Planning and development tool gets £500k backing

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

A planning and development tool known as Impact will get £500,000 in funding from the Technology Strategy Board

By Ashley Brunskill

A consortium led by Building Research Establishment (Bre) Global has been given £500,000 to develop a tool to change planning and development.

The Integrated Material Profile and Costing Tool, otherwise known as Impact, delivers continuous feedback during planning and development to guide professionals towards cost-effective and low-impact solutions.

It is hoped that Impact - delivered by Environmental Solutions - will allow the industry to take a more holistic view of the performance of a building, Bre said.

Impact will be conveniently designed to work with a number of software applications that are used by industry.

The £500,000 funding was granted by the Technology Strategy Board and it will be received over a three-year period.

Bre Group has met a number of milestones when it comes to greener planning and development. It claims to be one of the world's top five centres of excellence regarding the built environment.

Furthermore, in 2007 its Innovation Park launched the first volume build zero-carbon house in the world, the Kingspan Lighthouse.

Source: ask-re The Property People LLP