Elemental

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A few years ago, just before I started this blog and around the time I started my MBA, I followed an eclectic bunch of folks on RSS. At the time there were not that many green blogs and even fewer construction industry ones, and the proportion of UK blogs was much lower. So my RSS feed consisted mostly of marketing, entrepreneur, venture capital and tech blogs from the US. In amongst them was an intriguing proposition called Escape from Cubicle Nation.

Pam’s blog does exactly what it says on the tin. And now she has written a book, summarising the best posts and comments and condensing the advice into a highly readable tome.  Through the magic of Twitter, she requested reviewers to read and write reviews, so I offered to give a UK perspective. Happily, Pam was willing to ship the book over to me and over the last week or so I devoured it.

As you can probably tell already, I enjoyed Escape from Cubicle Nation. It is a lifestyle choice book, aimed squarely at those who are considering a career switch, from something safe and corporate, to something more scary, but ultimately fulfilling. Initially, I was worried that it might be a little too touchy feely, Oprah style. Whilst it’s most definitely not a “butch, get rich quick, stomp the competition and watch them weep” kind of book, it’s not at all prissy and condescending either. Neither is it a step by step “nuts and bolts” book, with spreadsheets and cash flow projections, although she offers plenty of advice as to where to find such resources. The book concentrates on the mental preparation involved in becoming an entrepreneur for the first time. It would also serve as a timely resource for those who find themselves at a career crossroads not of their own choosing, through redundancy.

Pam’s prose is chatty and funny, with healthy doses of reality thrown in. My favourite phrase from the book by far was:

hating your job intensely is not a business plan

From a UK perspective, the advice stands up to scrutiny. Obviously, as the book is aimed at an international market, specific technical financial advice would not be appropriate. Too often I read a book from the US and they are peppered with references to Roth IRA’s and 401k’s. Pam has the good sense to corral all this into chapter 13, which is specifically about addressing benefits (health insurance etc). Very easy to skip over, but at the same time it acts as a mental jog to check out your own situation.

The takeaway lessons from the book from me were the importance of building up a network of support before you make any leap and also the need to check the finances and if necessary plan to keep that ‘cubicle’ job in the short term to finance your dreams.

Why should you buy the book rather than just read the blog? I have a well established fondness for books and there’s something about being able to flag up pages and flick through a hard copy that online just can’t yet compete with. The book is 300 odd pages, whilst Pam’s archives (which I recommend, but for new readers may be daunting due to the sheer volume) has over 42 months of content.

Escape from Cubicle Nation does not release in the UK until 9 July 2009, so I’m truly grateful to Pam for letting me get my mits on it so early. I would heartily recommend it to anyone who is toying with the idea of starting their own business but has been put off by the image of the blood thirsty “personalities” which are portrayed as entrepreneurs in the UK media (such as Dragons Den and the Apprentice).

admin Book Review Book Review, entrepreneur, Pam Slim

Sometimes it’s good to get to events which don’t have a construction or buildings focus. Thanks to the magic of Twitter, I heard that Nick Stern (aka Professor Lord Stern of Brentwood) was presenting a public lecture about his new book at LSE on 21 April. I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to listen to a celebrated economist talk on 2 of my favourite topics after buildings – climate change and economics!

It’s been 2.5 years since the Stern review catapulted Nick into the public consciousness. Since leaving the government shortly afterwards he’s been keeping busy, proposing green new deal’s and writing “Blueprint for a Safer Planet“.

An mp3 of the event (76 mins) is available from the LSE website or the Guardian if you want to listen to the whole thing. Unfortunately the slides aren’t available. James Randerson has a slightly more coherent take on the event in the Guardian here. The FT also did a review of the book when it came out at the beginning of the month.

The need for addressing carbon was covered with a swift dash through the Hadley/IPCC climate data. I suspect most readers of this blog will know the headline figures, so I’ll not regurgitate here.

Three actions

1. Energy efficiency
2. Develop low carbon technologies and activities
3. Halt deforestation

He illustrated many of the cost issues with McKinsey’s now famous abatement curve (first published in January 2007, revised this year and available here – the full report is 190 pages).

