Sustainability

Developing wood welding as a rapid timber joining technique

17 May 2021

In a proof-of-concept collaboration between TWI Ltd and the University of Cambridge and enabled by the Construction Innovation Hub, researchers have developed a sustainable process to rapidly join timber elements using linear friction welding. Two years into the project they have been able to join pieces of wood in two to...

Line of sight: an Asset Management Methodology to Support Organisational Objectives

Organisations responsible for infrastructure assets must understand the importance that asset information has to achieve their organisational objectives. Asset-related information must align with organisational requirements to support the efficient management of assets throughout their whole life...

Blog: Four Futures, One Choice

11 December 2020

While many worried that automation would lead to unprecedented levels of unemployment, the b uilt e nvironment in 2040 is powered both by a growing skilled workforce and supported by automation. More people than ever are now in employment, a change that happened rapidly in response to the Green New Deal and other post-...

Publication: Four Futures One Choice

11 December 2020

fourfutures_onechoice_2020._png.png Four Futures, One Choice uses a futures thinking methodology to explore four scenarios for the digital built environment in the year 2040, hinging on the age demographics in the UK and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. It demonstrates that a complex web of factors...

Book: Four Futures - One Choice

4 November 2020

screenshot_2020-12-11_at_11.11.09.png Four Futures, One Choice provokes us with a future lens enabling us to view, with clarity and detail, four scenarios of what Britain could look like in 2040, depending upon the decisions that are made now, in these unprecedented times of opportunity. It presents us with four compelling...

Dr Dan Summerbell

Research background

Dan Summerbell's background is in manufacturing operations. He has worked in a range of industries, across the UK, France, the US and Canada. He joined the Centre for Industrial Sustainability in 2017 to work on carbon efficeincy in cement manufacturing processes. In July 2020 he joined DIAL to work on the ACORN project, moving down the cement supply chain to look at the whole life carbon impact of construction.

Digital Energy Estimation Tool (DEET)

How can buildings’ energy use and embodied energy both be optimized at the design stage? This project aims to enable the generation of real-time data from operational energy use and from energy embedded in building components. It will do this through 3-D computing paradigm at an early building...

Integrated Management of Margins through Evaluation, Design, Analysis, Tracking and Negotiation

Over-engineering of systems is an often-hidden source of inefficiency in systems, which can add significantly to their building and running costs, and reduce the sustainability of systems. One cause of over-engineering is a cumulative effect of different stakeholders adding margins to the...

Energy Planning for Resilient Decarbonization

This project develops probabilistic master-planning tools to support effective implementation of energy policies in UK cities. It integrates high-dimensional data that spans environmental features, physical form & land-use, socio-demographics, and economics to analyse cities spatially. Outputs...

Co-Creating a City-Scale Digital Strategy and Framework: A Systems and Co-production Approach

Digital technologies have the potential to unlock major social and economic change for the World’s rapidly growing urban populations, creating value through more liveable, healthy and environmentally sustainable cities. However, this can only happen if city leaders are empowered to make intelligent...