preconceptions led me to one of two conclusions; a croc-wearing, Green Party preaching hippy, or a poker-faced man, suited, booted and taking life far too seriously. In fact, he was neither of those. His footwear sat somewhere between a Brogue and a flip-flop, his passion is sincere and his outlook is realistic.

He introduced the concepts behind Meadow Energy Rating, such as only using your car when you absolutely have to, and I found myself understanding and agreeing with the mission statements (although you couldn’t persuade me to cycle 4 miles at 7.30am!).

My interest and knowledge of property is largely limited to daytime TV programmes. However, being here a week has given me an insight into all the layers behind the construction process and how this impacts our footprint on the planet. It can be as simple as installing windows that reduce heat loss by 30%, to responsibly sourcing timber, like in Finland where for the past 30 years the volume of trees grown has exceedd the volume removed.

It is not about sitting in the dark with the lights off, it is using an energy-efficient lightbulb sensibly; and it’s really quite easy to achieve an environmental equilibrium.

Sophie

The 2010 Stroud Life Business Awards took place last night. Over 260 entrants and guests supported the event which was held at the Whitminster Inn. Meadow Energy Rating successfully reached the final in Green Business of the Year Award , shortlisted with Smiths Recycling and former winners The Green Shop, ironically both of which supply many of our customers.

Stroud is an area well known for “Green” Businesses so to reach the final was high praise indeed, particularly considering the number of companies in the area who have fantastic green credentials. This years’ award was picked up by Smiths Recycling. Neil Morris of MER said “I’m delighted to have been nominated and to have been shortlisted as a finalist, this is a great privilege for us that the judges recognised the value of our work to make sustainable building easy”.

We've teamed up with Christopher Stanley Associates for a Summer CPD Event.

We have a presentation from Lindab UK who will introduce their range of building components. Lindab are well known for rainwater products but also offer an extensive range of steel based walling solutions.

We also have a presentation from BuildDesk who will present a summary on the revisions to Part L of the Building Regulations. BuildDesk are European leaders in energy modelling software and energy consultancy.

The event will be held at Christopher Stanley Associates offices at 9 Ullenwood Court, Cheltenham which are based on a peaceful country estate and make an excellent venue for CPD events.

Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

The last few places are available for our summer CPD Event, e-mail CPD@christopher-stanley.com to book your place.

Our colleagues at The Green Register are running one of their excellent courses in Bristol on 15 June entitled "Building Fabric or Renewables: which is better for delivering truly sustainable homes?"

This one-day course will look at how building fabric and renewable technologies can work together to reduce energy demand and carbon emissions for both new-build and refurbishments. Delegates will learn about the pro’s and con’s of fabric versus technology options, what floor/wall/roof build-ups might look like and solutions for different house types together with taking part in several group exercises that allow participants to explore some of the more challenging options available.

Check out www.greenregsiter.org.uk for details

• carbon emissions improvements,
  
• low or zero carbon  or energy requirements
  
• Code for Sustainable Homes requirements

• PPS1: Delivering Sustainable development - provides the governments overarching policies for planning as important ways to help ensure new development is more sustainable. This type of policy was first introduced by Merton Borough Council and is sometimes referred to as the "Merton Rule" and has been reinforced in a supplement in 2007
  
• PPS22: Renewable energy - published in 2004, stated that local authorities could include policy on on-site renewable energy and was further endorsed by ministerial statement in June 2006. 
• Regional Spacial Strategy: contains policy that states all developments should achieve Level 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes and any in any case social housing must reach this level to obtain grant funding.
  

Our latest blog is an extract from the press release from CLG

In an important step at a point of fragile recovery in the housing market, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and Housing Minister Grant Shapps today announced that with immediate effect, they are suspending the requirement for homeowners to provide a Home Information Pack (HIP) when selling their homes.

Mr Pickles today laid an Order suspending HIPs with immediate effect, pending primary legislation for a permanent abolition. Suspending HIPs will reduce the cost of selling a home, remove a layer of regulation from the process and provide a welcome help to the housing market during the recovery. It will also mean a saving for consumers to the tune of £870m over ten years, giving sellers more money in their pocket to spend in the wider economy.

Mr Pickles and Mr Shapps also said that the Government is determined to help people reduce their energy bills, improve our energy security and tackle climate change by increasing the energy efficiency of their homes. Sellers will therefore still be required to commission, but won't need to have received, an EPC before marketing their property, and the Government will consider how the EPC can play its part in the new drive for a low carbon and eco-friendly economy.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps said "we're also showing our commitment to a greener housing market by keeping Energy Performance Certificates and making them more relevant in helping buyers make informed decisions on the energy costs of their new home."