How much will it cost? 1.95% of GDP (unless GDP drops). Stern admitted some flab in this number and cost is likely to drop with technological progress. Think of it as an insurance premium for a few decades. Drivers of growth over the next few years will be technological, towards a low carbon economy. Why not strive for zero growth now? He believes we need a growth story to deal with world poverty. We don’t need growth forever, afterall forever is a long time.

As it turns out, Stern’s views on CCS were fairly prescient, given the post-budget announcement that potentially all new coal power stations will have to have CCS. Stern asserted that CCS was fundamental, as we need to know quickly if can we do it in (i.e. in the next 10 years). 50% of the world’s electricity is currently coal fired. If not we move to plan B, which will be much more expensive. Developed countries have to take the lead on this to ensure China, India and other developing countries do not have any excuse not to follow it.

Some more in the press re:CCS since I went to the event – according to The Week (can’t find a direct link to the article) coal still provides a third of the UK’s electricity. Proportions abroad are much higher: 50% in the US, 70% in India and 80% in China. Ed Milliband’s requirement for CCS on new UK coal stations only covers 25% of their emissions, rising to 100% in 2025.

In the Q&A, we discussed political will. Stern made the very good point that if we want things to change, it is quite within our own remit to lobby politicians and businesses for the change – they are humans after all, and ought to listen to reason.

admin Book Review, Economics, Events CCS, Climate Change, coal, Economics, LSE, Nick Stern

David MacKay seems to be flavour of the month at the minute. I’m not sure whether it’s the Cory Doctorow review over at Boing Boing which triggered off this flurry of media awareness, as the book has been out for some time. Whatever it was, it worked. I’ve given up on remembering to read my digital version (downloaded from here) and bought the hard copy.

I might even review it (no promises – at the last count I have about 10 book reviews in various states of unfinishedness), but in the meantime some people who actually have posted reviews:

Chris Tweed

Derek Deighton

Best Foot Forward

And finally a great short video in which David himself explains energy use using the unit of a 40W lightbulb and cycles around in a rather dubious jumper.

admin Book Review David MacKay, UK energy consumption

Book cover via Amazon

So on my quest to read all those books we ‘green’ folks are supposed to have read, I mooched a copy of Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered by E. F. Schumacher and (more importantly) actually read it.

I have a couple of fuller formed posts to come out of reading the book (namely how businesses are set up and the thorny question of nuclear energy), but as an aide memoir to myself and a guide to you, the reader of my blog, I have my initial thoughts and comments on the book below.

The book is a collection of essays, but can be read as a book (with some repetition in sections). First, I’ll outline what the book is known for, and then what I thought of it.

So, the amazon blurb says (to give us some context and what we expect the book to be about):

First published in 1973, this controversial study looks at the economic structure of the western world in a revolutionary way. Schumacher maintains that man’s current pursuit of profit and progress, which promotes giant organizations and increased specialization, has in fact resulted in gross economic inefficiency, environmental pollution and inhumane working conditions. He challenges the doctrine of economic, technological and scientific specialization, and proposes a system of intermediate technology, based on smaller working units, communal ownership and regional workplaces, utilizing local labour and resources.

I should point out, I expected the book to be more about ‘how’, but in fact it is more about the ‘why’. I’m still searching for a manual on ‘how’ all this would work in practice (any recommendations out there?). That said, I was definitely ‘engaged’ with this book, veering from complete agreement to total and utter disbelief – always a good sign for a book which will make you think. It also has thrown up more questions than answers. Another good sign. I had also expected more of an explanation of zero-growth economics and how this might look. My expectations were misguided – this book does not answer this question.

