Elemental

What I’ve been reading about:

• Inderpaul Johar of zer’o zer’o at the RSA – Great video interview with Indy of 3 yo company zer'o zer'o, talking about how zero carbon will only be possible through collective behavioural change. Also how architectural design now has to design around architecture, social models and business models. Innovative thinking!
• The First-Time CEO’s Recession Survival Guide – Start-up advice: "We set off with the same directions: tackle a big problem, listen to customers, work hard, pinch pennies, hire slow, fire fast. Still good advice. But I think we’ll have different advice for one another once we’ve come through this downturn, about how we had to change to survive."

mel starrs News advice, architects, competitors, entrepreneurship, startup, top_10

These are my links for September 24th through September 26th:

• Fabric Insulation – ways of further raising performance standards for all types of building fabric: BD 2428 – Planning, building and the environment – Communities and Local Government – This report summarises building thermal performance requirements in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands and classifies them according to the approach taken (elemental unit-based approach, target U-value average heat transmission through the building envelope, heat demand calculation or integrated energy use calculation).
  The regulations are compared to each other and contrasted with United Kingdom building codes.
• Minister pledges zero-carbon homes definition consultation ‘shortly’ – The Government expects to begin consultation on the final definition of zero-carbon homes shortly, planning minister Caroline Flint told the Labour Party Conference in Manchester.
  The minister confirmed that the issue of how the zero-carbon definition dealt with on and offsite green generation remained the most challenging element of the form of words which would be consulted on.
  The fringe meeting heard that Government-commissioned research into the zero-carbon target had highlighted problems over the availability of some of the key technologies and an estimate that the new standards could add between 17 and 24 per cent to the costs of a new home.
  The conference also learnt that the standard would be significantly harder to achieve in high-density, urban infill schemes compared to more large-scale non infill projects.
• How eco-towns can support living within ecological limits – Cutting-edge principles for the agencies involved in developing proposals for eco-towns have been published by BioRegional and CABE. The report, What makes an eco-town?, defines an eco-town as a place designed to make it easy for residents to reduce their ecological footprint by two thirds and their carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent below 1990 levels.
• Patrick Barkham talks to Tony Wrench about low-impact housing in … – Closure on the Welsh Hobbit house planning controversy: "After a long struggle with the authorities, Wrench got retrospective approval for his home, tucked away in a valley in south-west Wales, via an unusual planning policy experiment in Pembrokeshire. County council and Pembrokeshire Coast National Park planners agreed to allow for low-impact developments on rural land where normal houses would not be considered, as long as they met stringent environmental, economic and social criteria."
• Environment Agency – Green roof toolkit – GLA green roof toolkit.

mel starrs News bioregional, carbon, checklist, competitors, definition, design, ECOTOWNS, european, fabric, GLA, green, hobbit, house, Housing, London, pdf, performance, planning, report, roof, toolkit, u-values, wales, zero

What I’ve been reading about:

• Andrew Todd: ‘the Gehrys and the Libeskinds don’t add anything to a city’ ~ Cafebabel – "Architecture has now become a political act, involving huge amounts of money, so only good governments can support good projects."
• The Chinese Century – Review of a book I have on my bookcase on China and construction. Good article and tempting me to crack on with the massive tome itself.
• HOK Partners with Biomimicry Guild to Advance Green Design – GreenSource Magazine – Fascinating developments in the world of built sustainability: "HOK, the world’s largest architectural/engineering firm, recently announced a formal partnership with the Biomimicry Guild. In an audio press conference, representatives from both organizations strove to impress biomimicry as an emerging and vital element of sustainable design. The Biomimicry Guild was founded ten years ago by biologists Janine Benyus and Danya Baumeister based on their interest in using their special knowledge of biological adaptations to solve design and engineering challenges. They are to date the only group in the world dedicated to this approach."
• Green Prefab Architect Michelle Kaufmann Releases White Paper Calling for “Nutrition Labels” for Houses – Potential EPC competitor for global housing? "Michelle Kaufmann, award-winning green architect and sustainable living expert, today announced the release of the white paper, "Nutrition Labels for Houses." The white paper explores the need for a universal sustainability labeling standard for houses in the same vein as the federally mandated Nutrition Facts Label for foods. It also asserts that a universal labeling system would help grow the green building industry by making it easier for homebuyers to understand the environmental, health, and financial benefits of living in a green home. "
• UAE puts up £7.34bn to avoid property crash – Building – “The cost of capital is increasing, and a slowdown or correction in real estate pricing is inevitable. The margins are still healthy but it is getting harder.”
• Arts Energy – Home – Arts Council England has developed a self-assessment toolkit for arts organisations to help them implement an effective energy management programme. Such a programme can reduce energy usage and carbon emissions, potentially reducing energy costs by up to 20%.
  The toolkit consists of a number of modules that identify energy efficiency opportunities, develop good energy management practices and set up an action plan. In addition the tool will allow registered users to track their energy performance over time using relevant performance indicators.

