Midlothian Energy Limited (MEL) is a joint venture between Midlothian Council and Vattenfall that is delivering a heat network for local people, keeping them at the heart of planning, delivery and roll-out. But to create success in this region and further afield, we must win people’s belief in the technology first.

This piece from Mosart, Passive House architects, consultants and educators, explores how teams in Ireland are standardising Passivhaus delivery at scale, through a playbook with practical steps Scotland can apply now.

When British Land set out to re-energise 3 Sheldon Square, an 11-storey, 13 000 m² office building at Paddington Campus, the brief was clear: create a diverse, vibrant, low-carbon workplace that would set the tone for refurbishment on the estate up to 2030 and beyond.

Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) is a sustainable, high-performance construction material with the potential to improve speed and quality of builds. However, misconceptions persist within the industry, especially around CLT and other mass timber products made from timber grown in the UK due to historic perceptions.

Building on the findings of the Innovate UK research project Transforming Timber, the Mass Timber Centre of Excellence provides dedicated support to help the construction industry overcome these barriers and misconceptions. The Centre enables the sector to realise the full potential and benefits of UK mass timber construction by facilitating the successful integration of UK-grown timber into projects nationwide. This article addresses four prevalent myths and presents the evidence-based reality.

MOD X is a heavily influential organisation from the United States whose mission centres around this learning journey around offsite construction. It regularly tours leading offsite regions, including Japan, Germany, Sweden and more, to collect lessons learned to influence policy and tackle the housing challenges faced in their home country. Their experience, in turn, makes them a unique repository of international offsite construction knowledge gathered from across the globe.  

Tara Schmidt, Executive Director at Transition Finance Scotland, will be joining other industry leaders at this year’s International Retrofit Conference to explore how retrofit can move beyond isolated pilots to become financeable, scalable programmes.  

Speaking ahead of November’s BE-ST Fest, a two-day industry conference focused on net-zero carbon construction, Mark Farmer, Founder at Cast Consultancy, will be sharing his insights on the future of construction skills at this year’s BE-ST Fest Summit.  

Fleming, on behalf of East Ayrshire Council, has completed work on the UK’s first EnerPHit-certified school refurbishment: St. Sophia’s Primary, Galston. But what does this mean for the overall landscape in construction, and how will others benefit?

Sean Smith, Professor of Future Construction and Director of the Centre for Future Infrastructure within the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, was awarded the BE-ST Beacon Award in 2024. He joined us recently to reflect on the future of buildings and the built environment in Scotland.

As a Senior Design Manager at Kier, Beacon Award winner, and former Built Environment Change Maker, Emily Carr has become a driving force for systemic change in the industry - especially when it comes to equity, diversity, inclusion (EDI), and skills development.

Robert has been a leading figure in timber innovation and off-site construction throughout his career which spans both academia and industry.

Scottish pioneer of mass timber says mass timber systems offer new possibilities and opportunities in design and construction.

Gina Colley is an Architect and Associate Director at Threesixty Architecture. She believes inclusive design should be at the core of a just transition to net zero which creates spaces that are affordable, accessible, and considerate of all people. 

Beattie is a building performance expert with extensive experience in Passivhaus design. They specialise in creating retrofit strategies for challenging buildings, including historic and listed properties such as town halls and other public buildings.  

Elemental Power specialises in developing digital twins for local energy systems, a technology that combines technical and economic modelling to simulate and optimise energy usage in non-domestic settings.  

RE24 is playing a vital role in the ALCHEMAI project, focusing on providing energy solutions and analysis for non-domestic retrofitting. Their main focus is on one of the pilot sites that is located outside the main Bassetlaw Council District sites – a commercial building in Wales. 

Meet Zarja Krevelj, one of our change makers. She is working as an Architectural Technologist at HLM Architects, chair of the Sustainability Subgroup within the Change Makers, and was an early pioneer in the homegrown mass timber movement at Edinburgh Napier University.