New Tricks with Old Bricks: How reusing old buildings can cut carbon emissions
http://www.ica.coop/al-housing/articles/172/1/New-Tricks-with-Old-Bricks-How-reusing-old-buildings-can-cut-carbon-emissions-/Page1.html
Matt Baker
By Matt Baker
Published on 05/9/2008
This Empty Housing Agency in the UK 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 Building and Social Housing Foundation. Click here to read the full report.