Firstly, I’d like to point out how refreshing it is to read a book which does not one use the word sustainability. Worth reading just for some respite from that phrase and all it’s baggage. Instead Schumacher makes use of the term ‘permanence’ (pg: 26):

“From an economic point of view, the central concept of wisdom is permanence. We must study the economics of permanence. Nothing makes economic sense unless its continuance for a long time can be projected without running into absurdities. There can be ‘growth’ towards a limited objective, but there cannot be unlimited generalised growth. It is more likely, as Gandhi said, that ‘Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not for every man’s greed’. Permanence is incompatible with a predatory attitude which rejoices in the fact that ‘what were luxuries for our fathers have become necessities for us’.”

It worth remembering when assessing Schumacher’s views that this book is the same age as me. That makes some of his take on things somewhat quaint, though given it was written in the early seventies and not the fifties, maybe some of his views were already out of date (although he was 62 when he wrote the book). For instance, this one had me nicely seething (from pg. 47):

“Women, on the whole, do not need an ‘outside’ job, and the large-scale employment of women in offices or factories would be considered a sign of serious economic failure.”

Ouch. I don’t think Ernst and I would have agreed on this point.

My second niggle with Schumacher’s beliefs is in that humans need work, rather than leisure, for a good quality of life. Taking his first point, this raises some interesting questions regarding what equality he saw for women (was being chained to the kitchen sink equivalent to male ‘work’ (in his eyes, producing something for use in the local economy) – it’s not clear?). Secondly, this seems rather Calvinist to me, although a quick scan of Wikipedia reveals he had a fascination with Catholicism converting in 1971. At one point he bemoans the fact that no-one knows what the Seven Deadly Sins are anymore nor what the Four Cardinal Virtues are. Needless to say, he doesn’t list them (I had to go look them up: Sins: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride, and Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Courage, in case you were wondering). He also is preoccupied with metaphysics, which I won’t expand on yet as I am still trying to come to grips with what exactly he means by this? Nonetheless, he is wary of humanistic doctrines and especially wary of scientists (pg. 71):

“Science cannot produce ideas by which we could live. Even the greatest ideas of science are nothing more than working hypotheses, useful for purposes of special research but completely inapplicable to the conduct of our lives or the interpretation of the world. If, therefore, a man seeks education because he feels estranged and bewildered, because his life life seems to him empty and meaningless, he cannot get what he is seeking by studying any of the natural sciences, i.e.: by acquiring ‘know-how’. That study has its own value which I am not inclined to belittle; it tells him a great deal about how things work in nature or in engineering, but it tells him nothing about the meaning of life and can in no way cure his estrangement and secret despair.”

For those who have read James Lovelock’s The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Back – and How We Can Still Save Humanity: Why the Earth Is Fighting Back – and How We Can Still Save Humanity (indeed a book which comes up as a recommendation on amazon given this one), it is interesting to see the polar opposition of opinions on science and it’s role. James has been an independent scientist for many years, an interesting observation given how Ernst then goes on to defend himself (pg. 118):

“To mention these things, no doubt, means laying oneself open to the charge of being against science, technology, and progress. Let me therefore, in conclusion, add a few words about future scientific research. Man cannot live without science and technology anymore than he can live against nature. What needs the most careful consideration, however, is the direction of scientific research. We cannot leave this to the scientists alone. As Einstein himself said, ‘almost all scientists are economically completely dependent’ and ‘the number of scientists who possess a sense of social responsibility is so small’ that they cannot determine the direction of research.”

So presumably Schumacher would have approved of Lovelock’s independence and his sense of social responsibility. An interesting question to ponder – would Lovelock have been able to develop his Gaia theory had he not been independent? How important a point is this?

Schumacher also has dim views of modern city living. Now, I have no problems with him having these views, but I question the basis of them, given that he makes no validation, either quantitative or qualitative. For instance from pg. 55:

“I think it is fairly safe to say that the upper limit of what is desirable for the size of a city is probably something of the order of half a million inhabitants. It is quite clear that above such a size nothing is added to the virtue of the city. In places like London, or Tokyo, or New York, the millions do not add to the city’s real value but merely create enormous problems and produce human degradation.”

