Elemental

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This appeals to my inner rationalist, the little voice which makes me an engineer and also resonates with something I have been wrestling with all week.  I found it a while ago but hadn’t picked out this section  before:

Metrics do not get in the way of being creative. Almost everything is quantifiable, and just the exercise of trying to frame up ecological and labor impacts can be surprisingly instructive. So on your next project, if you’ve determined that it may be impossible to quantify the consequences of a material or process or assembly in a design you’re considering, maybe it’s not such a good material or process or assembly to begin with. There are more and more people out there in the business of helping you to find these things out, by the way; you just have to call them.

Allan here is talking about designing “things” – Looking for metrics (even if you don’t necessarily find them) and quantifying the consequences is a very useful exercise. I would add that second guessing unintended consequences (eg: looking at scenario planning) is a step even further.

mel starrs Diversions design, metrics, unintended consequences

These are my links for July 22nd through July 24th:

• Target Finder : ENERGY STAR – Create building type specific targets based on US zipcode. Excellent resource, but be mindful the target is energy, not carbon.
• New Buildings Institute – Getting to Fifty – There are no technical barriers, and few financial ones, to restrict the energy efficiency of most commercial construction from being at least 50 percent better than current code requirements. However, there is limited practical guidance for design teams
• Advanced Buildings Home – Don't try this at home. Specification ensures energy reduction without modelling (US oriented – credits can be gained under LEED). In UK, of course, we now have SBEM. Modelling effectively mandatory…
• Zero carbon houses cost up to £47,000 more to build – Building – As I flagged up yesterday, with a rather less sensationalist headline (slightly disappointed with Building on that one – not helpful in today's gloom and doom)
• Ska rating: – Skansen Open Source fit-out assessment (BREEAM competitor). Still looks to be under development…
• Is LEED still relevant? » Blog Archive » YoChicago – The pro's and con's of LEED are debated in the comments to this blog post.
• RIBA CABE BSF – RIBA unsurprised at low quality of BSF design. RIBA "called on the government to let it road test the RIBA's alternative 'Smart PFI' model, which it claimed would 'would ensure design intelligence is deployed right from the start of any BSF programme'."

mel starrs News 2030, benchmark, BREEAM, BSF, buildings, CABE, carbon, criticism, design, Energy, fit-out, LEED, PFI, reference, RIBA, SKA, US, zero

These are my links for July 18th through July 21st:

• Cost Analysis of The Code for Sustainable Homes: Final Report – Planning, building and the environment – Communities and Local Government – Revisions to Cyril Sweett's initial cost analysis for specific credits in light of the finalised technical guidance on the Code
• Open the Floodgates: The Era of Green Building Litigation – Column | GreenerBuildings – July 3 – a new era of environmental litigation began. A group of HVAC and water heating equipment trade organizations, contractors and distributors sued the City of Albuquerque in federal district court to stop parts of the city's high performance buildin
• BuildingGreen.com – EBN: 17:7 – Counting Carbon: Understanding Carbon Footprints of Buildings – Lengthy but useful article on carbon footprinting of buildings (US oriented)
• » Green giant Free 2d-3d AutoCAD & 3DS Max object: architecture block detail for autocad & 3ds max Models – How M&S's Plan A translates to new store design.
• The Top 200 International Design Firms – ENR | McGraw-Hill Construction – Construction Industry, News Articles, Business Conditions & Analysis, Markets, Finance, Costs, Legislation, Government, Management, Labor, Construction Methods, Equipment & Material – Is it that time of the year again, again?

mel starrs News 100, analysis, BREEAM, buildings, carbon_footprint, cost, CSH, design, firms, green, legal, lists, M&S, retail, statistics, Top, US

These are my links for July 11th through July 17th:

• Kyoto2 Oliver Tickell – Kyoto2 is a framework for a new Climate Protocol under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for 2012 and beyond.
• Steering a sustainable path through GM issues | Forum For The Future – In summary, GM might have a role to play in securing a more sustainable food production system in the future…but, it’s definitely not a ‘silver-bullet’ solution to world hunger, climate change and poverty.
• Food and the G8 (Jonathon Porritt) – "There is a deep, hugely damaging fault-line running all the way through it (Food Matters), captured in a brave but ultimately forlorn attempt to hold both "business-as-usual" and "business transformed" within the same policy framework."
• Beware of hype on the value of green buildings- 7/1/2008 – Building Design & Construction – Use data with caution: "the LEED rating has no effect upon commercial rents, but the Energy Star rating is associated with rents higher by 2.8%"
• Soaring energy costs herald more whole life costing in construction – Building Services Journal – Excellent article on WLC, comparing private and public funded projects. Author is from the improbably named "Davis Langdon Mott Green Wall" which just goes to show the current state of consolidation in the industry…
• Romanian Green Building Council – Romanian GBC have set up a blog to inform peeps of it's movements and developments. Nicely implemented.
• Rethink Your Business Model Around Green – Harvard Business Online’s Leading Green – green businesses are challenging the conventional wisdom that centralized production delivers a sustainable advantage through economies of scale. In fact, in the emerging green economy, many businesses are shifting to distributed models where production i

mel starrs News blog, business, climate, data, environment, food, GBC, globalization, GM, green, policy, population, statistics, strategy, Sustainability, UK, WLC

