Elemental

These are my links for August 26th through August 28th:

• Sending recycling to China ‘better than binning it’ – "This study sought to answer the specific question of whether the CO2 emissions from the transport outweighed the benefits of the recycling. It quantifies the CO2 emissions from transporting one tonne of recovered mixed paper or recovered plastic (PET/HDPE) bottles to China. It assumes that the carbon savings of recycling in China are similar to those identified in other countries, including the UK. "
• Soft Landings – "Welcome to Soft Landings, a joint initiative between BSRIA, the Usable Buildings Trust and the Darwin Consultancy, that enables a graduated handover for new and refurbished buildings. The Soft Landings project will result in a set of procedures and worksteps for project teams to stay engaged with buildings after practical completion."
• National Statistics Online – Product – Construction Statistics Annual – 266 page pdf – "Responsibility for producing the Construction Statistics Annual, starting with the 2008 edition, has been transferred from BERR to the ONS.
  Brings together under one cover a wide range of statistics that are currently available on the construction industry. It gives a broad perspective of statistical trends in the construction industry in Great Britain through the last decade together with some international comparisons and features on leading initiatives that may influence the future.
  Contains construction output and new orders, tender price, output price and cost indices, data on building materials, floorspace statistics, local and central government expenditure, lottery funded projects, international comparisons, employment statistics, workload of professionals, planning applications,…"
• Puffbox.com » Archive » Another reason to use Twitter – Good advice from Simon on how businesses could be using Twitter.
• Inhabitat » ZIGGURAT: Dubai Carbon Neutral Pyramid will House 1 Million – Another grand plan for Dubai – this time a Ziggurat. Apparently they'll be able to grow food (in greenhouses???). Would love to know more about this – for instance how will they get daylight deep into the middle of the base of the pyramid? And who are these 1 million inhabitants? It really does look like something from Star Trek, which sadly quite excites me, despite my inner cynic screaming that it can't possibly be sustainable. Quite happy to be proven wrong…

mel starrs News built_environment, China, construction_industry, Dubai, handover, POE, recycling, seo, statistics, Sustainability, twitter, waste

via Twitter, Solve Climate have a useful summary of Dr. Martin Weitzman’s paper “On Modeling and Interpreting the Economics of Catastrophic Climate Change” (pdf).

Whilst I haven’t tried to wade through the paper myself (my grip of economics, although much improved, is not quite up to that level yet ;o)), the point which resonated me was the analogy of Pascal’s Wager:

French mathematician Blaise Pascal concluded that even though God’s existence can’t be proven through reason, you should live as if He does because of the size of the risks and rewards involved. Eternity is a long time to spend in hell.
Likewise, if you bet that global warming is nothing to be worried about, and you’re wrong, most of the species on Earth become extinct.

Whilst I’m quite happy gambling on the afterlife, I’m with them on the climate change thing.  Yes, it might all be a gamble, but I’d rather think the worst and be happy when it doesn’t happen than the other way around.

Which is why I tend to keep out of global warming debates – in a way, I don’t really care.  I’m waging on the side of the pessimists and from this position, low carbon buildings make sense.

mel starrs Uncategorized

Population: by gender and age, mid-2007

I’ve talked before about the skills shortage in our industry, but the graphic I used then didn’t illustrate quite as well as this one why we are feeling the effects quite so strongly.  Look at that blip around 60 years old.  These guys (and gals) are retiring or have just retired or will in the next few years (barring eccentric architects and engineers working well into their 70’s).

Fascinating.

And something I hadn’t thought about before, but picked up by Tom Watson (MP): “The ratio of females to males grows from 72 onwards showing that there is still a second world war impact on our society.”

mel starrs Diversions statitics population UK

These are my links for August 21st through August 23rd:

• Widgetbox › CIBSE Search Widget – A widget you can add to your website to search for LCEA's.
• Freelance Jobs & Freelancers – iFreelance.com – via Paul Miller – a website posting freelance opportunities and freelancers. Considering for my blog redesign in the future…
• ISO – News – ISO establishes sustainability principles for building construction sector worldwide – "The building and construction sector is a key sector in national economies and the built environment is a major element in determining quality of life, as well as contributing to cultural identity and heritage. Addressing sustainability in buildings and other construction works includes the interpretation and consideration of sustainable development in terms of its three primary aspects while meeting the requirements for technical and functional performance.The principles take into account that while the challenge of sustainable development is global, the strategies for addressing sustainability in building construction are essentially local and differ in context and content from region to region. The social environment includes social equity, culture, traditions, heritage, health and comfort, social infrastructure and safe and healthy environments. It may, in addition, particularly in developing countries, include poverty reduction and job creation."
• ISO 15392:2008 – Sustainability in building construction — General principles – "ISO 15392:2008 identifies and establishes general principles for sustainability in buiding construction. It is based on the concept of sustainable development as it applies to the life cycle of buildings and other construction works, from their inception to the end of life.
  ISO 15392:2008 is applicable to buildings and other construction works individually and collectively, as well as to the materials, products, services and processes related to the life cycle of buildings and other construction works.
  ISO 15392:2008 does not provide levels (benchmarks) that can serve as the basis for sustainability claims."
• 20 Eco-Structures that defy conventions! – Whilst the pictures are pretty, the green credentials of some of these projects are slightly dubious (rotating tower, for one). A nice summary, though, and some I hadn't seen before.

mel starrs News buildings, CIBSE, construction, freelance, green, international, LCEA, lists, standards, Sustainable, tall_buildings

What I’ve been reading about:

• 7th Generation Businsses: Ecoprises? « Brightest Green Blog – Recycling provides employment: "The 36x return on employment that waste recycling creates seems to make good business sense on nearly every level."
• McCloud: No chaos at Hab – Building Design – Kev fights his corner, in what seems to be a frenzy kicked up by the media to fill the pages in a slow August. Won't hurt of course that Kev has a new programme out – no such thing as bad publicity and all that. Which makes me wonder about who cooked up the furore in the first place. Cynic, moi?
• Washed away by RIBA’s flood-risk housing design competition (The Foreman) – The Foreman blog over at CJ usually annoys me, rather than entertains (I don't think I'm their target audience), but this brought a smile to my face: "Call me an old stick-in-the-mud, but I'm not sure RIBA and Norwich Union's finest have really thought this one through. Surely the best way to make sure a house doesn't disappear under three feet of water every year is to make sure you haven't built your house in a flood-risk area in the first place. On that basis I've got an 'innovative and interesting' device that can be used to mitigate flood risk: it's called a 'hill'. "
• Major Developers Back BREEAM for Central and Eastern Europe – "BRE Global is currently seeking developers who wish to assess their projects across Europe under the scheme during its first pilot year of operation. BRE Global will also be running scheduled training courses in various locations for consultants wishing to train to become BREEAM assessors internationally."
• Plan for anaerobic digesters in every town to recycle leftovers – Times Online – via EST, anaerobic digesters, which seem to be gathering momentum this year. Anyone been to Ludlow?
• What’s stopping us recycling? – The government-funded Waste & Resources Action Plan (WRAP) has carried out research investigating the barriers preventing a further rise in household recycling rates – and offering local authorities advice on overcoming them.
  According to WRAP, these barriers can be broken down into four distinct areas – physical, behavioural, lack of knowledge and attitudes and perceptions.
• Code for Sustainable Homes – lessons learnt – Lessons learnt by the first four developers to design and build to the Code for Sustainable Homes on the BRE Innovation Park have led to the compilation of detailed guidance in a BRE Information paper entitled Applying the Code for Sustainable Homes on the BRE Innovation Park.
  Devised to help UK housebuilders deliver code compliant homes, the guidance is now being published in four-parts covering the following key areas: building fabric, energy and ventilation, water, and architecture, construction and sourcing. Part 1 of the Information Paper, Lessons Learnt About Building Fabric has just been published.
• LEED 2009 now open for second public comment period- 8/19/2008 12:58:00 PM – Building Design & Construction – Interesting how LEED approaches changes to the system: "This product of thousands of hours of volunteer time and deep expertise generously given by representatives from every corner of the building industry resets the bar for green building leadership; the urgency of our mission has challenged the industry to move faster and reach further than ever before."

mel starrs News 2009, anaerobic, behaviour, BRE, BREEAM, CSH, digesters, Economics, employment, funny, Housing, international, Kevin, learned, LEED, lessons, Ludlow, McCloud, recycling, wrap

