Leading interior solutions provider Armstrong Ceilings is believed to have become the first in its sector to launch an online RIBA CPD.

Available through www.ribacpd.com, Suspended ceilings and the environment has been designed to provide architects with an improved understanding of how suspended ceilings can help reduce our impact on the environment.

The 44-minute CPD meets the RIBA Core Curriculum criteria of climate (sustainable architecture), designing and building it (design, construction, technology and engineering) and knowledge level (general awareness).

It explains how suspended ceilings have evolved to meet today’s environmental issues in terms of sustainability and user comfort/well-being, the important role they play in creating a sustainable indoor environment.

Sustainability factors include the measures employed by ceiling manufacturers to reduce their impact on the environment through product development, production, packaging and distribution, recycling schemes and a focus on life cycles.

User comfort/well-being factors include aesthetics (integration of services such as lighting, sprinklers, motion sensors and smoke detectors, and light reflectance to minimise dependence on artificial light), acoustics, fire resistance, hygiene and indoor air quality,

It explains how suspended ceilings have adapted to cater for raw material changes and new grid technology to help use the thermal mass of a building to control the indoor environment.

Viewers of this latest of almost a dozen RIBA-approved Armstrong CPDs are awarded an hour’s credit after correctly answering five multiple-choice questions.

Armstrong’s new online CPD can be viewed at http://www.armstrong.com/commclgeu/eu1/uk/gb/RIBA_seminars.html.