Another observation is that, much like George Monbiot, Schumacher disapproves of travel (what he describes as a tendency for people to be ‘footloose’ given improvements in transport and communication), but only after he spent considerable time abroad, in his case Burma. The Burma references in the book are again rather unfortunate as he exalts the country as an example of how we should all be living given his experience of working there (unknowing of course how things would pan out in that country).

So how did E.F. Schumacher get out of bed in the morning, given that the economic reality of profit is so dismal to him? His conclusions (pg. 200):

“I thus come to the cheerful conclusion that life, including economic life, is still worth living because it is sufficiently unpredictable to be interesting.”

Ah, yes. May we all live in interesting times.

So has the book been hijacked and exalted to a position above it’s station by ‘green’ do-gooders? Does it still have relevance today? His primary message of self-sufficiency within local economies stems from his belief that (pg: 49):

“people who live in highly self-sufficient local communities are less likely to get involved in large-scale violence than people whose existence depends on world-wide systems of trade.”

Was that true in in 1973? Again, Scumacher offers no validation of this view. Even if it were true in 1973, is it still true today? I admire his pacifist tendencies, but yet? I would say I’m not convinced by his argument, but sadly he doesn’t argue – he just states it as fact. I’ve been convinced by arguments along the lines of democracy heralding peace? I found a reference from Keynes in the New Green Deal paper which expands on Schumacher’s points regarding full employment and self-sufficiency (Keynes rescued Schumacher from internment during the war):

“If nations can learn to provide themselves with full employment by their domestic policy there need be no important economic forces calculated to set the interest of one country against that of its neighbours. International trade would cease to be what it is, namely, a desperate expedient to maintain employment at home by forcing sales on foreign markets and restricting purchases, which, if successful, will merely shift the problem of unemployment to the neighbour which is worsted in the struggle, but a willing and unimpeded exchange of goods and services in conditions of mutual advantage.”

I obviously have more research to do on this point then…

Schumacher’s prescience regarding fossil fuels is undoubtedly what has kept this on the ‘green’ reading list for 35 years. His predictions of population are also very accurate.

My initial exposure to the book has previously come from bloggers such as Dave Pollard (fairly dark green Canadian) and references from Rob Hopkins’ Transition Towns movement. Both these camps and others seem to have taken Schumacher’s original idea and run further with it. I need to do some more thinking on where I stand on this but I suspect I veer away from their opinions. I’m still a fan of the global view for reasons which I hope to touch on in future post, but I’m willing to be persuaded otherwise.

I would recommend reading Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered, for context if nothing else. It is fascinating looking back 35 years through the lens of hindsight and the book (with some exceptions as I have mentioned) stands up fairly well to the intervening years.

mel starrs Book Review Climate Change, E. F. Schumacher

I’m an avid reader, a bookworm, a bibliomane, call it what you will. I’m seldom caught without a book in my bag. I’ve just finished several non-fiction which have been gathering dust on my shelves and before I launch into a few reviews I thought I’d share my top 7 tips for reading, in particular non-fiction (with a major hat-tip to Ben for writing about this very topic back in March 2007 and also to Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader which in itself is fiction but expresses the joy and wonder that comes from reading in a way I can never hope to capture here).