These are my links for August 18th through August 19th:

• One green energy firm 100% renewable – "Data available on electricityinfo.org shows that Good Energy is the only firm offering its customers energy which is all generated from renewables. Other companies which claim to offer green power, such as Ecotricity and Green Energy, don't even generate half of their power from renewables. And, while Good Energy makes no carbon emissions, the others do."
• Ten tips for cheap and effective eco-refurbishments – Building – Bigging up Inbuilt's recent contribution to Building's sustainability channel…
• STAR Community Index — ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability USA – via Jetson Green: The STAR Community Index is a new tool designed to help local governments plan, track and measure their sustainability programs. Inspired by the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED ® Green Building Rating System ™.
• Plans drawn up for British Embassy in Indonesia – Property Week – I was wondering what use BREEAM International would be with the majority of countries opting for LEED – of course! The FCO will have to have BREEAM on any embassies they build (OGC requirement). Still, not a massive market, I would of thought…
• BREEAM’s green credentials are not what they seem – Property Week – Great article from Property Week on the downsides of BREEAM and how these should change with BREEAM 2008 – links into EPC's and DEC's.
• The Green Workplace: BREEAM – the UK equivalent to LEED – toughens up – Emma Wharton of HOK compares BREEAM 2008 to LEED and wonders what changes LEED will bring in later this year.

mel starrs News BREEAM, buildings, competitors, DEC, electricity, EPC, existing, FCO, green, HOK, inbuilt, LEED, masterplanning, OGC, rating, system, tariffs, UK, US, USGBC

How many consultants does it take to change a light bulb?
Three. One to change the bulb and two to write the standards and tell him what he did wrong.

How many consultants does it take to change a light bulb?
We don’t know. They never get past the feasibility study.

How many consultants does it take to change a light bulb?
What’s your budget?

mel starrs Diversions joke

These are my links for August 10th through August 15th:

• Blogs – RIBApedia – RIBApedia opens it's doors. Under the blogs page: "Blogs (or webblogs) are diaries written and disseminated on the web." Tempted to log-in and start tweaking stuff but the rules of engagement aren't clear? Do you have to be an architect to participate?
• Wright’s Palmer House Put on the Market | News | Architectural Record – Cheap at half the price:"The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Palmer House in Ann Arbor, Michigan, acclaimed by historians as one of the architect’s best residential projects, has been put up for sale by the family of the original owners. The asking price is $1.5 million."
• Making Energy-Saving Buildings – Forbes.com – …the vision behind a new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) "net-zero energy" commercial building initiative launched Tuesday. The program's goal, set forth in a section of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, is to get net-zero energy commercial buildings of all types up and running in the U.S. by 2025. At the moment, however, this is not economically feasible. "You could build a building that's net-zero energy-efficient today, but the utility savings are not sufficient to pay back that investment over the life cycle of the building," says David Rodgers, the DOE's deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency.
• AIA Deconstructs Green-Building Standards| News | Architectural Record – While officially neutral on green-building rating systems, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently parsed three of them in an effort to evaluate how well they align with the association’s sustainability goals. In its report, which was released in May, it carefully avoided picking a favorite of the three systems: t he U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED NC 2.2, the Green Building Initiative’s Green Globes, and The International Initiative for a Sustainable Environment’s SBTool 07.
• Castlemore’s Waverley Gate project awarded EPC – Building Services Journal – The fun that can be had with statistics. For example:"Castlemore’s Waverley Gate development in Edinburgh has been awarded an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), placing it in the top 11% of sustainable commercial buildings in the UK.". No mention of where the 11% came from. Which list of sustainable commercial buildings are they talking about? The building gets a C by the way.

mel starrs News architects, DOE, EPC, FLW, Green_Globes, house, LEED, RIBA, social_media, statistics, US, wiki, zero_carbon

Blogging has been light, for a number of reasons.  Mainly red wine based, which is always a good excuse in my book. My new found love of life in London is leading me to sorts of weird and wonderful social occasions. This means I don’t have time to read feeds never mind write blog posts. I’m sure the excitement will wear off soon and I’ll be back to wittering on about things I know not enough about (I’ve been reading economics, history and philosophy recently – a deadly combo, especially when mixed with red wine).