The revised position is:

In order to ensure that people selling their homes continue to make an Energy Performance Certificate available to prospective buyers, we have also laid before Parliament the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2010 which introduce a number of new requirements including:

• a new duty on the seller to secure that an energy performance certificate (EPC) has been commissioned before marketing of the property commences where no such certificate is already available
• an EPC has been commissioned when a Domestic Energy Assessor has been instructed to prepare the EPC and the EPC has either been paid for or has given a clear undertaking to pay for it
• a new duty on the person acting on behalf of the seller to be satisfied that an EPC has been commissioned before commencing marketing
• a new duty on both the seller and a person acting on their behalf to make reasonable efforts to secure an EPC within 28 days
• all of the new duties carry fixed penalties where somebody fails in the duty conferred on them by the new regulations

The full press release and questions and answers are available from the link:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/buyingselling/homeinformation/

We pride ourselves on the professionalism of the services we offer but still keep coming across horror stories in our industry. In the last month we've seen several occurrences of Unaccredited Energy Assessors work which can have significant impacts:

three instances of out dated or superceded software being used, there have been several upgrades to the approved software and creditable Assessors will always work with the latest, current versions of software

blatant disregard for the the Assessment industry, one so-called property professional saying "I've been doing these for years, I bought the software in 2006 and have always done assessments" adding "they're not worth the paper they're written on" - he's probably correct in his case

serious technical errors including incorrect building geometry, incorrect building volume, no adjustment of u-values for semi exposed walls/floor, incorrect thermal bridging and hugely optimistic air permeability

In our experience these issues arise from undervaluing the Energy Assessors role and lack of enforcement within the industry. We can only urge you all to ensure your Assessors are Accredited Professionals and  your assessments being completed by a competent person as you rightly expect and deserve.

The long awaited Approved Document L 2010 and corresponding SAP2009 documents have now been published and come into effect on 1 October 2010. There are some significant changes to both the legal requirements and the technical guidance, here's our bullet point changes:

Legal requirement for new build:

• Regulation 17C applies, for CO₂ emission rate calculations to be carried out and given to the Building Control Body, along with a list of specifications used in the calculations before the start of building work on the erection of a new building. This is in addition to the CO₂ emission rate calculation required to be submitted after completion of the work.

Changes in technical guidance:

• The annual CO2 emission rate of the completed dwelling is now calculated using SAP2009 and must not exceed the target set by reference to a notional dwelling with an additional overall improvement of 25% relative to 2006 standards

• The notional dwelling now includes a party wall heat loss of zero, meaning that the targeted improvement of 25% is in addition to treating party walls between connected dwellings against heatloss.
  

• Secondary heating is counted as part of the annual CO2 emission rate of the completed dwelling only when actually provided for and credit is allowed wherever low-energy lighting is installed.

• Some of the reasonable limits for building fabric and services performance specifications are strengthened.

• Revised guidance is provided for avoiding thermal bridging at construction joints including the option of adopting a quality assured accredited construction details scheme approach.

There are more detailed changes in the body of the document which will have a significant impact. We’ve already highlighted the following:

U-values must be calculated in accordance with BR443 and stated u-values represent an area weighted average. In practice this means your u-values will have to be significantly better than the limiting standards to achieve the TER.

Air pressure testing will become more important since the test results used for subsequent house types incurs a increase of 2.0m³/m²hr meaning the default compliance level is now 8m³/m²hr. The improvement in emissions, in our opinion, makes the default figure of 15m³/m²hr redundant for small developments.

Thermal bridges are significant in reflecting overall thermal performance and three options will exist; quality assured construction details (in the same manner as Robust Details), non-accredited construction calculated in accordance with BR497 or to accept unaccredited details with a default of y-value of 0.15.

We will work with our accreditation body and software house to be at the forefront of the changes, look out for our updates as we near "L-Day" on 1 October 2010!

In the spring issue of Sitelines, the official LABC magazine, Steve Channon of BuildDesk Ltd reviews the importance of U-value calculation in energy assessments.

In his report Steve says "getting the basics right is always important. U-values are important indicators of overall performance, the principle here is that your choices of building fabric will be with you for 50 years or more", he goes on to say "it is important to check calculations for accuracy, has it been produced by a 'competent person' from reliable information on credible calculation software?"

We've long championed BuildDesk® software and have used BuildDesk® U and BuildDesk® ED since their launch some five years ago. We were the first On-Construction DEAs to be Accredited by BRE using BuildDesk's excellent software and continue to rate them very highly for functionality and performance.

• Ask for a copy of all assessors accreditation details, some assessment providers don't use fully accredited assessors
• Check that correct Professional Indemnity Insurance is in place
• Look for SSIP “Work Safe” accreditation, Safety Schemes in Procurement embraces the core guidance on competence and training in the Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007
• If you need design guidance ask about relevant industry experience or additional qualifications

• All of our professional team are accredited; OCDEAs and CSH Assessors are accredited with BRE®, our Air Testing Teams are all BINDT® registered
• We maintain full appropriate Professional Indemnity Insurance (as required by our BRE accreditation)
  
• We are SSIP "Worksafe Consultants" independently audited by SMAS
• Our key staff have 20 years industry experience and hold degree level qualification
  

With the growing complexity of rules and regulations our aim is to keep things simple and make your life easy. Energy and Sustainability are great "buzz words" in construction, but how do you find the real solutions to Code for Sustainable Homes Assessment?

