Elemental

These are my links for December 28th through December 29th:

• BRE Trust reveals the results of DEC data analysis – ‘Energy used in public buildings accounts for 4% of the UK's carbon emissions. Design standards are improving, but we need to demonstrate that this is resulting in improved building performance. This study found that the DEC ratings for some schools recently refurbished to higher energy efficiency standards under Building Schools for the Future and the Primary Capital Programme appeared to be no better than average. If expected savings are not being made, we need to learn the reasons why. DECs are important because they measure the carbon emissions from real buildings as they are used.'
  It has been suggested that DECs should be made mandatory for all non-domestic buildings, to provide evidence of actual emissions and potential leverage for improvements. The BRE study found…DECs were generally giving consistent results. However, up to 9% of DEC data is unreliable as a guide to the energy and carbon performance of buildings because default ratings are being used…
• Engineering consultancy – Grontmij – News archive – 7 More London Riverside achieves BREEAM ‘outstanding’ rating – 7 More London Riverside has become only the third building in the UK and the first office in England to achieve the BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ award. This is the final major building to be completed for More London Development Ltd who are particularly proud of the building’s sustainable credentials.
  The 60,884m², 10 storey building, designed by Foster + Partners, incorporates a range of carbon saving measures, renewable energy provisions and efficient Building Services systems. These include sculpted solar shading, solar hot water panels, green roofs, heat recovery systems and fully automated Building Management Systems and metering facilities.
  The key design aspect that assisted in obtaining the ‘Outstanding’ rating was the implementation of a Bio-Diesel fired Combined Cooling Heating & Power (CCHP) Trigeneration system which has been used to provide a low carbon source of cooling, heat and power to the building. This has resulted in 74% less CO2 than…2006 Part L2 Building Regulations.

admin News analysis, BRE, BREEAM, buildings, case_study, DEC, existing, outstanding

These are my links for October 24th through October 29th:

• Campaign calls for strengthened renewables policy – PlanningResource – "Ministers pledged in July to update the guidance in PPS1 and PPS22 to "ensure that they set a clear and challenging framework for delivering energy infrastructure consistent with national ambitions."
  TCPA energy policy manager Kate Henderson said: "The planning system can play a key part in tackling climate change by ensuring we get the right amount of renewable energy, by encouraging carbon zero development and by shaping development which reduces the need to travel by car.
  "But despite some excellent rhetoric, much of the planning system is still locked in the age of stupid. It allows carbon intensive development and often refuses real solutions to climate change such as renewable energy projects."
  Ministers plan to publish a draft new PPS on climate change and renewable energy by the end of the year, with the aim of adopting new guidance before the end of the current parliament."
• Energy standards for homes to fall short of Passivhaus – Building – The death knell for CSH?: "The Hub has proposed a radical overhaul, with builders asked to meet an annual energy output per square metre depending on building type, rather than satisfy the points-based system operated by the code."
• UK must replace 12 million non-condensing boilers by 2022 says CCC – CCC recommends that: "Non-residential buildings achieve a minimum Energy Performance Certificate rating of F or higher by 2020."
• SuperFreakonomics Ignores the Business Case for Sustainability – Andrew Winston – HarvardBusiness.org – I have largely missed the Superfreakonomics geo-engineering debate – this is a good starting point. Hoping to catch Levitt and Dubner at LSE later this month – some pointed questions will be ready…
• Statistics watchdog hits out at government emissions claim – PlanningResource – "The government has been exaggerating the UK's success in cutting carbon emissions, according to the UK Statistics Authority.A Department of Energy and Climate Change claim that carbon emissions were 12.8 per cent lower in 2007 than in 1990 is "unsatisfactory" and falls short of the government's code of practice for official statistics, said the watchdog's chairman Sir Michael Scholar.In a letter to the Commons environmental audit committee chairman Tim Yeo, he said nearly a third of that fall is made up of carbon credits in the EU trading scheme and do not represent real
  cuts. The fall is 8.5 per cent without the credits."
• RIBA to bin ‘outdated’ fee scale graphs | News | Architects Journal – So everyone will be laminating their old copy then? : "The RIBA is to drop its fee scale graphs in the latest edition of A Clients Guide to Engaging an Architect.
  The loss of the graphs, which featured percentage fees based on independent cost survey data, marks the demise of the institutes once compulsory fee scales abolished as mandatory in 1982 and as recommended scales in 1992.
  The RIBA maintained the revised guide would still contain concise written advice about how practices calculate fees and structure payment options."
• PassivHaus UK – My current obsession with U-values unearthed this gem: "Please note that whilst PHPP includes a worksheet for calculating the U-values of components it is not sufficiently accurate for demonstrating compliance against UK building regulations as it does not adhere to BRE document Conventions for U-value calculations (2006 Edition). Whilst the U-value calculator incorporated within PHPP is used as a basis for certification purposes designers are recommended to use suitable U-value calculator software packages for demonstrating UK building regulations compliance and undertaking SAP calculations, suitable software includes BRE's own U-value calculator, or other software packages such as BuildDesks free U-value calculator."
• Climate Change (Political Response): 21 Oct 2009: House of Commons debates (TheyWorkForYou.com) – Andrew Stunell (Lib Dem) reminds us all of a forgotten Bill during last week's 1010 debate: "In 2004, I was fortunate to be top of the ballot and able to introduce the Sustainable and Secure Buildings Bill in this House. I wish to say to the House and to the Minister that there have been missed opportunities as a consequence of the Government not choosing to implement what was in that Bill, which allowed them to amend the building regulations to take account of the sustainability and efficiency of buildings."
  Worth reading the entire debate (despite the outcome)

