Climate and Sustainability

We recognise there is an environmental consequence from all building activities and day to day living

Thankfully, the environmental cost of repairing and living in an old building which already exists is less than building new. When functioning as they were designed to, the running costs of an old building can be much friendlier to the environment and the purse.

Heating an old building which is not performing as it was originally intended to is expensive and unhealthy. First you have to heat the cold walls before any useful heat warms the inhabitants. This very action also produces condensation which in turn can lead to mould growth. The walls of buildings with lime finishes control their own moisture levels and their very mass retains heat in the winter. The very fact that they absorb moisture and then let it out again as vapour lessens condensation and stops mould growth. In the summer, their thermal mass stops buildings becoming unpleasantly warm. However you heat or cool a building, there is an environmental cost. Even renewable energy sources require either building or manufacturing and they don’t last forever without maintenance and renewal.

Whilst big businesses and politicians should be the ones to make great strides in tackling climate change and sustainability, we believe that taking small steps is our best way of addressing the situation. By helping to repair some of the 300,000 solid walled homes in Wales and encouraging their custodians to conserve them for future generations.

Building limes are without doubt less harmful to the environment than modern cements. For a start, in their act of curing, they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Of course, in their production they do the opposite – carbon dioxide is driven off the burning limestone in a kiln. The extent to which this becomes an issue environmentally depends on the way in which materials are produced – the scale, the temperature of the kilns, the materials used to fire these kilns, the environmental cost of the aggregates it is mixed with and the transport of these materials. The environmental cost on site should also be taken into consideration – when compared with cement on site, lime scores highly as there is much less wastage. There is also the whole lifetime cost of the building to consider. Correctly repaired and maintained solid walled buildings can last for generations, making them truly sustainable.