Green Building in the UK – OBC Building Bromley

It’s important for Building Companies to look at the building process as a whole when assessing the environmental impact of new builds in the UK. In recent years the focus in the building and construction industry have shifted to a more environmentally sensitive approach. Often the way in which we determine the environmental footprint of a new building project is quite segregated and not really accurate in terms of the whole process. Our Bromley builders realize that we have to look at not only the type of material used, but also the mode of transport etc.

Today, new UK homebuyers are definitely more environmentally conscious in their quest to purchase new homes and this is largely due to the UK government’s effort to cut all emissions from new builds and the activities taking place within them. The fact that the government and the UK People are pro ‘green building’ techniques, makes it easier for local UK building companies such as ourselves at OBC Building to adjust our approach to London building and construction.

Back to basics – Wood vs. Steel

In the past London Builders and suppliers have pushed for a more steel-based approach in home building and construction but we’re now realizing that many of these materials are not as eco-friendly as we thought. Due to the availability of wood and the state of our forest many people in the construction industry reverted from using wood in new home building projects.

Despite having the appearance of aiding the environment, the overall impact of many of these “green” building materials and technique are not as beneficial or positive as we once thought. Recent studies are however showing that wood framing uses less energy than steel frames during construction. Not only is wood more environmentally sensitive but it also helps with carbon sequestration. Wood requires less energy to manufacture, transport, construct and maintain than other materials. Most notable is the amount of greenhouse gas emissions avoided by substituting low impact wood products for materials such as concrete, which are responsible for high amounts of CO2 emissions.

Wood is both durable and adaptable and can easily be re-used and recycled. New technologies for wood beams, floors, walls and roofs render them equal in strength to steel or concrete but with a carbon-positive result and at a savings in overall cost.

Sustainable managed forests:

The first question that people naturally ask is “what about deforestation and the long-term implications that the use of wood in construction and building will have on our natural resources and environment?” This is most definitely an area of concern and making use of wood supplies comes with it’s own list of precautions and sustainability measures. Today we have things like sustainably managed forests that ensure that the carbon-absorbing role of forests is preserved. With strong wood products markets, forest owners are able to keep their forests as forests.

It’s important to look at the overall implications of building and construction materials and processes. Our environmental dilemma calls for a comprehensive and thorough assessment that looks at not only the materials used on a building site but also things like manufacturing, transportation and post construction emissions. The quest to finding greener building techniques is both fascinating and exciting and we at OBC Building look forward to new innovations and solutions in the future.