admin News BRE, carbon, CCC, CSH, Economics, emissions, EPC, fee, government, hub, lib_dem, passivhaus, PPS, SAP, scale, TCPA, u-values, zero

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

• Monbiot.com » One Shot Left – "… if we are to give ourselves a roughly even chance of preventing more than two degrees of warming, global emissions from energy must peak by 2015 and decline by between six and eight per cent per year from 2020 to 2040, leading to a complete decarbonisation of the global economy soon after 2050. Even this programme would work only if some optimistic assumptions about the response of the biosphere hold true. Delivering a high chance of preventing two degrees of warming would mean cutting global emissions by over 8% a year.
  Is this possible? Is this acceptable? The Tyndall paper points out that annual emission reductions greater than one per cent have “been associated only with economic recession or upheaval.” When the Soviet Union collapsed, they fell by some 5% a year. But you can answer these questions only by considering the alternatives. The trajectory both Barack Obama and Gordon Brown have proposed – an 80% cut by 2050 – means reducing emissions by an average of 2% a year. "
• Monbiot.com » At Last, A Date – Peak oil prediction by IEA within next 20 years: “Although global oil production in total is not expected to peak before 2030, production of conventional oil … is projected to level off towards the end of the projection period.”(10) These bland words reveal a major shift. Never before has one of the IEA’s energy outlooks forecast the peaking or plateauing of the world’s conventional oil production (which is what we mean when we talk about peak oil).
• Blog | Yudelson Associates | Green Building Consulting – The town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, near Barcelona, Spain, installed 462 solar panels on top of mausoleums in the town cemetery, after an extensive public relations campaign with the kin of the deceased, proving once again that there is space for solar just about in any town.
• The Natural Edge Project – Australian Sustainability Think Tank – "The Natural Edge Project (TNEP) is an independent Sustainability Think-Tank based in Australia. TNEP operates as a partnership for education, research and policy development on innovation for sustainable development.
  TNEP's mission is to contribute to and succinctly communicate leading research, case studies, tools and strategies for achieving sustainable development across government, business and civil society.
  Driven by a team of early career Australians, the non-profit Project receives mentoring and support from a range of experts and leading organisations in Australia and internationally, through a generational exchange model. "
• A Mortgage Banker In Amish Country : NPR – "When you lend to the Amish, you're making a loan that you're going to keep. You can't sell that loan to some other investor.
  That's because Amish loans can't be securitized — they can't be turned into a mortgage-backed security or a collateralized debt obligation — like all of those subprime loans that have caused so much trouble.
  You can't do that for an odd legal reason. Homes that don't have electric power don't qualify for securitization. Neither do homes without traditional insurance. Amish homes are unmodernized, and the Amish use their own kind of insurance. "
• Real Advice Hurts | 43 Folders – Merlin is back on top form. "We can’t get good at something solely by reading about it. And we’ll never make giant leaps in any endeavor by treating it like a snack food that we munch on whenever we’re getting bored. You get good at something by doing it repeatedly. And by listening to specific criticism from people who are already good at what you do. And by a dedication to getting better, even when it’s inconvenient and may not involve a handy bulleted list."