1. Read often. Books are very versatile. They need no wifi connection, bootup nor power supply. Indeed, all that is required is adequate light, shelter from rain (if required) and that’s about it. If you have time to kill (say, 5 minutes and upwards) and aren’t driving, pick up a book. (Driving and reading is not recommended, despite temptations at traffic lights. Audio books may be a useful alternative but suffer from the lack of ability to mark up and notate). I currently tote around an enormous handbag which usually contains a non-fiction book, notebooks and stationery (see below). This is not great for my posture but fantastic at relieving boredom. I’m yet to be convinced that digital book readers are the way forward (Kindle, Sony READER E-BOOKet al) but the thought of bringing as many books I want on holiday is very appealing?
2. Think about what you  are reading. Make notes, comments and flag up passages you might want to refer to in the future. This discipline came to me partly via my MBA. Much as I try to kid myself that I’ll be able to retrieve a certain passage or quotation from my brain, I just can’t. I try not to leave home without either my notebook (currently a nifty A6 hardback leather number), a highlighter (more often used in printed pdf’s than ‘real’ books or which I still have a reverance borne of being a librarian’s daughter) or my sticky coloured labels (known as index flags or page markers – not my usual ’stickies’, who knew?) and a host of biros (in my old-skool pencil case I also carry my spork, for when I need cutlery. Can you tell I was a girl guide?).
3. Record what you read. This is related to my point above, but it makes sense to record what date you read stuff. I use Librarything for this and it’s been useful to track what books I’ve read, what I thought of them (occasionally I blog about books too, which has been very useful and something I ought to do more of), and how many books I’ve read in a year (I know it’s not a race but here’s a sobering thought – at a rate of 75 books a year and a projected lifespan of 75, I have only 3000 more books to read – pants! Also, choose your books well and don’t be afraid to dump bad books given this thought)
4. Keep a wishlist. I keep my wishlist on Bookmooch. This has several purposes, the most appealing of which is keeping my reading affordable. It also mean I can source scarce books or those published only in the states. I also keep wishlists on amazon, on RTM and scribbled in various notebooks and on post-its. Whilst I got good at the writing stuff down bit of Getting Things Done, keeping things all in one place is taking longer. I also keep snippets of online reading in my Google Notebooks. The advantage to surrendering to this way of implementing Getting Things Done, by the way, is that I’m never in the wrong place to do my stuff. If I hear of a good book whilst say listening to the radio or browsing in a bookshop, I can text it to myself using twitter and RTM. If I find one when I’m online, I add it straight to Bookmooch or if I really can’t wait, buy it straight from amazon. Entering into bookshops is a dangerous pasttime for me – I’m trying to limit my exposure in an effort to curb the massive number of books I’m accruing.
5. keepers vs. moochers. Much of what I read, I keep, especially non-fiction. In fact, there are a couple of books on my wishlists which I read and either gave away or had borrowed in the first place and which I now want to refer back to. Anything I don’t have a use for, goes back onto Bookmooch. These tend to be the short, bite-sized, unreferenced fluff which sometimes make it onto top 10 best seller lists and I fall for. I’m getting better at not doing this, but as I said before, if you pick up a lemon – there is no need to finish it. Drop it and move on.
6. Read broad, read deep and question everything. How do I pick the books I read? It’s a question of connections, much like a family tree. I start somewhere (usually something which interests me and I broadly agree with) and then by reading that, other paths open up and off I go. I’m a great advocate of reading a wide selection of topics (economics, food production, nutrition, climate change, religion, history, philosophy, business, management, entrepreneurship, etc) and then when I find something which piques my interest reading deep into it. To read deep, you have to read alternative points of view. It’s impossible to argue a position unless you know what your opposition thinks. Whilst I wouldn’t recommend that you go off and read Ann Coulter straight after reading say, Richard Dawkins (that might be too extreme a variance to take in!), I do recommend you question what you read and be aware of your own confirmation bias. The father of an acquaintance is an old socialist who religiously reads the FT everyday – so he knows “what the enemy are up to”.
7. reading non-fiction before sleep = insomnia. My final tip is a simple one. Don’t read stuff which will fire off your neurons just before you retire to bed. That’s a recipe for insomnia. Read some fiction instead – I like mental fluff such the John Rain books by Barry Eisler or the Ian Rankin Rebus books, but whatever floats your boat…

mel starrs Book Review books, Getting Things Done, READING

Discussions have been launched here. Go, join in…

mel starrs Book Review Bill McDonough, cradle to cradle

Just a quick note to let readers know I am proposing a virtual book group on the Building Sustainability Forum in a few weeks time.  As of yesterday lunchtime, 60 people have had a look, but only one responded to the post – anyone else up for it?

Wondering if anyone would like to try out a virtual book group on this forum? The idea is simple. Suggest a non-fiction book with a sustainability theme and a date for discussion. Go away and read the book. A couple of days before the date of discussion, the proposer outlines some questions for discussion. On the day of the discussion, everyone weighs in to answer the questions and throw in any other opinions.

