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In the face of a changing climate, a growing number of construction firms are adopting carbon reduction targets on individual projects and across their portfolios. In the wake of the Paris Agreement, some firms are seeking a means of aligning their targets with sectoral, national and international mitigation commitments. There are numerous ways by which such an alignment can be achieved, each requiring different assumptions. Using data from the UK construction industry, this paper reviews current company commitments and progress in carbon mitigation; analyses the unique challenges in aligning construction targets, and presents a series of possible sectoral decarbonisation trajectories. The results highlight the disparity between current company targets and the range of possible trajectories. It is clear that a cross-industry dialogue is urgently required to establish an appropriate response that delivers both a widely-accepted target trajectory and a plan for its delivery. This paper is intended to stimulate and support this necessary debate by illustrating the impact of different methodological assumptions and highlighting the critical features of an appropriate response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper describes the concept development and work to date, of an innovative ‘true’ building integrated wind turbine. The context for this is the role of small-scale renewable energy in addressing climate change. In the UK a number of small wind turbines have reached the market, however, in almost all cases, these are existing HAWT or VAWT tower mounted systems. Due to their inherent design qualities, and issues such as planning requirements, these have much reduced output due to their form and siting and are unable to take advantage of augmented airflow around buildings. The Crossflex proposal is a radical new development of a Darrieus turbine form. As well as having a technically innovative flexible blade system, it also utilises a lightweight cowling system that can provide both augmented airflow and improved visual integration into new and existing building forms. It is a modular form that can be sited on ridges and corners of buildings to provide useful levels of generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The United Kingdom has made a commitment to reduce buildings carbon emissions, placing a greater onus on sustainable energy sources. Therefore, an anticipated increase of usage of zero carbon technologies in new and existing building has led to the emergence of passive ventilation devices as an alternative to mechanical ventilation and air conditioning. The windvent is a commercially available passive ventilation device. The device is constructed from sheet metal and works on the principle of pressure differential. Whereby air rises, creating a low pressure in the receiving room, which then draws in the fresh air. The ensuing air delivery velocity is controlled by the dampers, installed at the room entry interface. The dampers are actuator operated, and form the basis of the control system for the device. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the control mechanism for the device and ascertain an optimum operating range. Numerical analysis is carried out using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, to investigate the effect of various damper angles (range 0–90°). The results show that optimum operating occurs at a damper angle range of 45–55°, at the UK average 4.5m/s external wind speed. The operating range when considered in tandem with macro climatic influences is central to determining the overall control strategy for the fresh air supply. The results provide useful information for both engineers and architects when examining ways to reduce new and existing buildings running costs, and conform to new legislation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]