The NHS has produced an NHS England Carbon Reduction Strategy, as part of a broader sustainable development agenda. To support this process, the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) has completed a carbon footprinting study – covering all NHS England Estates and activities – in conjunction with the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI).
The report (pdf, 34 pages) can be downloaded from here. Some fascinating figures, including the fact that building energy accounts for only 22% of the carbon footprint.
the total 2004 NHS England CO2 emissions were estimated to be 18.61MtCO2. This compares to overall UK and England consumption emissions calculated in the SEI report as follows:
• 2.7% of total UK emissions (699MtCO2)
by removing NHS staff/patient/visitor travel, the resultant emissions value (18.61- 2.67 = 15.94MtCO2) can be compared to UK and England public sector consumption emissions thus:
• 30% of the whole of the England Public Sector emissions (54MtCO2).
Issues to be included in the future include:
Pharmaceutical emissions: Targeting wastage of pharmaceuticals could have a key impact. For example, a 10% reduction in pharmaceuticals consumption would lower overall emissions by 2%. Thus is roughly the same reduction as the 2000-2010 building energy reduction target of 0.15MtC.
Building energy sub-metering: There are already site level studies and projects underway to estimate health facility breakdowns of electricity and heating/hot water energy consumption (eg BRE). The NHS should begin a roll out programme of sub metering of NHS facilities, including the return of sub-metering data via ERIC. This will enable understanding of NHS energy consumption in more detail, which will be essential for future strategy decisions.
mel starrs Uncategorized carbon, NHS
Spotted this over at m&e sustainability:
“We are not going to get 100 per cent of buildings complying with the Building Regulations 100 per cent of the time,” said Ted King, principle mechanical and electrical engineer at the CLG. “We don’t have a Police State in this country, nor do we want one. It is far better to have phased compliance – and we are not that far away.
“You have to be realistic about what you can achieve. If we have most buildings mostly compliant most of the time, we are not doing badly,” added Mr King.
HVCA President John Miller responded with:
“I find this mystifying,” he said. “We spent months and years in consultations about the Regulations. The industry was more than happy to support the Government by setting up a series of Competent Persons Schemes that would allow suitably qualified contractors to self-certify their work as compliant, so taking the strain off local authorities.
“These schemes remain the most workable route to compliance, but there must be an overall enforcement framework or there will be little incentive for companies to put their operatives through the appropriate training,” added Mr Miller. “If unregistered, unqualified firms can carry on flouting the regulations with impunity, why should anyone else put themselves to the considerable extra expense of training operatives properly and joining a competence scheme?
“How does the Government expect to hit its ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions from buildings if it will not rigorously support its own legislation?”
Ted King’s comments were made at the CIBSE/ASHRAE conference last month (of which I have heard little about – wasn’t on the radar for a lot of people this year – was that due to being in the North?)
mel starrs Opinion Building Regulations
These are my links for May 27th through May 29th:
mel starrs News Activism, books, BREEAM, career, competitors, conferences, consumption, corporate, culture, food, globalization, leadership, Management, nutrition, oil, Saudi, UK, work
These are my links for May 26th through May 27th:
- IES Launches Free Tool : VE- Ware – IES’s VE-Ware, which is available to download for free online, gives limited but incredibly valuable access to its world leading <Virtual Environment> Apache thermal analysis software. New and existing buildings can now have their energy and carbon emis
- C-Plan – Carbon Impact Assessment – C-Plan is a revolutionary web-based service, developed by ECSC, that allows planning authorities and developers to demonstrate and verify compliance with climate change policy.
- Brickonomics – Newish blog from Construction Journal by Brian Green, combining an economics view with construction.
- Experts warn of looming climate change migration crisis – Countries that have the greatest responsibility for creating climate change also have a responsibility to deal with the casualties
- Stumbling and Mumbling: Public intellectual – an oxymoron? – To be very prominent in public affairs requires a dogmatism and capacity for soundbites that sits uneasily with the doubts and humble pursuit of “truth” that mark a true intellectual.
mel starrs News BIM, blog, climatechange, construction_industry, crisis, culture, Economics, environmental, freeware, ies, planning, policy, responsibility, Software
Among my construction and sustainability feeds are a growing number of food and economics links. Seems everything is connected. Whilst it’s not something I would blog about full time (a little too far off topic), I am constantly educating myself on the issues (readers have probably picked up themes from my del.icio.us links). Here is a passage which I found thought provoking today:
Free-market fundamentalists often criticize environmentalists (and other non-fundamentalists) for wanting to interfere with the natural, unfettered workings of the economy, which are supposed to embody some quasi-mystical perfection. Their argument would carry more weight if those supposedly simon-pure markets hadn’t already been endlessly tinkered with in order to tilt the playing field in favor of one business interest or another.