mel starrs News Architecture, Arts, biomimicry, book, China, competitors, Council, Dubai, Energy, HOK, Housing, labelling, recession, review, toolkit, UK

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

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

These are my links for May 27th through May 29th:

• 10 Reasons Gen Xers Are Unhappy at Work – Harvard Business Online’s Tammy Erickson – Why Gen X are ditching corporate companies for start-ups. As always with lists, there are some generalisations, but some insight here.
• Show Us Your Food: A Q&A With the Authors of What The World Eats – Freakonomics – Opinion – New York Times Blog – Another book from the guys who brought us Hungry Planet. Great article on What the World Eats.
• e-Oculus » Archive » Firms Vary Approaches to Going Green – "Buildings should work more so their systems work less". Paul Stoller from Atelier 10
• Design Build Network – Morgan Lovell’s Green Office Demonstrates Blueprint for the Future – "The project is one of just two of its kind in the country to achieve an 'Excellent' rating from assessors." – anyone in a position to dispute this? Does sound likely to me…
• Monbiot.com » Majesty, We Have Gone Mad – Goerge, IMO, back on form.

mel starrs News Activism, books, BREEAM, career, competitors, conferences, consumption, corporate, culture, food, globalization, leadership, Management, nutrition, oil, Saudi, UK, work

What I’ve been reading about:

• Building cities from scratch in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. – By Witold Rybczynski – Slate Magazine – Slide show showing two approaches to new cities in the Middle East
• The Sustainable City–Ecological Dream or Technocratic Nightmare? – Something I've been giving thought to recently. I'm veering towards the Jane Jacobs view…
• Energy Companies Fear Renewables Bubble – Fifty-two percent of those surveyed believe that high valuations are a factor restricting growth in the sector
• Instapaper – via LifeHacker – a way of keeping track of longer articles you want to read later
• …as sustainability chief moves west – Building Design – Trevor Butler leaves BDP, moves to Canada and starts a company called Archineers.
• Waterfootprint.org: Water footprint and virtual water – Not surprised to see this pop up on my radar. The next logical step…

mel starrs News aggregator, calculator, competitors, development, Dubai, international, planning, Productivity, renewable, sustainability_water, tools, toread, water

What I’ve been reading about:

• Design Builder – (Relatively) new kids on the DSM software block, 30 day free trial, uses the DOE Energy Plus engine. Anyone got any experience – good or bad?
• Task force gives housing the green light – "This is not about dumbing down or abandoning the concept of zero carbon. This is about ensuring the same high level of carbon savings, but allowing developers more flexibility" Paul King
• Definition of Zero Carbon Report – UKGBC pdf report (41 pp.) on more flexible definition of zero carbon. More on this when I get a chance to read it and others reactions…
• Feedity – Looks like Feedity has a revamp – turn any page into an RSS feed. Now have to go through the ones I did on on the old version and update. So not backwards compatible – bah!
• Smart opportunity missed – Smart metering threshold raised from 73,200 kWh per annum to 732,000 kWh reducing the number of potential businesses covered from 400,000 to 40,000.

mel starrs News Blogging, carbon, competitors, definition, domestic, dsm, EPC, Feeds, free, Housing, Metering, property, rss, service, Software, Sustainability, target, tools, UKGBC, web2.0, zero_carbon

I’m deep into some competitive analysis for BREEAM services at the minute and whilst browsing through some websites found this very odd example.
The chain of events went such:

1. Find a BREEAM for schools assessor using www.breeam.org
2. Find website addresses on the list of assessors
3. Go to Gifford website listed on the website
4. Use the prominent search box at the top of the home page to search for “BREEAM”
5. Land at this page with sponsored links for 3 competitors who all offer BREEAM services, and the message ‘Sorry, no matches were found containing BREEAM’ for Gifford

What I can’t work out is if Gifford do or do not offer BREEAM for Schools. According to the BREEAM website they do (which leads me to believe they have paid their licensing fee), but according to their site they do not claim to.

Three possible reasons why this strange state of affairs may have occured:

1. Gifford’s website is out of date and does not reflect their services – this is not only shoddy but bizarre in the extreme – they are in fact advertising competitors services?
2. Gifford have stopped offering BREEAM for schools and the ex-employees (assuming there is one or more) have moved onto the companies in the sponsored links and are paying a fee in return for traffic (unlikely, but possible)
3. Gifford have stopped offering BREEAM and the sponsored links are repaying the license fee which they have already paid

Playing around with my new favourite shiny web2.0 toy Sitescore, the Gifford website gets 7.1 out of 10, which is not bad compared to some other engineering websites I’ve tried out, which leads me to suspect reason no. 1 is incorrect. However, of the sponsored links, one is located is South Yorkshire (Gifford are in Southampton), another is an ecologist in Sudbury (unlikely to be an ex-employee) and the other is in Towcester. So probably not reason no. 2. The sponsored links appear to be in alphabetical order which leads me to think no. 3 is more likely.
What’s the story here? If anyone knows, drop me a line. It’s piqued my nosiness no end…

admin Opinion BREEAM, competitors, Gifford, Marketing, sitescore, website