National Refurbishment Centre
The BRE Trust is the largest UK charity dedicated to research and education in the built environment, commissioning research and publishing project findings to provide authoritative guidance to the construction industry. All profits made by the BRE Group are gift aided to the Trust to fund research and education programmes.
The National Refurbishment Centre is a joint venture between the BRE Trust and the Energy Saving Trust, working in partnership with a number of industry organisations including; B&Q, British Gas, Constructing Excellence, DuPont and the RIBA.
It was established to provide evidence and knowledge to support a step-change in the delivery of green refurbishment and retrofit on a nationwide scale.
The UK has committed to reducing overall CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050. A large proportion of UK CO2 emissions are generated by, or influenced by the construction industry, and in particular by buildings in use. Many of the buildings that we will occupy in 2050 have already been constructed, and so iIt is critical that existing buildings in the UK, which are among the oldest in Europe, become more energy efficient.
The National Refurbishment Centre is gathering data from a network of refurbishment exemplars to help those delivering refurbishment to understand the most effective measures available, and to help industry and government understand the barriers to mass-scale refurbishment and retrofit.
It has developed an online Refurbishment Portal, giving access to existing sustainable refurbishment best practice case studies and allowing individuals to upload their own refurbishment case studies. It also includes links to reports and best practice guides on all aspects of refurbishment, a state-of-the-nation report on industry attitudes and on-going knowledge papers.
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