The World in 2030

190 The World in 2030
conserve energy aggressively and to use fuel in the most efficient
manner possible. Because we have previously been living in a
period of ‘cheap energy’ and social carelessness there is huge
room for improvement in our current patterns of usage.
Most energy wastage occurs in the heating and cooling of
buildings and plastics have a major role to play in insulating
spaces against thermal transfer (either heat loss or cooling loss)
and in providing components for construction which are very
much more thermally efficient than traditional materials.
Energy efficiency in construction is a major goal for the
international plastics industry, not least because plastics of
one sort or another have such a large role to play in saving
energy. The use of plastics to replace glass, to replace less
efficient insulating materials and to provide component parts
for construction is demonstrated in specially built homes
erected by the BASF chemicals and plastics company. In
the USA the company has built a near-zero energy house 362
in Paterson, New Jersey which has been donated to a local
housing trust while, in Germany, the company has built a
number of what it calls ‘three litre houses’ in Ludwigshafen’s
Brunck district 363 . Annually, these super-efficient houses
use only three litres of oil per square metre to provide all
heating needs. These houses showcase the superb insulating
properties of plastic insulation and the energy saving
potential of plastic components for construction.
And the quest for energy efficiency and environmental
friendliness reportedly played a large part in Britain’s
securing of the 2012 Olympic Games for London. As the
BBC reported: