Sustainability

In making design decisions, consideration must be taken to ensure that there is a positive environmental impact, and a positive social and economic contribution to local communities. The goal of this section is to meet and exceed current standards.

Principles

• The commitment to a Circular Economy approach with the goal of moving to a zero-waste economy.
• Ethical procurement and design ensuring that all supply and value chains promote fairness, equality and diversity good practice and principles.
• The creation of local employment opportunities and the increase of economic growth within the local area.
• Use of materials and products that demonstrably do not cause any injury or harm to any stakeholder (such as high VOC paint etc.).
• Use products and services which have substantiated and independently verifiable environmental and sustainability claims
• Where possible (e.g. EC eco labelling scheme ) avoid products and services with unsubstantiated claims.

Requirements

• As a minimum must meet the Scottish Technical Handbook – Domestic Section 7 silver standards 1-8 on sustainability.
• All principles are to be in line with Blackwood’s procurement policy
• Ensure that all appliances conform to the new EPC standards
• Comply with the Scottish building standards sustainability labelling to demonstrate Blackwood’s commitment to sustainability goals

Guidance on Sustainability and Circular Economy principles

Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 has a specific Sustainable Procurement Duty which states a contracting authority has a duty before carrying out a regulated procurement, to consider how in conducting the procurement process it can:

• Improve the economic, social, and environmental well-being of the authority’s area (e.g. reducing inequality),
• Facilitate the involvement of small and medium enterprises, third sector bodies and supported businesses in the process, and
• Promote innovation, and
• Act with a view to securing such improvements identified

The Scottish Government has developed a series of tools to help organisations implement and comply with the Sustainable Procurement Duty. These can be found here

Sustainable Procurement

Where practicable, Blackwood will maximise material resource efficiency by using recycled and recyclable, reused and reusable, reclaimed and renewable/ sustainable materials and products wherever possible, for example:

• Purchase of repaired/refurbished/reusable/re-used products for use within a domestic or workplace setting (e.g. furniture, appliances, IT, for Social Welfare fund or similar, or offices).
• Purchase of refurbished technical products/equipment (e.g. cleaning equipment, machine tools, hand tools etc.).
• Purchasing or leasing re-manufactured product/equipment instead of new (e.g. vehicles, technical equipment).
• Purchasing products/ equipment specified to incorporate re-usable design features and for easy upgrade (e.g. IT equipment and furniture).
• Purchasing products/ equipment specified to incorporate durability and/or repair to prevent unnecessary purchase (e.g. IT and furniture).
• Purchasing products/ equipment specified to incorporate easy disassembly, component upgrade or replacement, repair as well as recycling (e.g. IT and furniture).
• Purchase of repair or maintenance services for day to day or high cost equipment (e.g. catering equipment, machine tools, vehicles and office furniture).
• Purchasing equipment on a leased basis with maintenance, repair, re-use, remanufacturing included as a circular model (e.g. vehicles and furniture).
• Purchasing a managed equipment service or similar with maintenance, repair, re-use, remanufacturing included as a circular economy model (e.g. carpet tiles, flooring, technical equipment, furniture and catering equipment).
• Purchase services which incorporate use of equipment or materials capable of re-use, repair, remanufacturing (e.g. Facilities Management (FM) contracts and Construction).
• Purchase void clearance service, where re-use could be maximised (e.g. domestic goods – furniture and white goods).
• Purchase energy/fuel efficient products where financially viable.
• Purchase materials and products that demonstrably do not cause any injury or harm to any stakeholder (such as high VOC paint etc.).
• Purchase products and services which have substantiated and independently verifiable environmental and sustainability claims where possible (e.g. EC eco labelling scheme) and to avoid products and services with unsubstantiated claims (Defra’s green claims guidance 2011) provides advice to business for clear, accurate, relevant and substantiated environmental claims on products, services or in marketing and advertising).
• Purchase products, where possible and applicable, that meet standards which address sustainability, environmental or circular economic outcomes.

Standards

List of relevant standards that apply to purchasing for sustainability,environmental or circular economic outcomes:

Climate Change

Scientists have developed an understanding of the Earth’s climate system through years of observations, theory development and model building. We know with high confidence that climate change is happening today and is the result of greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity. Impacts from climate change are already being felt today and will continue to increase in the future. Action to limit future global greenhouse gas emissions will help restrict future changes in the climate system.

As climate change will continue to accelerate environmental disasters, aside from turning to more durable construction materials, solutions such as smart design and retrofitting, innovation in technology and materials in design, better education and growing public awareness will be key drivers.

By adapting green building practices, which encompass a building’s design, planning, construction, operations and end-of-life recycling or renewal, we can significantly reduce a new building’s greenhouse gas emissions and help combat climate change

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) is an independent, statutory body who advise the UK and devolved governments on emissions targets and to report to Parliament on progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for and adapting to the impacts of climate change.

The CCC publish various guidance and documentation that helps drive forward a change in approach to the way we plan, deliver, and manage new and existing communities. Once such report, ‘UK housing: Fit for the future?’ identifies that UK homes are unfit for the challenges of climate change and proposed government targets will not be met.

This report also highlighted several opportunities to improve the quality of UK homes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to safeguard our comfort, health and wellbeing as the climate changes

• The way new homes are built and existing homes retrofitted often falls short of stated design standards. This deceives householders and inflicts new costs in the future. Closing the ‘performance gap’ could save households in new homes hundreds of pounds in energy bills each year while ensuring the principles of Accessible and Beautiful are maintained.
• Ensuring existing homes are low-carbon and resilient to the changing climate is a major UK infrastructure priority. Homes should make use of low-carbon sources of heating such as heat pumps and heat networks. The uptake of energy efficiency measures, such as loft and wall insulation, must be accelerated. Upgrades and repairs to existing homes should include plans for shading and ventilation, measures to reduce indoor moisture, improved air quality and water efficiency and, in homes at risk of flooding, property-level flood protection.
• New homes should be built to be low-carbon, energy and water efficient, and climate resilient. The costs of building to tight specifications are not prohibitive and getting the design right from the outset is far cheaper and more Affordable than retrofitting later. From 2025 at the latest, no new homes should be coupled to the gas grid. They should be heated using low-carbon energy sources, have ultra-high levels of energy efficiency alongside appropriate ventilation, and be timber-framed where possible. New laws are needed to reduce overheating risks in new buildings, as well as greater focus on ambitious water efficiency, property-level flood protection, green spaces (for example, trees on streets, vegetation on roofs, sustainable drainage systems) and provision for pedestrians, cyclists, public transport users and electric vehicle owners.