The impact of the built environment on the UK's carbon emissions is difficult to overstate. As Barbara Cahalane, corporate communications director at BAM, reminded delegates at a fringe event at this week's Conservative Party Conference, about a quarter of the nation's carbon emissions come from the energy used to heat homes alone. Overall, she added, "The use of buildings accounts for between 30 and 40% of the UK's energy consumption*. This fact is fast pushing the contribution that construction could make to the UK's environmental targets up the government's agenda. Don Ward, chief executive of Constructing Excellence, puts it bluntly: "For too long, construction's image was that of a poor, second rate industry existing to spoil our environment rather than protect it. Those days are gone."
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