Help is at hand for those firms looking to capitalise when market conditions improve. For eco inventors in the East of England, BRE has set up an enterprise hub to offer advice to innovative SMEs on bringing sustainable technologies to market. Meanwhile in Wales British Gas is opening a centre to train people in how to install green technologies.

Against the backdrop of the downturn there are still projects that dare to be different, such as the inventive Carnival Arts Centre in Luton. This was an unusual challenge for contractor Apollo Group, which had to carefully engineer the building to provide it with an "unfinished" look without it actually being unfinished.

Elsewhere, we have the first two instalments of our series looking at the proposed changes to Part L of the Building Regulations, including how one council has successfully managed to implement consequential improvements when homeowners build extensions.

Plus there's a look at the options for tailoring the concrete mix used in buildings to cut down on the embodied carbon and a short video of domino toppling with a difference.

 

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