To kick things off, I propose “cradle to cradle” by William McDonough & Michael Braungart.

If anyone expresses an interest (please reply below) I’ll post some discussion points on Tuesday 27th May, and have the discussion on Thursday 29th May. Then whoever wants can pick the next book.

Any takers?

I chose Cradle to Cradle as I know a few people might have it on their bookshelves already.  If not, try the local library or Bookmooch (none currently listed for mooching) for cheap/free ways to get your hands on it.  Or feel free to click through on the amazon link in the text above and then I’ll get some pennies to feed my book addiction…

BTW, apologies to anyone trying to read this in IE6 – the formatting is completely skew whiff.  Has been added to my list of things to look into…

mel starrs Book Review Bill McDonough, book group, cradle to cradle

Spotted on the CIBSE events pages:

The Association for Project Management (APM) is the UK Member body of the International Project Management Association (IPMA) and through them CIBSE is offering a Professional Project Management qualification that is recognised worldwide.

The IPMA set standards offering an international terminology for project managers in a wide variety of business fields, not least of which is construction. More and more engineers are recognising the benefits of a professional qualification in project management, which helps them communicate in the wider project management community.

The IPMA Level D qualification is becoming an important tool for engineers in project management. You can now study for the APMP (UK) and undertake a fast-track intensive course in Project Management leading to the IPMA Professional Qualification (Level D) in association with JC Consultancy. This fully accredited course offers a professional qualification in project management, with the exams on the final day.

Project management is a skill that can and ought to be taught and is much more than a nifty looking Gantt chart. Project management is often seen as a separate discipline, usually monopolised by companies who specialise in quantity surveying. I would argue that engineers and designers should know at least the principles of project management, even if they are not ‘project managing’ the job.

I have dug out the following list of resources, some of which are specifically for the construction industry and some more general. There is a huge body of knowledge on project management from the software industry, some of which can be related to our industry.

Engineering Project Management by N.J. Smith is a fairly old publication now (first published 1995). It’s aimed more at contractors on site than consultants in the office, but offers some useful overviews on project concepts such as:

• projects and project management
• project appraisal and risk management
• project management and quality
• project appraisal and environmental impact
• cost estimating in projects and contracts
• project finance
• project cash flow
• project organisation
• project managment and project managers

It concentrates on how to get a project built rather than how to manage a project design.

Project Management Handbook for Building Services is for “individual engineers who are responsible for managing their own activities and engineers in an overall management role or who have responsibility for managing the activities of others. Describes both established project management techniques and techniques tailored to the specific situations confronted by building services engineer with the aim of providing practical guidance on the 1) planning and management of building services design, 2) planning and management of building services installation and 3) the integration of building services design and installation within an overall construction project management framework. Section headings are – plan of work, Design team appointment, Inception to outline proposals, Outline proposals to detailed design, Tender process, Construction, Commissioning, Handover. Supplies in addition a toolbox of techniques and appendices supplying additional information.”

I use this book often and although it is slightly out of date it has some great tools and resources, including ’starter’ Gantt charts for the design process for a typical building services project. It is part of the BSRIA application guides series and was published in 1998.

The Art of Project Management by Scott Berkun is a more general, philospohical look at project management. Scott has a relaxed writing style and comes from a software engineering background. He blogs here and is currently researching his next book on innovation. Typical thoughts from Scott’s book:

“feelings about feelings: before you skip past this section, assuming it’s touchy-feely stuff that doesn’t concern you, let me ask you one question. Have you ever wondered why people behave differently under stress? If you don’t care, or don’t see the relevance to project management, feel free to move on. But I pity anyone who works for you.”

