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Sustainable Buildings Task Group

The Sustainable Buildings Task Group was formed following the Better Buildings Summit at the request of The Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott MP, Secretary of State for the Environment Margaret Beckett MP and then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Patricia Hewitt MP.

Objective 
The Group was tasked with identifying specific, cost-effective, improvements in the quality and environmental performance of buildings which industry can deliver in both the short and long term, together with further actions that Government could take to facilitate faster progress.

Terms of Reference 
In order to achieve this objective, the Task Group looked at four areas where the Government saw a need to significantly improve the quality of buildings to deliver higher standards of environmental performance in support of sustainable development in new communities but also through refurbishment and renewal . 

These areas were: 

• Water
• Energy
• Timber and other construction materials
• Waste reduction  

The Group considered which mechanisms could best achieve this in the context of current and future regulatory requirements. Among the mechanisms to considered were :

• The contribution the planning system can make to mainstreaming best practice
• The role of Government incentives for innovation
• The promotion of long term planning for dynamic improvement
• The promotion and adoption of best practice, including potential for the use of voluntary agreements
• The best means of sharing experience between designers, builders and utilities.

The group was asked that all work and subsequent recommendations should:  

• Consider improvements to buildings within the context of creating high quality, well-designed, sustainable places
• Consider improvements to buildings that take account of issues of refurbishment and renewal as well as new build
• Consider matters relating to any regulatory impact assessment that could be required
• Assess the degree of robustness of cost assumptions and consider all cost implications 
• Take account of maintenance issues in considering sustainability of buildings over their entire lifecycle.

Reports published by the group and responses are avaialble via the links on the right.