Better Buildings challenge for sustainable innovation

A competition to find green solutions that help to improve the performance of commercial buildings has been launched by the Institute for Sustainability, in partnership with the Climate Knowledge and Innovation Community (Climate-KIC) and the Better Buildings Partnership (BBP) – a collaboration of leading London commercial property owners and investors. Because energy efficiency improvement works have focused primarily on mechanical and electrical control upgrades and plant replacement, the competition focuses on innovations which could help improve the environmental performance of the building envelope.

The competition challenges, identified by the BBP, are designed to complement work already underway by members to drive sustainability standards across their commercial property portfolios.

Much of the London stock was built or has undergone major refurbishment within the last 20 years. An approximate spread of building’s ages is as follows: pre-1979 (10%) and 90’s (30%) and post 2000 (60%).  Very little consideration has to-date been given to addressing the envelope as a way of improving environmental performance, which is why this competition is of such interest to BBP members.

For this reason solutions should be:

• suitable for retrofitting existing, occupied buildings;
• relate to the external envelope of the building rather than the internal structure;
• low disruption with tenants in situ;
• not require onerous planning consents;
• commercially viable;
• replicable.

Entries should address the environmental impact of the building envelope – this could include, but is not limited to energy, water or biodiversity. Shortlisted market ready solutions will be selected to pitch their innovation to the BBP’s membership for the opportunity to demonstrate their solutions in situ.

For full competition details, click here