In the meantime, I’ve been swishing, which is an ethical clothes swap meet.  There are normally two reactions to this, very much along gender lines. The girls think it’s a great idea, the boys want to know why. It was great fun and the event I went to was being filmed by BBC for broadcast in the near future.  If you happen to catch it, let me know. I hear there is a big swishing event coming to London in the late autumn – watch this space… details here and add Sunday 9 November to your diary.

The next event in my calendar was Green Drinks, as Phil has already covered. In a very remiss oversight I forgot to tell anyone I was going until the morning of the event. So here’s the slightly better planned invite – I’m trying to make it on September 9th and if I’m not there, some of my colleagues will be. I hadn’t been in 10 years, but good to see it has survived almost 20 years now! Always a casual affair with a good mix of people from every end of the green spectrum. And I held a Totnes pound:

I am fundamentally opposed to starting your own currency, but it was fun to see it.  I had an interesting chat with the guy from Totnes on whether they had managed to keep the process apolitical (kind of, was the conclusion).

I’m planning on attending a few more London centric events over the next couple of months, but lest anyone think I’ve forgotten my (recent) roots, I shall point out Green Drinks are also available in Leeds. They are also available all over the world.

mel starrs Diversions Events, green drinks, London, totnes pound

What I’ve been reading about:

• Reader’s Rant – Building Services Journal – "BREEAM is about environmental damage reduction and not about sustainable development. Yet BREEAM is increasingly interpreted within the construction sector as being a metric for sustainable development. Use of the terms ‘very good’ and ‘excellent’ have become misleading because they are hijacked to mean ‘more sustainable’ to one degree or another. In fact, it would be more accurate to call buildings achieving these ratings as BREEAM ‘not as bad as most’ or BREEAM ‘a bit less harmful’."
• IES enters free DEC software market – Building – Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES) has developed a free alternative to the Government’s ORCalc Display Energy Certifiacte (DEC) software. The Glaswegian firm is planning on a late-August launch.
  The company said the software allowed users to produce DECs and the attached advisory reports as well as facilitate lodgements.
  Benefits over ORCalc listed by the company include: no restriction on the number of building zones (benchmark categories); user-friendly input Web based access; personal user area to store and manage DEC submissions; and ability to save and move between the different sections of the submission
• Hobbits in a hole – Building Design – My favourite tacky hobbit houses in Oregon are in trouble. I could go and snap one up at a bargain auction price…
• Kevin McCloud’s own ‘grand design’ in chaos – Building Design – Read this article, and especially the comments. As usual when a 'design guru' such as Kevin McHeadintheClouds (or Wayne Hemingway to name another, or indeed Germaine Greer, who isn't even a designer) gets involved in 'real' projects, they get hauled over the coals by those who have considerable more experience and a much more realistic view. Poor Kev.
• Small Scale Wind Energy | Carbon Trust – A new Carbon Trust study into the potential of small-scale wind energy has found that small wind turbines could provide up to 1.5 Terawatt Hours (TWh) per year of electricity (0.4% of total UK electricity consumption) and 0.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (MtCO2) emission savings. This is based on 10% of households installing turbines at costs competitive with grid electricity, which is currently around 12p per kWh.
  The study also indicates that for the UK as a whole, the majority of electricity and carbon savings are available from small turbines in rural areas – four times as much as urban areas irrespective of costs, and considerably more given economic drivers. This is mainly due to wind speeds generally being higher in rural areas. Turbines in some rural locations could provide cheaper electricity than the grid, but it appears that in many urban situations, roof-mounted turbines may not pay back their embedded carbon emissions.
• Expert tells legislators in city the price of oil will drop | NewsOK.com – Todd Buchholz (author of "new ideas from dead economists", former advisor to Bush and technophile predicts:"Oil will peg out two years from now being closer to $50 a barrel, which is still high enough to make those alternative fuels worth pursuing.” He said he wouldn't be surprised if discussions took place two years from now about keeping the price of oil from getting too low so it "doesn't pull the rug out from solar, wind and clean coal technology.”

mel starrs News architects, BREEAM, carbon_trust, DEC, Economics, EPC, hobbit, house, Housing, ies, learned, lessons, oil, Oregon, report, Software, Sustainable_development, wind