I’ve added a few more blogs to the blogroll. I feel blogging in the industry slumped somewhat over the past 2 or 3 years, but we’re seeing a revival of sorts now. I’m not sure if Twitter is to blame, but it’s a good thing in my book. I do enjoy blogs more than magazine articles, and comments (either on the blog or twitter) are the most enjoyable part of blogging for me.
Anyway, here’s three blogs to tide you over whilst I’m on holiday for the next 2 weeks:
Rory Bergin – I tend to attend the same events as Rory and his office is just up the road from where I live, yet we’ve still never actually met properly. I’m sure our paths will cross soon. He’s the Head of Sustainability & Innovation at HTA.
oCo Carbon blog by Jamie Bull. Jamie is also on twitter and is good mates with my colleague T. It is a small world. Recommended reading, especially his recent EROEI posts.
Last, and by no means least, Bling No More by my ex-colleague Doug King. I worked with Doug at Max Fordham’s back in 1997/98. He’s infamous for saying Eco-Bling to journalists, and doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to opinion.
I couldn’t help thinking how it compared to the UK Non-domestic buildings daily emissions (as you do).
Doing a quick back of the envelope calc for UK non-domestic buildings (1.8m non domestic buildings from the recent Carbon Trust figures in Building the Future Today) at 106MtCO2 per year is equivalent to 290,410 tonnes per day, which lies about halfway between the planes and the volcanoes. My first attempt at an infographic follows:
So as one smart arse in the office pointed out, if we stop flying, we’re all out of a job (tongue firmly in cheek there!).
I’ve been very remiss and forgot to mention my blog has been listed in Online Engineering Degree’s Top 50 Environmental Engineering Blogs. I’m honoured. I’m listed on the Industry Insider area. From the dip in traffic I usually suffer in July and August I suspect I have a few student readers out there who will find the list useful.
Still no word on how it passes Building Regs, but good to see the movement growing – the builder will be assisting 11 others to build a house each in a settlement in Wales. A refreshing change to the UK standard volume housebuilder offering.
Thanks to whoever alerted me to this great, short TED video. The goal is to harness wind power at 1,000 – 15,000m in the troposhere (much above where wind turbines currently operate). Which reminds me, I must dig out the flexifoil now the evenings are brighter…
Saul Griffith: Inventing a super-kite to tap the energy of high-altitude wind
I hate starting posts with apologies, but here goes. I have a list of posts I want to write and I just don’t have time to write them. Rather than let them sit in my mental inbox until I forget about them, I’m doing a quick update without fleshing out the bones so to speak.
Firstly, I’ve been to some rather excellent events hosted by wise women in London as of late, organised by the anything-but-lazy Polly who blogs over at the Lazy Environmentalist.
Secondly, I’ve been to my first Sponge event. Again, check them out – great to put faces to names and to meet with some old acquaintances and ex-colleagues.
Thirdly, I was at the Sustainability and Economics event Phil blogs about here. Hilarious panel discussion, completely off topic (the phrase “spectrum of evil” was bandied around!). I have some notes and thoughts about the morning and if I ever get a chance I’ll try to blog something.
Finally, there are a few new blogs and twitterers (tweeters? twits?) to check out:
I am fascinated with cognitive biases. I’ve mentioned the confirmation bias before and whilst reading The Black Swan by Nassim Nicolas Taleb (who is a big fan, as am I, of Kahneman & Tversky), I was reminded of the following statistic which I found in Mintzberg’s Strategy Bites Back by Spyros G. Makridakis (pg. 168): believers remember 100% of confirming evidence but only have 40% accuracy when recalling disconfirming evidence. On the other hand skeptics can recall 90% of both confirming and disconfirming evidence.
A fact worth remembering when you’re next reading something
Mel Starrs BREEAM-AP LEED-AP CEng MCIBSE MASHRAE EMBA BEng (Hons) likes to collect letters after her name.
Her interests include sustainability, the built environment, the construction industry, economics, management theories, web2.0, lifehacking and indie music.
Popular posts
A rough guide to BREEAM 2008 - overview of the changes from 2006 to 2008 version of BREEAM
CASPAR in Leeds due for demolition - written in Feb 2007, CASPAR (city centre apartments for single people at affordable rents) is still standing. A cautionary tale in MMC.
BREEAM is a means to an end - BREEAM should not dictate design, but reward sustainable design
LEED exam resources - a useful study guide for LEED v2.0 exam resources
Eco-hobbit house in Wales - an ever popular post from the start of 2007 - a wacky example of eco building in the UK
Henderson Green:Online #BREEAM In-Use Self-Assessments will need to be verified by a trained BREEAM In-Use Auditor to enable the issue of the Certificate.
Recent Comments