ISOBIO New Project (Apr2015)

Bio-based aggregates such as straw, clay, wheat or grasses mixed with innovative binders might hold the key to a more environmentally friendly construction process and substantial improvements in energy efficiency for everything from individual private residencies to major public buildings.

The ISOBIO project will develop these sustainable construction materials to enable demonstration at prototype level in an operational environment. The objective is to achieve a 50% reduction in embodied energy and CO2 at component level and 20% better insulation properties than conventional materials.

Proving what is good for the environment can also be good for the economy, the project will also seek to demonstrate a reduction of least 15% in total costs and 5% total energy spent over the lifetime of a building.

The project runs from February 2015 for four years, has a budget of 6,3M€, and the development is planned in four significant phases. The first two will focus on taking the materials from idea to application, before emphasis switches to a smooth transition from lab to demonstration scale, facilitating an exploitation of the results by the building industry and key stakeholder groups such as construction professionals, local authorities and architects.

The unique blend of organisations and expertise working towards these goals is a consortium of 12 partners from across Europe. Lead by independent research and technology experts, TWI, and comprising partners from France, Spain, Germany, Norway, UK and Belgium. The ISO BIO project is funded by the Horizon 2020 programme under a specific call to improve energy performance and reduce embodied energy across the whole life cycle of a building.

Interested parties can follow developments on the @isobioproject twitter account. A dedicated project website will be live during Spring 2015.

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