Masses of sarcasm and wit in this book, so it won’t be for everyone, but it’s not often a ‘management’ book entertains. Highly recommended.

admin Book Review Association for Project Management, CIBSE, International Project Management Association, Management, Productivity, project management, Resources, Scott Berkun

If, like me, you have been tearing your hair out, trying to get your head around Part L since long before April this year, this book may help alleviate some of those stresses. Available from RIBA and NBS, the Guide costs £25. The RIBA blurb is below:

Guide to Part L is a thoroughly researched, in-depth guidance for architects, construction professionals and building control officers about the complex new regulations governing the conservation of fuel and power in buildings. More than a general overview, this guide cuts through the jungle of new provisions and requirements to provide a logical, straightforward road map to compliance.

Guide to Part L comprises detailed step-by-step guidance to every section of the new four-part document, highlighting essential points and anomalies, and is illustrated by invaluable process flowcharts. It is backed up by extensive appendices that give further information about almost every issue affecting compliance, including: target emission rates, SAP, SBEM, U-values, overheating, air permeability, efficient boilers and controls, insulation, ventilation, efficient air conditioning, efficient light fittings, commissioning, log books and how to assess ‘simple payback’.

Written by the Building Performance Group at the BRE and published by NBS (the official publishers of the Approved Documents), this guide has been written specifically from the building professional’s perspective and will make the difficult Part L more easily assimilated and applied.

“Thankfully there is now a guide that unpicks these unfamiliar and rather tortuous new requirements … I can see it becoming a genuinely important reference work for architects, construction professionals and even building control officers as they grapple with the new approach”. Bill Gething, of Feilden Clegg Bradley LLP, chair of the RIBA Sustainable Futures Committee and the RIBA President’s Advisor on Sustainability.

Note the language used in the review: complex, jungle, anomalies, difficult. Putting it mildly, I think. In the Foreword to the book, Bill Gething describes the regulations as ‘unfamiliar and rather tortuous’.

The highlight of the book for me are the flow charts and the appendices, but there are plenty of other nuggets of information. Many of these I had surmised already, but it is gratifying to see the experts agree with me:

• It is likely that U-values will have to exceed the standards of Part L 2002 in order to meet the TER
• It will probably be necessary to design for an air permeability better than 10m³/h.m²@50Pa, particularly in buildings with mechanical ventilation and air conditioning
• 2 calculations may be required for BER (Building Emission Rate) – a design stage which identifies the critical features of the design that will affect the energy performance of the building, and the second one when the building is completed. This version includes the actual results of air permeability, ductwork leakage and fan performance tests.
• Solar gain needs to be controlled in areas which do not include comfort cooling (does this seem wrong to anyone else? Surely this encourages the use of comfort cooling, because by the time the solar overheating problem is identified, the building fabric and form are fairly fixed, and the only option for compliance is to add comfort cooling. The moral of the story being that architects will need to realise what an impact their design has on compliance at a very early stage)
• Ductwork on systems served by fans with a design flow rate greater than 1m³/s should be tested for leakage

The one disappointment with the document is a lack of clarification on energy efficient building services and LZC technologies. Instead the book refers the reader to the ‘Non-Domestic Heating, Cooling and Ventilation Compliance Guide’ (pdf) and ‘Low or Zero Carbon Energy Sources: Strategic Guide‘ (pdf), neither of which are particularly light reading. I was hoping the Guide to Part L would fill the gaps between these two documents and the SBEM tools (including Hevacomp).

The intention of Part L 2006 was to conserve fuel and power in the built environment. The manifestation appears to be a complex, misunderstood calculation which whilst academically sound, does not lend itself well to how the industry operates today. The luxury of a period of time where the architect and engineer could fine tune the design using an iterative process before going out to tender is harping back to the ‘good old days’ when we used to have time to draw every pipe out in double line. Perhaps this change in regulations will see a return to longer design lead times? It will certainly require a greater deal of collaboration between the architect and the engineer at an earlier stage of design. It is not in the architect’s interest to design the fabric and form without consideration to Part L compliance and the building services, as this will undoubtably drive the capital cost of the building up, as technologies are added to the building in an effort to make it comply.

admin Book Review Bill Gething, collaboration, Feilden Clegg Bradley, LZC, Part L, RIBA, SAP, SBEM, u-values