Residential Construction Sustainability in the UK and Prospects of Knowledge Transfer to Kazakhstan

Abstract

This paper aimed to investigate the up-to-date levels of sustainability in the UK construction with special interest to sustainable housing. It also aims to examine the justification behind construction and housing sustainability, and to look at the practicality of transferring current expertise within the UK as well as to an emerging Central Asian country such as Kazakhstan. A synergy of case studies, survey and numerical simulation research methodologies were applied to undertake a wide-spectrum analysis of the topic. Regardless of difficulties related to applying sustainable practices the considered housing developments are found to be satisfactory in terms of environmental and socio-economic effects. Technical evaluation of the case studies compared to standard housing parameters has shown encouraging outcomes and confirmed the claimed energy and water efficiency. Findings of the survey indicated that construction companies of the UK and Kazakhstan are at different stages of application of sustainability measures. It was also established that companies and public are mainly optimistic about sustainability if suitable economical and legal conditions are ensured. Finally, numerical simulations have shown that selected sustainability measures made the studied housing projects competitive on the sustainability market.