• Reject environmentally harmful work, says engineer Mark Whitby – Building Design – Glass houses and all that. Who among us is completely beyond reproach when it comes to a squeaky clean portfolio of work? Mark Whitby calls for a boycott – do they work? Tricky topic and something I've mulled over to no conclusion (yet).
• Prince looks to past for the future – Building Design – What should low energy housing look like? Prince's Foundation says veracular rules and it's what the public want. Is this true? Do the public want this or do they simply buy what is available? Have they any choice given the business model for house building in the UK? Interesting questions…
• London heating standards in pipeline – Building – The Greater London Authority (GLA) will develop a technical standard for district and combined heat and power (CHP) in the capital as well as rules to ensure customers get a “fair deal” for heat.
• Obama’s Green Building Agenda – BusinessWeek – As the President-Elect prepares to take office, The U.S. Green Building Council has put together an agenda of sustainable policies he should pursue
• Carbon-calculating data site Amee scores seven-figure investment | Media | guardian.co.uk – Two of my online worlds colliding – venture capital and low carbon: "Amee – the Avoiding Mass Extinction Engine – has built up a loyal following since it launched in 2005, its strategy of developing a "Wikipedia for carbon data" approach hitting a very distinct need among government and big business alike.
  The site, which has grown from 2.5 staff at the start to 12 today, has scored seven-figure funding from O'Reilly Alphatech Ventures, Tag Venture, and Union Square Ventures, one of the investors behind Twitter."
• Mark Brinkley on Whatever Happened to MMC? – So why does MMC work so well in other countries and why has it had such difficulties in establishing itself in Britain? Could it be that it’s actually nothing to do with British builders being backward and everything to do with the boom-bust nature of our property markets. There is little point investing heavily in manufacturing plant if, every twenty years or so, you get wiped out by a bust. Twenty years just isn’t a long enough timespan to make it all worthwhile. The countries where MMC prospers tend to be ones with very low rates of speculative housebuilding and, conversely, very high levels of custom home building, what we would call selfbuild.

mel starrs News advice, amee, amish, BRE, carbon_footprint, CHP, clients, construction_industry, csh4, ethics, foundation, MMC, Mortgage, princes, Procurement, renewables, Software, US, USGBC

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 June 26th through June 27th:

• Where’s the science bit? – Building Design – More on the apparent demise of the BRE to capitalism. Pipe smoking blokes vs. smooth operating sharks might be a wee bit OTT, though. Plenty on what's wrong – but how to fix it??
• Experts blast BRE’s ‘unproven gimmicks’ – Building Design – Trouble brewing at BRE.
• Featured Windows Download: Web Forum Reader Offers Feed-Reader-Like Browsing – I like the look of this. Must try it out.
• Paul King to lead housebuilders towards zero carbon with new group – 26/06/2008 – Contract Journal – This should appease Roger Humber a little – small housebuilders specifically mentioned.
• We Need a Definition of “Sustainability”… And Here It Is – Harvard Business Online’s Leading Green – "An activity is sustainable when all costs are internalized". I know a few economists who will have a field day with this slightly simplistic view, but that aside, a good article.

mel starrs News BRE, carbon, Economics, Forums, Housing, Sustainability, zero

It’s been a long time coming (public consultation on the code was between 4 December 2005 and 6 March 2006) and it won’t be enforced until April 2007, but today the Code for Sustainable Homes (pdf, 28 pages) was published. Full technical guidance on how to comply will be issued in April.

