IN this world where the environment is being damaged at an alarming rate more needs to be done to save it and one of the best places to start is in property.

Just looking at building sites with their overflowing skips it is possible to see that the construction industry is extremely wasteful.

At the Suss It Out - New Ways of Building for a Sustainable City lecture, held at the Blackledge Theatre, as part of the Salisbury Festival last week, environmental architect Pat Borer spoke about some of the ways builders and architects can work to improve the environment.

One of the best places to start, he said, is to go back to our traditional roots.

Mr Borer spoke about how the building industry uses huge amounts of our natural resources and materials, while building uses about half of the energy used in the world and produces a vast amount of waste.

In order to save our environment he said that architects and builders should be staying away from "alien" materials, such as plastics and concrete, that were not on the planet before humans came.

Instead, raw materials such as wood, stone or earth - that will eventually be reused or decay back into the earth - should be used.

Many changes are needed and Mr Borer has shown how this can be done in the architectural world.

"Architects need to change what they want."

They should work with what they have, so rather than importing rare timber they should make do with what they have and incorporate that into their designs to make energy efficient homes which, in the long run, will help the environment and save the home owner money in bills.

But he said that the changes cannot simply lie with the buildings - humans need to change their habits from things as small as switching off lights when leaving a room to larger scale energy saving devices in buildings.

The lecture was certainly a deep insight into the ways that the construction industry and architects can work together to help save the earth and give people a natural but comfortable home to live in.

It's a shame the government won't bring in more regulations to stop this waste, but at least there are people like Mr Borer around to show that change is possible.