It’s important to be able to laught at your self…

mel starrs Diversions MBA

These are my links for July 10th through July 11th:

• The Standardised Method of Life Cycle Costing for Construction Procurement – Standardized Method of Life Cycle Costing for Construction Procurement brings together ISO 15686-5 and the BCIS Standard Form of Cost Analysis (SFCA) along with industry recognized occupancy cost codes, and will provide you with:° A standardized method o
• BROKERWATCH Engineering consultants target prices cut at Panmure Gordon – Panmure said that while the sub-sector is not completely immune to a global economic downturn, diversification by market and geography is key with an interesting consolidation play in place at the moment.
• CEEQUAL – The Civil Engineering Environmental Quality Assessment and Award Scheme – via Martin – free pdf of CEEQUAL manual: "This page offers you the opportunity to download a free pdf version of the CEEQUAL Scheme Manual for your personal use."
• Improving the energy efficiency of our buildings: A guide to air-conditioning inspections for buildings – Planning, building and the environment – Communities and Local Government – This guide is intended to help anyone who manages or controls air-conditioning plant understand how the Directive and Regulations work in practice, how to apply the Regulations, what their responsibilities are and when air conditioning inspections are req
• interview with the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Amory Lovins – The McKinsey Quarterly – interview Rocky Mountain Institute’s Amory Lovins – Energy, Resources, Materials – Electric Power – Good interview with Amory geared up to business readers. "the most important policy innovation is decoupling the profits of utilities from their sales volumes"

mel starrs News business, CEEQUAL, CLG, costing, electricity, Energy, EPBD, McKinsey, recession, shares, valuation, WLC

I’m still here, but only just got my wifi up and running in my new part-time pad.  Proper posting will resume next week, I suspect.

In the meantime, I’ve been busy settling in with my new colleagues, getting used to working and commuting again and finding my wardrobe remarkably bereft of ’smart-casual’ clothing appropriate for work.  Jeans and combats aplenty, tailored suits in buckets – not much in between. Pyjamas aren’t classified as smart casual by any chance?

mel starrs Uncategorized

These are my links for July 9th through July 10th:

• Low carbon refurbishment of buildings – Management guide – This guide is aimed at those who wish to ensure that a planned refurbishment delivers carbon savings, in addition to meeting its other objectives. It provides clear, practical guidance based on real world experience.
• Jones Lang LaSalle acquires ECD, original developer of green globes- 7/9/2008 8:35:00 AM – Building Design & Construction – Jones Lang LaSalle adds ECD to growing list of acquisitions, recently including Upstream.
• workinproperty: Link Executive Bonuses To Green Targets – The UK's biggest trade union, Unite, has suggested that company executives should have their pay and bonuses linked to meeting "green" targets.
• First international standard on whole-life cost analysis – Building – published by the Building Cost Information Service as “BS ISO15686-5 Buildings and Constructed Assets – Service Life Planning, Part 5: Life Cycle Costing”.
• The Art of Nonconformity » A Brief Guide to World Domination – Via my good friend Cathy. Yes, it's a self help guide, but a good one.

mel starrs News buildings, business, carbon, competitors, existing, lifehacks, pay, Productivity, Psychology, WLC

These are my links for July 6th through July 8th:

• BREEAM: Buildings BREEAM Supplement – To coincide with the launch of BREEAM 2008, BRE Global and Building Magazine released an supplement – BREEAM Beyond Excellence
• U.S. Green Building Council set to modify LEED standards – Washington Business Journal: – The certification process has been criticized for being too rigid, cumbersome and demanding, for being too costly, and for awarding points illogically. A common example is that installing a bike rack gets one point, as does installing a costly HVAC system
• Let’s follow America’s LEED – Building – LEED with a shot of BREEAM, please
• If this is recession – here’s what not to do (Brickonomics) – Great post from Brian on how to recession proof your business. Of course, much of his advice stands up in boom times too…
• Zero Energy design – Ex-colleagues Paul Carey and Chris Yates, with Eric Roberts have set up a small company based out of Staleybridge.

mel starrs News BREEAM, competitors, construction_industry, LEED, recession

What I’ve been reading about:

• Zero carbon targets debated at AECB conference – Discussions on renewables and greenwash
• Models of whole life costing – Building Services Journal – Book review by Hywel Davies of Whole Life-cycle Costing: Risk and risk responses
• BSRIA Infonet: Whole-Life Costing Analysis, Churcher D : Books & Downloads – Publications for the building services industry – Single and site licence software – Free publications – Try before you buy – Presents a simple process in five sequential steps for the practical calculation of whole-life costs for the construction and operation of buildings.
• Assessors in demand as deadline looms – Building Services Journal – CIBSE Certification has accredited over two thirds of all the energy assessors and CIBSE Low Carbon Energy Assessors (LCEAs) to produce Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and Display Energy Certificates (DECs).
• Carbon targets impossible without post occupancy overhaul – Building Services Journal – BSRIA propose a "Soft Landings" framework
• BD+C’s Top 150 Building Team LEED APs- 7/2/2008 12:31:00 PM – Building Design & Construction – Perkins+Will have over 50% of staff LEED accredited, more than anyone else.

mel starrs News books, BSRIA, CIBSE, costing, DEC, EPC, greenwash, LCEA, LEED, life, POE, publications, renewables, statistics, whole, WLC