Elemental

[Edited 18 Aug - for some reason some blank links have been publishing - all the links I have tried to send are there, these appear to be addition. I suspect it is a result of me messing around on iPhone and iPad with settings - hopefully will be fixed next week - I've deleted the error 500 links]

These are my links for August 11th through August 17th:

• It Isn’t Easy Grading Green – GreenSource Magazine – Excellent, must read article on various global green building ratings. so good I couldn’t choose a quote – go read the whole thing.
• Clients wary of Davis Langdon deal with Aecom | Magazine News | Building – My obsession with M&A continues – here the multiplier is on sales rather than profit: “Tony Williams, chairman of consultant Watts, said the merger was an excellent deal for Davis Langdon and as a result other consultants could sell for a higher price. “DL’s price tag is 75% of its sales [based on Aecom’s figure of $430m, or £274m, for the 2009 calendar year]. I’d expect 100% in a bull market and 50% in a bear market. We’re not in a bear market but conditions are pretty difficult, so this is a good deal for DL.” In fact, he argues that it is a better deal than American engineer URS’ purchase of Scott Wilson for £223m, which was 66% of its sales. The result? “We’ve seen two deals where consultants have sold for well over 50%. So I’d say the benchmark is 70% for a decent business. Six weeks ago I’d have said 50-55% but now if I were a vendor I’d look for at least 60%.””
• Residents hit boiling point at the eco tower where turbines don’t turn | News – Oh dear: “But the turbines have barely moved, according to its new residents. They also claim the single boiler down the side of the building is overheating their flats. Resident Nathan Wheelhouse said: “When I left my house the other morning it was 28C at 7.30am — it’s tropical in there. The cold and hot water pipes flow next to each other. I feel like I’m in an eco experiment that has gone wrong at the design stage. I only moved in two weeks ago and I am not enjoying it.” “
• News – ‘Cheap’ solar geoengineering plans may have unintended consequences – The Ecologist – “‘Doing SRM is likely to be cheap,’ said Professor Granger Morgan, head of Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Engineering and Public Policy, ‘so there is risk that a single nation or region might start doing it to solve a local or regional climate problem, and impose the impacts on all of us.’”
• Strata tower wins 2010 Carbuncle Cup | News | Building Design – “The building’s grim stridency is exacerbated by its sporty livery of alternating black and white stripes, configured, needless to say, in voguish barcode distribution. And to literally cap it all off there are the three gargantuan wind turbines at the top. The architect has trumpeted that these could supply 8% of the building’s energy requirements, which seems nothing much to shout about given the enormous expenditure in carbon that has been required to engineer such a baroque arrangement and the fact that this is a part of London that has absolutely no need for the creation of a 147m-tall tower. For services to greenwash, urban impropriety and sheer breakfast- extracting ugliness, we hereby award the 2010 Carbuncle Cup to the Strata tower.”
• A Glimpse of Dubai in Khartoum and Nouakchott: Prestige Urban Projects on the Margins of the Arab World – “We hypothesize that for these cities, located on the margins of the Arab world, prestige projects inspired by the Gulf model epitomize a new way of development based on hypermodernity. They epitomize economic development, success and opulence thanks to oil exploitation. Undergoing discovery and exploitation of oil resources makes the Mauritanian and Sudanese governments hope to follow the same path. Moreover, the towers of Dubai represent a specific cultural model for two states where affiliation to the Arab world is a contested political issue. The comparative approach brings out the importance of foreign investments in these urban transformations, characterized by privatization processes and real estate speculation. The emerging urban model is in strong contrast to the citizens’ expectations and national political unrest.”

admin News cities, geoengineering, global, greenwash, m&a, overheating, strata

Fascinating report from RICS – 2009 RICS Global Carbon Capacity Index (28pg, pdf). Whilst I often have rants about the meaningless of the phrase ‘zero-carbon’, I concede we are stuck with it and the goal behind the target is sound (even if the semantics around the phrasing of the target are misguided). Anyway, rant over, lets look at the report.

The executive summary is excellent – does what it is supposed to – summarises the report:

To capture the progress that is being made towards a decarbonised built environment at the national level, RICS commissioned the Environment Institute at University College London to develop a new index: the Global Zero Carbon Capacity Index also known as the ZC2 Index). The purpose of this index is to highlight which countries are developing the capacity to make progress towards the aspirational goal of a zero-carbon built environment.

Reducing the carbon emissions from the built environment – both in terms of energy consumption in the built stock and travel – remains a major priority for the property sector. The ZC2 Index is an innovative measure of how well different countries are performing in terms of moving towards a zero carbon built environment.

