Environment & Energy

New Tricks with Old Bricks : How reusing old buildings can cut carbon emissions - 12th February 2008

This EHA report describes groundbreaking research into the combined embodied (built-in) and operational (in-use) carbon emissions from refurbished compared with new build houses.  Using the University of Bath’s Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE), it shows that embodied energy is a much larger part of the lifetime carbon cost of housing than has been widely supposed.  It also suggests that, even over 30-50 years, refurbishment is at least as good if not better than new build in terms of CO2 emissions.  Published with the support of the BSHF. 

Click here for a summary of the research findings or here for the full report.