Built environment centres of excellence

The UK Strategic Research Development Partnership for the built environment held by Building Research Establishment was launched on 24 January 2006.

The aim of the R&D Partnership will be to strengthen the UK’s capacity to carry out leading-edge built environment research and promote its practical application.

The BRETrust Universities Partnership will oversee the development of centres of excellence at four leading universities in Britain.
There will be a centre for research into Innovative Construction Materials at the University of Bath. Cardiff University will be the location for the Sustainable Building Design centre. In Scotland, Fire Safety Engineering will be based at the University of Edinburgh, while a centre for Energy Utilisation Research will be established at the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow.

There will also be a fifth centre focsing on people in the built environment.

Speaking at the launch, Environment minister Elliot Morley said: ‘In the past, in this country, a number of us have been unconsciously incompetent about buildings in all their forms. And by that I mean how we specify them, how we build them, how we maintain them to the highest standards, to ensure that buildings not only make that contribution to our landscape in their form but also reduce their impact to the environment in their function and in their construction. And the facts to drive the agenda are compelling for change.

 

'the energy used in constructing, occupying and operating buildings represents about half of the greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, as well as the construction process to produce our buildings generating about ninety (90) million tonnes of waste a year – which is three times the waste produced by all the UK households combined'

Currently the construction industry in the UK employs 1.5 million people, which in turn generates about eight per cent (8 per cent) of our gross domestic product. Therefore it is a major and a positive driver for the UK economy. However on the negative side of the balance sheet the energy used in constructing, occupying and operating buildings represents about half of the greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, as well as the construction process to produce our buildings generating about ninety (90) million tonnes of waste a year – which is three times the waste produced by all the UK households combined. Now that’s just a couple of examples of the impact that construction can have.

So we need not only to build, but we need to build the right type of buildings…we need to understand how we build as well as what we need to build. However, we still have many gaps to ensure our state of awareness can deliver us good cost effective solutions to convey the pace and direction of change that we need, and this is why the BRETrust Universities Partnership will give us that much needed extra capacity to address this agenda.’