The Index is based on three measures of energy consumption (in the residential, tertiary and transport sectors, together with an assessment of the decarbonisation of energy supply through the share of renewables in total production and a count of the extent of the policy portfolio aimed at zero-carbon built environments.

The 2009 run of the ZC2 Index confirmed the leadership of Norway in meeting this challenge. The UK is ranked third after Brazil, moving up from fourth place last year. The fourth and fifth places this year go to China and Australia. New Zealand and India fall out of the top five places this year.

The countries that have made the greatest improvements in their ranking are the Slovak Republic, France, Germany and USA. However, the absolute improvement in Index score for the USA is less than that for the other countries, reflecting less movement in the individual indicators.

Analysis of the data for these ‘improvers’ indicates the importance of concerted action across all elements of the index: that is, significant reductions in energy consumption in the residential, tertiary and transport sectors together with substantial investment in renewable energy infrastructure and continued additions to the policy portfolio of zero-carbon built environment measures.

The Index can also be cross-referenced to performance on reducing the carbon intensity of the economy as a whole. This reveals a group of countries that perform relatively well on the ZC2 Index and on carbon intensity: Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. It is notable that, apart from Brazil, these are all European countries, suggesting that the European Union has been at least facilitating shifts towards low carbon living.

There is a wealth of data in the report. I like the simplicity of the Index and the fact that policy is taken into account as well as hard facts and figures. I’ll be looking out for next years update.

admin Economics carbon, data, global, RICS

The eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted a new page on the blog - global building accreditation schemes. It is very much a work in progress and I’ve missed any obvious schemes, please let me know.

As new announcements are made, I add them into the google spreadsheet which sits behind the page. For example, yesterday I added Italy LEED to the list – this is the first European country to commit to LEED – BREEAM up until now had penetrated the market to a much greater extent. The news is different elsewhere in the world – LEED dominates in most other regions.

Many articles debate which scheme will ‘win’ the battle. For my money, it’s too early to call, both systems have different business models which may suit different local conditions and economic realities. Sustainability, in my opinion, is context specific and subjective. This is another problem with simplifying into codes.
Humans by our very nature like to simplify things and make things easier for our brains – we use heuristics (to reduce the effort on our brain). LEED and BREEAM are no more than useful shorthand for today’s most widely accepted definitions of what a sustainable building looks like.

In the future voluntary green accreditation schemes may be overtaken by local building codes (Building Regs in the UK). There is a great little paper from USGBC here (pdf, 8 pgs) which outlines the history of building codes:

The idea of a building code is more than 3,000 years old. Even the earliest civilizations recognized that predictable and consistent minimum standards had to apply to construction materials and practice in order to provide practical and adequate protection of human life, safety and the welfare of the community at large. The Code of Hammurabi, named for the founder of the Babylonian Empire, outlined the responsibilities of builders for the safe construction of buildings and laid out harsh punishment for those who failed to comply.
Around 64 A.D. the purview of the codes was widened to include for the first time, fire safety. Though the wealthy Roman Empire kept close rein on its public buildings, it was the burning of Rome—largely due to poorly made, flammable and otherwise unprotected buildings—that gave the impetus for a new generation of safer buildings and neighborhoods in Nero’s subsequent master plan.
But as with much of the rest of the body of ancient knowledge, these Roman codes did not survive the Dark Ages. It took the great fire of London in 1666 to give rise to another early set of fire safety regulations. This same harsh reality was subsequently faced in cities across the globe: fire in cities and in buildings is a threat to human life and public safety, thus public officials around the world were faced with the clear and present obligation to safeguard against its devastating effects.

Worth reading the whole paper – in my opinion there will always be a space for a voluntary scheme which rewards those who do more than the statutory minimum. Whether this remains LEED or indeed BREEAM is a moot point to me. What I am in favour of is both systems keeping ahead of the curve (again, in my opinion, this is where Code for Sustainable Homes has in effect fallen down). USGBC seem to concur:

For the large number of jurisdictions embarking on sustainability planning, and also for those who are well on their way, a green building code and an above-code green building rating system provide the best-case scenario of push-and-pull market-driving tools. Without stronger, more comprehensive codes, the majority of buildings may remain untouched by the positive benefits that building green provides. But without above-code rating systems, these codes may be seen as the best we can possibly do, rather than the most we can reasonably expect. Any jurisdiction engaged in sustainability planning should be considering the universe of available green building policy options, and pressing hard to further the policy innovations that have become a hallmark of the green building movement.

