A leading supplier of construction materials has warned that certain materials aimed at increasing energy efficiency and carbon reduction are being severely underused by the property developer community.
SIG operations director Vince Lunn urged builders and property developers to start incorporating green technologies as standard practice in their projects.
Mr Lunn gave as an example a copolymer that has been developed by SIG with the intention of being used in buildings with a low thermal mass to prevent the rapid fluctuation of room temperatures.
He explained that “the copolymer sites in the walls and at 22 degrees it melts. When it melts it takes up some latent heat in order to do that, so that actually cools down that building or that room.”
“As the temperature drops and as it reaches 18 degrees, it solidifies and actually gives some of that heat back.”
Although the material is already in use, Mr Lunn stressed that it can potentially be used in many different parts of a building than just the walls. He said that it was down to the construction industry to think outside the box and innovate to ensure that more carbon reduction technology was utilised.
“One of the challenges we face all the time is we work with lots of manufacturers and we bring a lot of products and I challenge the idea that it is becoming more mainstream,” he said, insisting that property developers need to be more “imaginative.”
This looks likely to be an uphill struggle, however. At the start of the week, the Department of Energy and Climate Change announced that it is rejecting any new applicants to the Low Carbon Building Programme due to spending cuts.