I’m not going into the food issues here – as I’ve already said, a little off-topic. My point is less about food and more about broader issues. One’s beliefs about economics, which are often* seldom explored and have roots in ‘nurture’ (what your parents believed, what papers you read, what your peers think), are a reflections of other beliefs such as how you believe a business should be run.
I’m sure there’s more to explore on this topic but I haven’t quite formulated my theories yet. Let’s just say I’m still in reconnaissance mode. But if you find any links which you think may be of interest to me in the meantime, drop me a line or leave me a del.icio.us link (just tag with for:melstar73)
*note to self – try not to write down words in the same way they come out of your mouth – exceptionally poor grammar…
mel starrs Opinion beliefs, Economics, food
What I’ve been reading about:
mel starrs News aggregator, calculator, competitors, development, Dubai, international, planning, Productivity, renewable, sustainability_water, tools, toread, water
What I’ve been reading about:
- NYREJ – What works there, can work here: “Green” lessons from around the world – Architects and engineers sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture by focusing too intently on individual (certification) programs. Architects should focus on some of the universal themes found to be successful abroad, pull appropriate concepts and apply
- BREEAM goes to Europe – Property Week – BREEAM Retail Europe will be launched in July and reviewed 12 months later. It will initially cover new and refurbished buildings, but will be extended to older shopping centres at a later date.
- Best Green Companies tables – The Times 50 Best Green Companies venture has both a robust methodology to measure environmental performance and a survey of each company’s staff to find out whether the green sheen is more than skin-deep.
- Departmental Energy: 19 May 2008: Written answers (TheyWorkForYou.com) – Want to know what the energy spend in UK prisons was for the past couple of years? TheyWorkForYou has the answer.
- BREEAM raises stakes – Property Week – ‘Outstanding’ will require an 85%-plus score, whereas ‘excellent’ requires 70%. The new category will set minimum requirements for water and energy consumption in developments. Occupiers will also be able to view compulsory post-construction certi
- Free guide to alternatives to uPVC windows – The guide makes the various cases for alternatives, especially timber and goes into the different aspects of each one in terms of environmental impact and energy efficiency. It can be downloaded free from Sustainable Homes website – www.sustainablehomes.c
- Renew or repair existing window units? A best value approach – "decisions of choice based on quality issues as well as capital cost have given rise to problems within the public sector, leading to financial loss for client organisations in instances where they have failed to adhere to statute or regulatory codes requ
mel starrs News awards, BREEAM, decision, domestic, Energy, environmental, Europe, Housing, LEED, making, models, outstanding, prisons, retail, spend, timber, times, UK, uPvc, windows
These are my links for May 20th through May 23rd:
mel starrs News Building_Regs, construction_industry, debate, eco, Economics, ethics, globalwarming, Housing, insurance, joke, Psychology, READING, research, think08, water
I was just perusing through the archives of BSJ looking for something else entirely, when I came across this debate from 2000 on the then proposed Part L. I found this paragraph to be particularly enlightening:
The clauses covering overheating criteria for naturally ventilated buildings puzzled more than one delegate. Oscar Faber’s Ant Wilson queried if it was wise to set a limit of 28°C for ten days over ten years at a solar gain of 15 W/m2. “What weather data is that based on, and what datasets should designers be using in future given that climate change may affect our ability to meet the criteria?,” he queried.
“My reaction is that it will make people put air conditioning in their buildings, which is much easier than doing the calculation,” predicted Ove Arup’s Chris Twinn.
Crystal ball gazing indeed. It’s a good read, especially with the hindsight of the past 8 years. On a different topic (the NEF building in Milton Keynes), but from the same year, Chris Twinn advises the following with regards to BREEAM:
“there is no real payback on a BREEAM assessment for an owner-occupied building – the real benefit is for a landlord to attract tenants.”
Times have changed slightly there, I would say.
It was fun delving into the not so distant past, but not awfully conducive to actually doing what I was supposed to be doing. At least I got a blog post out of it…
mel starrs Opinion Ant Wilson, BREEAM, Chris Twinn, Part L
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