Some reaction has already been issued, TCPA here (they comment on the fact that this applies to housing only at this stage), BBC here (they mention the proposal to bring water use into the Building Regulations), Building here (subscribers only), Guardian here (controversially – “The House Builders Association dismissed the plan as “gesture politics” that threatened to undermine the government plan to build tens of thousands of new homes in the south-east.”), BRE are more optimistic here, EST here.
As I predicted last week, the definition of zero carbon housing has been clarified as:

A zero carbon home is one with ‘zero net emissions of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from all energy use in the home’. The definition encompasses all energy use in the home (including energy for cooking, TVs, computers and other appliances) rather than just those energy uses that are currently part of building regulations (space heating, hot water, ventilation and some lighting). It means that over a year there are no net carbon emissions resulting from the operation of the dwelling. This could be achieved either through steps taken at the individual dwelling level or through site wide strategies. So it will not be necessary for each dwelling to have its own microgeneration capacity where development level solutions would be more appropriate.

As expected, the Code builds upon EcoHomes, and from April 2007 CSH will replace EcoHomes for new housing in England. For those of us who are accredited EcoHomes assessors, we will be able to carry out CSH assessments. From the BRE website:

Compliance with the Code Assessment will consist of a two step process – an initial assessment at the design stage and final certification after construction as detailed below:

• Design Stage Review

• Based on design drawings, specifications and commitments
• Results in interim certificate of compliance

• Post Construction Review

• Based on the design stage review
• Confirmation of compliance including site records and visual inspection.

The rating system is from 1 star to 6 stars. The BRE think that a 3 star is equivalent to EcoHomes ‘Very Good’. The categories will look very familiar to anyone used to EcoHomes. The main changes from the old EcoHomes scheme are that minimum levels have been set for energy and water at each ’star’ level (theoretically, in EcoHomes if you do fantastically well in every other section, you could do badly in these two and still claim and ‘Excellent’ or ‘Very Good’ rating). The rest of the categories retain the flexibility EcoHomes had.
(click to enlarge)
My initial thoughts:

• I would have liked to have seen this code as mandatory. Until April 2008 it is voluntary only and after that it will be up to the results of the consultation. At least the voluntary period running concurrently with the consultation ought to speed the process up a little.
• I’m happy to see that PCR’s (post construction review) are mandatory
• The starting point for a 1 star building is a 10% improvement on Part LA 2006 – had the scheme been mandatory, this would surely have been set at the same level as Part L1A – so what does this mean for the future development of both CfSH and Part L1A, which will now become inextricably linked?
• Mention is made of the BRE Green Guide 2006 – I look forward to it’s publication. Ecopoints are mentioned as an aspiration for the future.
• Some of my favourite bugbears of current housing are there – space for home offices, cycling facilities, composting facilities and waste and recycling facilities – could this spell the end for the two-bed shoebox apartment blocks that are springing up all over Leeds? Developers may be forced to look beyond the bottom line, and start providing spaces which are livable in.
• It is not clear how the star system will relate to building labelling which will be brought in in response to EPBD. The vast majority of existing housing would fail to gain a 1 star rating? The star rating is said to ‘complement’ the proposed building labelling system.