Do you agree?

admin Accreditation Accreditation, BREEAM, global, LEED

These are my links for May 21st through May 24th:

• Two thirds of firms ‘unprepared’ for carbon legislation | ITworld – "At the moment most organisations are just using guess work," he said. "This can't continue. In the same way that financial auditors wouldn't accept guesses as to an organisation's cash position, environmental auditors are unlikely to accept guesses on energy use."
• Scotland should aim higher than clusters of urban lumps, complete with useless ‘gob ons’ – Herald Scotland | Business | Markets & Economy – "What might we better achieve with all this public money?<br />
  Well, in that final leaders’ debate Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg uttered the unfashionable words: “council houses”. Perhaps if we set-aside our prejudiced stereotyped idea of grimy estates, decent quality council houses are exactly what we should be spending public money on.<br />
  Clegg also raised the issue of VAT. Newbuild is zero-rated, but repair and renewal attracts the full 17.5%. This hugely tips the balance towards greenfield building sites, and away from refurbishing our existing stock. There are hundreds of thousands of empty properties lying vacant in our towns and cities.<br />
  Readjusting VAT to encourage the repair of these would deliver more homes for every pound invested, fortify existing communities, reduce car-dependency, and create more jobs (repair being more labour-intensive)."
• Green ArchiTEXT: Flavorpill: Brad Pitt and the Trouble with Vernacular Architecture – Interesting article on an issue I hadn't really been following – the re-building of New Orleans: "Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the designs of the Make It Right (MIR) houses in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward continue to transform the city and influence post-disaster vernacular in America. They also continue to stir discussion, and plenty of critique, from a broad spectrum of architects – certainly from preservationists, who complain the MIR designs are not New Orleans enough, and even from a few sustainability advocates who question whether these unique designs truly offer a cohesive sense of community, even whether they are replicable elsewhere."
• CIRIA survey – CIRIA is co-ordinating a programme that aims to assess the feasibility of identifying a widely acceptable method for construction contractors to effectively measure and report their project-based carbon footprints to clients and principal contractors. The first stage of the programme involves gathering information on current practice across the construction industry. We welcome responses to our questionnaire.
• GRIHA – Home – GRIHA, an acronym for Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment, is the National Rating System of India. It has been conceived by TERI and developed jointly with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India. It is a green building 'design evaluation system', and is suitable for all kinds of buildings in different climatic zones of the country.
• Security guard admits he hacked hospital PCs • The Register – Last summer, Federal prosecutors charged McGraw with planning a "massive" denial of service attack on the HVAC system. He allegedly scheduled it for the July 4 Independence Day holiday, when it wouldn't be uncommon for temperatures to exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit. He called it "Devil's Day."
• Green Building Certifications to Cover 53 Billion Square Feet of Space by 2020 « Pike Research – "According to a May 2010 report from Pike Research, space covered by green building certification programs will increase from 6 billion square feet worldwide in 2010 to 53 billion square feet by 2020. While LEED and BREEAM will continue to dominate the North American and European green building markets, respectively, Pike Research anticipates that newly developed programs in China and India will represent about 30% of all certified green new construction by 2020."
• Why Planting Farms in Skyscrapers Won’t Solve Our Food Problems | Food | AlterNet – Cox and Van Tassel decimate the arguments for vertical food. Very good article. As always with these ideas, ask what problem is it that they are trying to fix? What is the intention?
• PLoS ONE: Energy Sprawl or Energy Efficiency: Climate Policy Impacts on Natural Habitat for the United States of America – Interesting paper: "The land-use intensity of different energy production techniques varies over three orders of magnitude, from 1.9–2.8 km2/TW hr/yr for nuclear power to 788–1000 km2/TW hr/yr for biodiesel from soy. In all scenarios, temperate deciduous forests and temperate grasslands will be most impacted by future energy development, although the magnitude of impact by wind, biomass, and coal to different habitat types is policy-specific. Regardless of the existence or structure of a cap-and-trade bill, at least 206,000 km2 will be impacted without substantial increases in energy efficiency, which saves at least 7.6 km2 per TW hr of electricity conserved annually and 27.5 km2 per TW hr of liquid fuels conserved annually. Climate policy that reduces carbon dioxide emissions may increase the areal impact of energy, although the magnitude of this potential side effect may be substantially mitigated by increases in energy efficiency."
• Passivhaus Refurb: Passivhaus and the planning system – Loving this blog: "The UK planning system does not fit well with the Passivhaus approach, which involves much more upfront, detailed design work than a traditional build. Normally, an architect produces an outline design with just enough detail to satisfy the planners; the point being not to commit more resources than necessary until after planning permission has been given. In any Passivhaus project, but particularly in ours, which is much more challenging because we are new to Passivhaus in the UK and because it is a refurb, more work is needed to be sure we would meet the Passivhaus standard before the planning application can be submitted. If we had submitted our plans earlier, we would have locked in window sizes and other variables that have a significant bearing on the building's energy performance. We have found getting down to the key Passivhaus standard for heating of 15kWh/m2 per annum quite difficult, without throwing silly money at some exotic materials."