We take time to explain things in a non-technical manner to enable our clients to focus on their core activities - building new houses. We offer a one stop shop for compliance and lead you through the maze of documentation and evidence required to take the stress out of complex process.

If you need simple solutions for complex problems, give us a call!

Due to popular demand we have added Site Waste Management Plans to our range of services.

SWMPs are a legal requirement for all construction projects over £300,000 in value and are a useful tool to gain 2 Credits under WAS2 in the Code for Sustainable Homes Assessment. We use an approved template to collate your site data from the initial estimate and advice on waste management through to completion of the plan at the end of the project.

We will also be adding a tool box talk, training log and poster for use on site to advise operatives and subcontractors the how and why we need to manage our construction waste. Look out for this in our new online shop, coming soon!

We would like to extend our best wishes and seasons greetings to all our clients, associates and suppliers.

We wish you all a successful and prosperous new year!

Everyone talks about the weather don’t they? Did you know this year we had 73% of the average number of rain days and 44% of the average rainfall for the month of September?

At Meadow Energy Rating we assess the eco credentials of new homes and water use is big news because of the change in our weather patterns. Any new home assessed under Code for Sustainable Homes has strict water use targets.  The government have already approved changes to Part G of the Building Regulations (Sanitation, hot water safety and water efficiency).

The consultation for proposed changes to Parts L and F of the Building Regulations and SAP2009 close this month. To stay at the forefront of our industry we have attended the BRE seminar "The Future of Sustainable Housing" held in Bristol. Similar seminars are being held around the country and are aimed at professionals with key interest in the topic.

Speakers from BRE, CLG and Zero Carbon Hub presented on the proposed changes to the Building Regulations and delegates had the opportunity to debate and vote on a large number of energy efficiency issues. We believe this consultation event is critical in our continued professional development.

Interestingly, delegates were mainly from Architectural Practices although we did see representatives from two other Energy Assessment organisations, good to see that the professionalism in our industry continues to grow.

We're launching a scheme to fix the prices of our SAP Assessments, Energy Performance Certificates and Air Permeability Testing under "Framework Agreements".

Framework Agreements are about teamwork and a collaborative approach, working to a common goal. We offer a complete service for anyone building new dwellings and understand how to optimise the potential of each design cost effectively for our clients. We will offer a discounted fixed cost for our work on the basis of guaranteed volume of orders. We're anticipating that this will be of interest to developers and housing associations who have a large number of dwellings under their control.

Please call for details and we'll put together mutually beneficial proposals.

One of our clients has been nominated in the LABC (Local Authority Building Control) West of England Region Building Excellence Awards for two categories:

1. Best Housing - Small Developer or Development 1 - 10 houses
   
2. Best Sustainable Project

After working with SAP2005 since its inception and becoming the first BRE Accredited Domestic Energy Assessors, Meadow Energy Rating have now become licenced Code for Sustainable Homes Assessors.

We've worked with independent Code Assessors on a number of projects and felt now was an opportune time to invest in the necessary training to be able to undertake Code Assessment in-house. With the onset of more stringent Building Regulations in 2010 we are ideally placed to assist by developing solutions to these requirements and thereby helping our clients to provide the low energy and sustainable homes of the future.

In addition to social housing meeting Code for Sustainable Homes requirements, more and more individuals and private developers are looking to green-up their development and can see the benefits and marketing potential of achieving a Code for Sustainable Homes rating.

After a long period of consultation Green Book Live now list all of the BRE Accredited Energy Assessors. Meadow Energy Rating are among an elite group of On Construction Domestic Energy Assessors accredited by BRE and are committed to providing highly professional service to its clients.

Green Book Live is the definitive source of information for the construction industry and enables specifiers, designers and end users to manage the environmental impact of the projects on which they work

Green Book Live brings together listings from a number of organisations and delivers comprehensive information on 'green' products and services, some approved to stringent environmental requirements and others based on information provided by manufacturers and trade bodies.

Green Book Live provides specifiers and end users with an opportunity to select products and services which demonstrate their commitment to environmental best practice.

Green Book Live is produced by BRE Global in Partnership with the Energy Saving Trust

West Business Gloucestershire’s 500 Influential People in Business

Meadow Energy Rating director Neil Morris has been nominated as one of Gloucestershire’s 500 most influential people in business. Neil says “I’m really pleased that the work we do has been recognised by this nomination into the Top 500 list”

Meadow Energy Rating are meeting the challenges of the construction industry by providing a range of Assessment and Sustainability Services for house builders of all types.

“We now offer a complete service for anyone building new houses and understand how to optimise the potential of each design cost effectively for our clients”

“With the onset of more stringent regulations in 2010 we are ideally placed to assist by developing solutions to these requirements and thereby helping our clients to provide the low energy and sustainable homes of the future”