September 21, 2005 -- Whole life costing is now a requirement for all Government tenders and Private Finance Initiative schemes, applying to development projects worth around £7.5bn. It is central to sustainable development and is becoming more important in both the public and private sectors, as legislation and tax changes are introduced to mitigate climate change and reduce carbon emissions.
“ Fifty per cent of all carbon emissions are generated by inefficient buildings – a fact that the industry has to address. ”
The new value management tool uses whole life costing (WLC) techniques and 3D building simulation software to enable specifiers of Yorkon buildings to assess and evaluate the implications of a wide variety of design options on carbon emissions, energy consumption and running costs, over the life cycle of a building. These options include the type of lighting, heating, cladding, ventilation and glazing.
Yorkon brought together a team of leading industry professionals to work on the two-year development project, including consulting engineers Troup Bywaters & Anders and whole life performance specialists, Building Performance Group.
Commenting on the launch of the new tool, Keith Blanshard, Director and General Manager of Yorkon, said, “Whole life costing is now a key issue and yet many building specifiers are still not addressing it. It is essential that all the components and processes involved in a building are critically appraised as part of the design process to achieve best value over the life of the scheme.”
He added, “We also believe we have a corporate social responsibility to help protect the environment. Fifty per cent of all carbon emissions are generated by inefficient buildings – a fact that the industry has to address. Whole life costing is therefore key to sustainable development. By looking closely at the specification of a building at the earliest stage in its design, we can engineer out wasteful processes and inefficiencies in the specification, construction and maintenance of a given project.”
WLC is defined as a series of techniques used to assess the costs of acquiring, operating and disposing of a building. All the costs and revenues over the life of a building should be considered, such as initial capital expenditure, financing, health and safety, return on investment, maintenance, repair, replacement and refurbishment, alteration and improvement. These factors can be expressed financially or as life-time environmental impacts, such as CO2 emissions.
The new software allows specifiers to assess the whole life costs of Yorkon’s steel-framed building system compared to other modular, brick and block, and steel framed construction methods.
This industry first follows the launch of Yorkon’s pioneering warranty package. A 20-year structural warranty and 5-year product warranty are part of a new and unique Customer Charter introduced to set out Yorkon’s commitment to delivering every project to the highest quality standards.
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