Sustainability

Our goal is to "reduce both financial and environmental costs through skillful, sensitive design".

We can use solar analysis to evaluate how heat gains from the sun affect a building's comfort and therefore running costs in terms of heating and cooling.

Climate and site analysis can be used to evaluate the impact of the weather conditions prevailing in an area and the geographical location of a site on a proposed design.

By modelling air flow through the building we can consider naturally ventilated or mix mode buildings to provide occupant comfort. We can also assess the impact of night time cooling; ultimately this can reduce build and running costs.

RBS can use effective facade and glazing design to reduce energy consumption and contribute to zero-energy buildings. This can also improve the well-being of building occupants through improved thermal comfort and increased natural day-lighting.

RBS can provide information on Life Cycle Costing which allows informed design decisions to be determined based on:

• Operating costs of the building during its lifetime
• Capital costs
• Fuel costs
• Annual maintenance
• Repair costs

We can evaluate the impact of renewable energy in a design and provide information on emissions.

We can analyse the impact of proposed fabric construction in terms of heat transfer and retention. This is undertaken early in the design process where benefits can be maximised.

On a room by room basis we can calculate the average maximum temperatures and CO² levels of designs to ensure occupant comfort on existing or new buildings.

By predicting daylight we can design buildings with lower lighting demand and therefore reduce the running costs associated with this.

RBS uses software to predict a building's energy consumption. This is then used to inform the design, leading to a low/zero energy building.

By carrying out an analysis of existing buildings we can provide long term strategies to improve CO² emissions, thermal comfort and reduce running costs.