by Sandy Halliday
ENERGY inefficiency in buildings is a significant aspect of the current crisis that we face. It is expensive, wasteful and generates pollution that leads to climate change and contributes to biodiversity loss. It is also unfair. It leaves too many in fuel poverty.
But we do not simply shape the environment. The relationship is symbiotic. It shapes us. As we harm the thing that helps us live, it hurts us back. Energy inefficiency is creating flooding that kills and pollution that kills.
The increasing heat is particularly felt in cities where hard dark surfaces, tarmac and buildings, absorb the Sun’s heat and create urban heat islands that really do kill. Our regulations must encourage building design that is energy efficient in winter and safe in summer. There are initiatives that Scotland can learn from. Upgrading and regeneration of existing buildings has been addressed in Germany by the The Credit for Reconstruction Bank.
As far back as 1996 the bank launched a scheme to support energy efficient building renovation for households, business and local government. Many new housing developments in continental Europe are bucking the trend of selling land to private developers.
Instead local communities and authorities put their own development teams together to create affordable energy efficient developments. They take control and set benchmarks for energy.
Without the need to satisfy developers’ needs for large profits they can build affordable efficient and even “energy exporting” houses.
They are able to invest in integrated transport infrastructure and use ground floors for shops, offices, cafes, workshops, manufacturing, health centres and community hubs. This saves energy and space and makes for a cleaner environment. It has often been said that our built environment should be at the heart and soul of social and economic policy to fight climate change. The best time to start has gone. The second best time is now.
Sandy Halliday is a professor with Gaia Research
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here