Archive for June, 2006
Hope for existing housing stock
Hot on the back of the launch of EcoHomesXB, is the news that a major project by the BRE is to look at Victorian dwellings and how they can be improved to meet today’s environmental standards.
Britain has the oldest housing stock in the developed world and much of this is represented by the Victorian terraced [...]
How should engineering consultancies market themselves?
Spotted in BSEE, White Young Green are now marketing themselves as “consultants to the built, natural and social environment”. Further investigation on WYG’s website finds that the full explanation is:
“White Young Green is an international multi-discipline consultant to the built, natural, social and economic environment.”
Without mentioning the world ’sustainability’ they have managed to encompass the [...]
Book Review - Good to Great
Baby Hedgehogs by Chief Trent
I’ve had the Jim Collins book ‘Good to Great‘ on my bookshelf since before I embarked on my MBA exploits. As part of my ‘Business Excellence’ module, I finally got the chance for an excuse to read it.
There are loads of reviews out there, including some which are less than [...]
Do you live in an A rated home?
On Wednesday DCLG announced details of the home energy certificates which must be in place due to EPBD (European Performance of Buildings Directive) by 2009. The UK version will be ready by next summer:
The certificates will give home buyers and sellers A to G ratings for their home’s energy efficiency and carbon emissions. They will [...]
A story about culture…
Professor John Oakland recently held the Business Excellence module for my Executive MBA. He told this this story, which sums up culture and how it can permeate throughout a company despite personnel changes.
A man has 12 chimps in a large cage. He walks into the centre of the cage with a ladder and hangs a [...]
BREEAM and ecology hit the local press and other stories from around the web…
Story from the Yorkshire Post on 1 June 2006 in which a local ecology company are spreading the word about BREEAM.
In Canada, green buildings are happier more productive buildings:
One study of a green renovation to the post office in Reno, Nevada, found that the $500,000 cost was offset by productivity improvements in the first year [...]
Sustainable Construction in Practice
Last week I attended an event organised by Construction News Conferences at 27 Sussex Place: ‘Sustainable Construction in Practice‘. Below are some notes and thoughts from the day, roughly in the order of the presentations. Some of the presentations were not available in paper on the day and when these are released on pdf I [...]
PassivHaus in UK
GBP report on the launch of a new website for PassivHaus in the UK. Features which make a house a PassivHaus include:
Super-insulation: opaque fabric U-values must be less than 0.15 W/m2K, with U-values for windows and doors generally needing to be less than 0.8 W/m2K (for both the frame and glazing). Thermal bridges are also [...]
Hurrah for geeks!
::via www.phdcomics.com
I am a self confessed geek. I have no qualms about this. Rather than shying from my geekdom, I have chosen to embrace it. Why else do I find myself in my spare time blogging about business and engineering - a subject which no doubt would bore most folk to tears? It can only [...]