What does the future hold? The timetable looks like this:

• April 2007 – further guidance issued and the code becomes voluntary
• June 2007 – EPBD building labelling becomes mandatory for all new houses
• April 2008 – CSH possibly becomes mandatory along with a change in Building Regs Part L1A (10% improvement on Part L1A 2006?)? Water use included in Building Regs?
• 2009 – EPBD building labelling becomes mandatory for all houses which are sold or leased
• 2010 – 25% improvement on Part L1A 2006
• 2013 – 44% improvement on Part L1A 2006
• 2016 – zero carbon housing

Looking into my crystal ball, it is highly probable that in the next review of Part L1A, CSH will become mandatory and the two run side by side. The consultation process for this has been announced today here. The consultation is an interesting read (pdf, 44 pages) but it will be April 2008 before anything from this is implemented. The pace of change is very frustrating.

Today’s publications are great news for new housing, but as many others have pointed out this accounts for only 1% of the housing stock in England. Once EPBD kicks in and sellers begin to realise that their houses are not competing with new build, pressure will begin to build for addressing the problems with the existing stock. Now that CSH is published, let’s turn our attention to the existing stock and really begin to make a difference.

admin Regulation BRE, CSH, EcoHomes, EPBD, existing housing, Part L, timetable

There are virtually no podcasts out there which overlap with this blog. (Give it 12 months and things might be different). But I have come across this 48:39 min podcast from Yorkshire Forward featuring firstly George Martin from Wilmott Dixon, who I saw do a similar speech back in June. At approximately 21:14 Andrew Mason starts speaking on 7 generation thinking. At 30:15 Alan Bell talks about green buildings including the House of the Future at the BRE.
http://www.yorkshire-forward.com/asset_store/audio/masterclass5_12730.mp3

There are a few other podcasts on the YF site which might be of interest, and now that gadgets such as iTrip and Tunecast are now legal, there’s no reason not to load up your iPod (other mp3 players are available) and listen on your commute or whilst getting to your next meeting.

admin Geekery Alan Bell, Andrew Mason, BRE, George Martin, mp3, podcasting, Wilmott Dixon, Yorkshire Forward

 ::via GNN:

The next step in the Government’s drive to increase microgeneration begins today as Phase 2 of the DTI’s Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP) opens.

About time too – this has been expected since April.  It is the successor to the old Clear Skies program.  Notably there is an approved list of 7 suppliers for the 5 technologies:

• Solar PV – Dulas, Solar Century, British Gas
• Solar Thermal – Dulas, Filsol, British Gas
• GSHP – Glen Dimplex, EOn, British Gas
• Wind – EOn, Dulas, British Gas
• Biomass – RES, EOn, British Gas

(I suspect it will work much the same way as Warmfront, which I discussed here).  BRE are administering the scheme.  The pot of money is £50m in total for this phase.

More information can be found on the website.

admin News BRE, DTI, funding, grants, LCBP, low carbon buildings program, renewables

From the website 4 October:

An updated release of the Part L calculation software SBEM has today been made available for designers wishing to demonstrate compliance for buildings other than dwellings.

The development team at BRE has been responding to feedback from the market on the previous release in May and has incorporated a number of improvements to the calculation itself and to the way in which data is entered. The new software package, available for download from www.ncm.bre.co.uk,  comprises version v1.2.a of the calculation tool SBEM and of the interface iSBEM, together with an updated User Guide and supporting databases.

The improvements have been identified as a result of experience from those using the tool in practice on a wide range of building types, and from those attending training sessions. They include compliance with Northern Ireland Part F building regulations, revision of default psi values for thermal bridges, simplification of HVAC ventilation definition (1st stage), simplified ways of entering data applicable to the whole building, modifications to some of the underlying databases and correction of identified bugs.

The team is very grateful for the feedback from the industry and will continue to respond to comments and questions via the website and the telephone helpline at 0870 460 8141.

I have had a quick look, but it still doesn’t seem much different apart from the opening screens. The manual has been updated along with the NCM databases.  One new addition is a data collection spreadsheet (an excel file) which does look useful and acts as a good aide-memoire.  It also highlights quite how much information is required (a lot) to do the calculation.

admin Regulation BRE, isbem, ncm, Part L, SBEM, Software