Date and time: 5 November 2008, 6pm – 9pm

Venue: Building Centre, Store Street, London WC1E 7BT

The Royal Institute of British Architects today launches Carbon Buzz, an online platform designed to enable practices to monitor their projects' energy usage.

Set up in collaboration with the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), the project aims to set the framework for future benchmarking by providing a means to reduce the discrepancy between design and operational energy consumption, a key concern for the industry.

The project will create a sector by sector monitor of UK buildings' energy use and provide a RIBA and CIBSE recognised framework for 'Carbon-Conscious' practices.. Participating practices will be afforded easy access to CIBSE CO2 emission benchmarks during design and will be able to compare results with actual energy consumption figures once a building is in use. UK designers and engineers can contribute to, manage and share forecast and actual energy use of their projects anonymously.

The launch will be presented by Sunand Prasad (RIBA President), Bill Gething (Chair of RIBA Sustainable Futures), Hywel Davies (CIBSE Technical Director) and Bill Bordass (Research Director of the Usable Buildings Trust). There will be an opportunity to participate in CarbonBuzz workshops at the Building Centre on 11, 12 and 13 November 2008, from 8.30am to 11am. These sessions are designed to introduce practices to the platform and input their projects' design forecast and post-completion data.