Low cost, low carbon

This is the aim of both the government and the construction industry – by 2025 they aim to cut costs by one third and carbon emissions in half.

What can we do to help?

You may not work in the construction industry or even be interested in the construction industry one bit, however you still have the power to make a difference. Away from the large scale developments taking place there is vast volume of small scale works taking place day in and day out. Some works are completely necessary due to things like wanting to add property value, adaptable living and having a complete revamp for a matter of taste. There are however millions of jobs taking place where work is unnecessary, which is not only an inconveniently high cost to people like you and me in monetary terms but is also an accumulative cost to the environment.

We need to be more aware when it comes to giving the go ahead for building work at home and where possible look at more efficient ways to get the desired results. There are many ways this can be done, whether it be using restorative repair services to expertly restore things to a like new condition where possible or looking deeper in to how certain materials are made and where they are transported from when making decisions on your property.

Growth Industries

Currently there are around 2.1m building damage insurance claims (almost 6000 per day) carried out per year, totalling £15m per day. The vast majority are rip out and replace, imagine the reduction in carbon emissions if repairs were carried out in only a fraction of these. And this is only one sector of the construction industry.
Given the shift in attitudes and actions which will take place with the new focus, this will give rise to a number of expertise which currently may sound obscure but they are out there, and they are growing. Surface Repair – not exactly a new expertise however it has risen in the past decade and is predicted to grow exponentially due to a push in cutting carbon which will mean the need to repair where replacing isn’t necessary. As a nation, we are currently building 250,000 houses per year, but we need to build 500,000 per year, imagine the amount of snagging on these houses and the reduction in carbon emissions by using an invisible repair rather than the usual replace damaged items option.

Article written by: Surface Medic

Low cost, low carbon