THE ‘P’ WORD
THE ‘P’ WORD – Plastic in the UK: practical and pervasive … but problematic By Jonathan Cullen, Michal Drewniok and André Cabrera Serrenho Click here to download the...
Publications
Exergy calculator
The use of energy and materials in modern society is associated with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that exacerbate climate change. To reduce emissions, a combined energy and material...
Sustainable Materials—with both eyes open
Materials, transformed from natural resource into the buildings, equipment, vehicles and goods that underpin our remarkable lifestyles, are made with amazing efficiency. But our growing demand is not...
Energy Cost Metric
The construction and operation of buildings is responsible for 36% of global energy use and 39% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. The environmental impact of the buildings depends...
Toward a sustainable materials system
Global annual material use reached 90 billion tons in 2017 and may double by 2050. This unsustainable growth has impacts on everything from landscape degradation and habitat loss...
Developments in Wind Power
UK power generation from wind has increased in recent years due to sharp reductions in the costs of constructing and operating wind power facilities. Onshore wind power provides...
Exergy: A universal metric for measuring resource efficiency to address industrial decarbonisation
To achieve agreed targets for reducing global carbon emissions, industry must become more resource-efficient. To this end, two viable strategies exist: energy efficiency and material efficiency. Despite the...
Emissions of main building materials – past and present
Economic development has been based so far on permanently increasing demand for materials and products. Building materials, such as cement, steel and aluminium, due to their amount and...
Technical limits for energy conversion efficiency
To reach climate targets, unprecedented levels of energy efficiency improvements are required. To prioritise investments, it is necessary to know the energy saving potential associated with each action....
Useful energy balance for the UK: An uncertainty analysis
The use of Useful energy as an energy indicator for sustainability and energy efficiency policy making has been advocated for since the 1970s. Useful energy is the energy...