Welcome SUSTAINABILITY
Fiona Russell Horne Group Managing Editor
C
limate change, energy prices, energy shortages, possible backouts: the list of the ways in which the effect of human beings on the planet goes on and on.
The main threats of climate change, which stem from the rising temperature of Earth’s atmosphere, include rising sea levels, ecosystem collapse and more frequent and severe weather. This is our fault. Humans are the main cause of climate change — we burn fossil fuels and chop down forests, causing average temperatures to rise worldwide. The Earth has already warmed by about 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, since the 19th century, before the Industrial Revolution really took hold and industry started to boom. While we may well suffer the effects in our day-to-day lives, the planet is well on its way 1.5 degrees C (2.7 F) by as early as 2030. Look back at this Summer, when we sweltered in those days when the mercury stayed in the 30s all day, and didn’t drop back to below 20, even at night, for a week. We grumble about it – and some people scoff at those who are grumbling about it – yet as a collective we don’t really think about the wide picture. If the temperature is rising like that in our little temperate part of the world, shielded as we are by the Gulf Stream, imagine what it must be ;like in other [art of the world. And what happens elsewhere affects us.
Why does the increasing global temperature matter? It’s basic school science: more heat leads
EDITORIAL
Group Managing Editor: Fiona Russell Horne 01622 699101 07721 841382
frussell-horne@datateam.co.uk
Assistant editor Anjali Sooknanan 01622 699106
asooknanan@datateam.co.uk CIRCULATION
Production Controller: Nic Mandeville
ABC audited average circulation July 2018-June 2019: 7,801
Publisher: Paul Ryder
pryder@datateam.co.uk ADVERTISING
Publication Manager: Dawn Tucker 01622 699148 07934 731232
dtucker@datateam.co.uk
CHANGING FOR THE BETTER
to more evaporation, leads to more moisture in the atmosphere, but less in the ground, putting our agriculture, health, water supply and more at risk. The increased evaporation eventually leads to more intense downpours, flash floods, drowned crops.
45% of total UK carbon emissions (27% from domestic buildings and 18% from non-domestic) come from built construction. 72% of domestic emissions arise from space heating and the provision of hot water. 32% of landfill waste comes from the construction and demolition of buildings. The construction industry produces a quarter of total waste each year of which up to 13% is delivered and unused. It produces three times more waste than all UK households combined. This industry has to shoulder a
SUBSCRIPTIONS
UK 1 year: £97 UK, 2 years: £164 Outside UK: one year £113/$204; two years: £196/$353
large chunk of the blame, and, therefore, it is incumbent upon every business to play their part in coming up with solutions.
We’ve already seen, from April this year, the effect on merchants of the Plastic Packaging Tax, an attempt to get industries to reduce their use of plastic packaging. There is likely to be more, increasingly onerous legislation in the future. Happily, there is a huge amount of work going on in this industry already to improve sustainability, which is why we’ve highlighted just a fraction of the initiatives in this special supplement.
There is still so much more than needs to be done, indeed that is already being done, that we will be re-visiting this vital topic again, in even more depth.
Builders Merchants Journal Datateam Business Media London Road Maidstone Kent ME15 8LY Tel: 01622 687031
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net
© Datateam Business Media Ltd 2022. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means, electronic or mechanical including photo-copying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher. The title Builders Merchants Journal is registered at Stationers’ Hall.
November 2022 A supplement to builders merchants journal
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