Integration of Energy with Ecology and Environment:

Architects and developers have little direct say upon social provision but they need to be

aware of divisions that they perpetrate or help break down, where they can however, have

influence is in another triangular set of relationships. The various international agreements

on the environment and climate change mean that building design has three distinct

perspectives to consider – energy, ecology, and environment.

The concentration upon low energy design is no longer sufficient if true sustainability is to be

met, but conversely, sustainable development that does not have at its centre an energy

strategy is also invalid.

Designers now need to incorporate into master

plans the regenerative potential of ecosystems and to

consider in a holistic fashion the environmental

resource implications of their development

decisions.

It's a tall order, especially with inadequate

information on lifecycle impacts and a construction

industry that appears reluctant to innovate in the

housing sector.

But it's possible to extract indicators from complex

picture and use these to highlight good practice at a

local level.

For example, with energy, one could relatively

easily model different designs against CO2

emissions and other pollutants per year, with

environmental resources, one could measure water

use, and with ecosystems, one could use a single

species (such as the blackbird or toad) as an

indicator of local biodiversity. By using indicators to

model or monitor performance. The full complexity

of sustainable development could be reduced to

measurable parts. It will not tell you the whole

picture, but as a design or management tool it

could point in the right direction