Environment
When there isn’t the option to change the nature of the building being renovated, there are still plenty of alternatives for reducing its impact on the environment and to protect the health of users.
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In addition to the usual thermal insulation, to reduce the need for HVAC and energy consumption, it is also important to consider
• the nature of the materials used for the interior, and their composition: insulation, paint, flooring, joinery, furniture, and so on.
To find out about the properties of materials, and their potential health and environmental impacts, we can refer to the information available on the INIES database.
• good ventilation for proper air exchange
• On the one hand, and the environmental consequences in terms of where the raw materials came from, on the other.
(Reducing the use of new materials limits the consumption of grey energy, the energy used to produce the materials)
• Room layout, to maximise energy savings (« hot » rooms facing north, « cold » rooms to the south)
• Finally, the organisation of the site, which will generate varying levels of pollution depending on transport and waste management.