admin News agriculture, building, carbon, certification, CRC, embodied, environment, footprint, global, hacker, HVAC, India, MIR, New_Orleans, passivhaus, rating, refurbishment, renewables, Sustainability, system

These are my links for September 14th through September 17th:

• When ‘the business case’ gets exciting – With BDRV we’ve pulled all of our past work – and all the other examples we can find – into a single, flexible guide. We want practically any company to be able to find a financial technique which helps them on practically any decision. We’ve done this by aligning the types of business case for sustainability with the drivers of shareholder value, so it is universally applicable.
• workinproperty News: Balfour Beatty is to buy Parsons Brinckerhoff for £380m – "The acquisition of Parsons Brinckerhoff represents the realisation of a number of key strategic objectives for Balfour Beatty. In particular, we believe it makes us one of the world's major players in professional services, substantially strengthens our US presence and puts Balfour Beatty in an excellent position to take advantage of increased infrastructure spending. It is a key step in becoming a global integrated leader in infrastructure services."
• Women forced out by long hours and sexual harassment – 07/09/2009 – Contract Journal – Damning report: "Women managers experience challenges not faced by their male counterparts because of the dominant masculinist ethos of corporate management culture that privileges men, ranks some men above others and places women on the periphery of the managerial class."
  I have some great tales, including the one where one senior manager accused our branch office of too high a proportion of admin staff (as obviously we couldn't possibly have 3 female engineers). Fun times ;o)
• The Market LEEDer | GreenerBuildings.com – Fantastic rebuttal to the anti-LEED post NYT article brigade (read the whole thing): "I mean, heaven forbid that we update the energy conversation from the '80s when it was all about operations. Depending on the building, the induced transportation energy, the embodied energy of the materials or the energy to provide and process water (which outside of the building requires almost 4 percent of the nation's TOTAL energy!), can exceed the operational energy, all of which LEED addresses directly or indirectly. Everyone agrees that LEED is not perfect and frankly it never will be because "perfect" is a relative term, not an absolute (theological discussions aside)."
• FT.com / Global Economy – France to count happiness in GDP – "The commission suggested a series of improvements to the way GDP was measured. It proposed accounting for people’s well-being and the sustainability of a country’s economy and natural resources. “The world over, citizens think we are lying to them, that the figures are wrong, that they are manipulated,” said the president. “And they have reasons to think like that. "
• EU to introduce new indicator to complement GDP – "The European Union will introduce an index in 2010 to track life qualities such as a clean environment, social cohesion and wellbeing to complement the gross domestic product (GDP) indicator in shaping policy.
  The environmental index will chart progress in areas such as greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, water use and waste generation to better reflect economic and social progress, European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said on Tuesday. "
• Modern Built Environment Knowledge Transfer Network secures funding until 2012 – Good news: "The MBE-KTN is delighted to announce that it has secured a further three years of funding from the Government's Technology Strategy Board. The funding will enable the network to build on its success in stimulating increased innovation across the whole built environment supply chain for real business benefit."
• BRE :: News – Who will win in the global market of building accreditation? It's like the board game Risk – BREEAM have just taken Russia: "BRE Global has signed an agreement with the Russian Green Building Council for the adoption of BREEAM. The agreement will accelerate the development of BREEAM for the Russian market." But will LEED take Kamchatka?
• BREEAM Bespoke to become BREEAM other Buildings – Sustainability Blog – New blogger on the block, BREEAMER, outlines the changes to BREEAM Bespoke (now to be known as BREEAM Other Buildings).

admin News Accreditation, acquisition, BREEAM, business_case, construction_industry, Economics, Finance, France, gdp, gender, global, growth, happiness, LEED, MBE-KTN, npv, stiglitz, Sustainability, sustainabilty

These are my links for July 26th through July 27th:

• International Green Construction Code (IGCC) Now in the Works| News | Architectural Record – International in the same way the World Series is a global baseball competition: "On June 29, the American Institute of Architects, along with the International Code Council (ICC) and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), announced their intent to create an International Green Construction Code (IGCC).
  The new code aims to cover all aspects of sustainability in the built environment, from roofing to ventilation strategies, drawing from existing codes and standards to create one universal code. The code will apply to new construction and renovations. “We hope this will bring all of the separate efforts together and put them under one umbrella to make it easier for jurisdictions to know what they are adopting,” says Adolf Zubia, ICC board president."
• CBI climate change progress tracker. CBI on climate change. – Climate change remains one of the most critical issues affecting the UK, but in tough economic times it is at clear risk of slipping down the political agenda. Urgent action to cut emissions must be delivered if we are to hit government emissions reduction targets, ensure a future independent supply of energy, and manage rising energy costs.
  The CBI’s Climate Change Tracker is a tool developed by the CBI to track progress against the priorities set out in the CBI’s 2007 climate change report, Climate change: everyone’s business.
  The Tracker benchmarks the progress of the priorities for action set out in the report, focusing on the immediate decisions and delivery needed up to 2010.
• Dubai development may be down, but it’s not out – Los Angeles Times – Fascinating and scary article on Dubai: "In the heart of most cities, the biggest piece of land that a single developer is typically able to control is one square block. …In Dubai, whole districts of the city, many covering dozens of square blocks and hundreds of acres, have been given over to single developments. Seeing architectural diversity within any project as a threat to the bottom line, their creators usually hire a single firm to design them around a recognizable theme…
  The result is a surprising twist on the privatization of cities like Los Angeles, where public space is notoriously scarce. In the privatized city, as the well-known critique goes, people aren't forced to mix with people who are different from themselves. They are hidden from that interaction inside their private cars and gated developments. … In Dubai, remarkably enough, the same is true for buildings, which tend to cluster together with other pieces of architecture just like them."
• Property’s Quangocracy – Property Week – Excellent dissection of the RDA's and their spending. MIPIM anyone?
• Charter of the New Urbanism | Congress for the New Urbanism – My Jane Jacobs obsession has lead me to the doors of New Urbanism and their charter. With LEED-ND and BREEAM Communities rearing their heads, time to get to grips with New Urbanism and what the future holds…
• Frank Gruber: New Urbanism: Very Misunderstood – "New Urbanism, although it has antecedents in mid-century voices (such as that of Jane Jacobs) …is a movement that arose in the 1980s among architects upset not only with the decline of the quality of the built environment but also with the failure they perceived of the profession of architecture to pay attention to the spaces between buildings and the larger urban or regional context…
  New Urbanists are attacked from both sides of America's cultural divide. Chances are, if you mention New Urbanism to group of forward thinking, contemporary design professionals, whether architects or planners, they will roll their eyes. To them New Urbanism, …is a facilitator of sprawl, not a solution. …New Urbanism is hopelessly nostalgic.
  But if you find yourself among a group of conservatives or libertarians, … you'll just as likely unleash a denunciation on the grounds that New Urbanism aims to thwart the natural desire of Americans to live in a single-family house on a cul-de-sac."
• Media library · Town and Country Planning Association – "Leading planning and housing charity, the Town and Country Planning Association(TCPA) will celebrate its 110th AGM today by publishing a Manifesto for the 21st Century. The Association’s vision – Towns and Countryside for a New Age of Challenge – sets out a new set of aspirations which directly address today’s challenges of climate change, globalisation and social justice.
  The TCPA’s Manifesto comprises four main elements: choice and diversity; cities and the larger task; a revitalised countryside; and networks of cities, towns and villages."
• The Effect of the Recession on Partnering in the Construction Sector – Excellent presentation from Don Ward, which he presented at the AEC networking meeting at the Building Centre last week. Slides 31/32 hold key messages for me. A lower price for the client does not necessarily have to eat into our profit margins (and in fact, shouldn't – we all need to make money).
• Real Time Carbon – I love this – I have a great deal of time for anything coming out of AMEE : "Until now, anyone trying to understand the carbon impact of the electricity they use has only had a single static Government conversion factor. The factor – currently 527 grams CO2 per kWh of electricity – is updated only a few times a year.
  The standard figure is based on a number of assumptions about the mix of energy used to generate electricity – the "generation mix". It tells consumers nothing about the carbon intensity of electricity at a given time.
  Real Time Carbon wants to help energy users see the real-time carbon intensity of electricity so they can avoid consuming at times of high emissions. We look forward to a time when appliances, buildings and factories automatically manage demand according to the carbon being released."
• Our Seven Commitments – Royal Town Planning Institute – Interesting work from RTPI, but it feels a little late? Interested to find out how they do with no.1, behavioural change, and good to see it isn't a "cast-in-stone" mainfesto : "The seven commitments are supported by a living and continuously improved action plan that will deliver practical outcomes, benefiting communities at the global and the local scale."
• U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu: “Global Warming Is the Greatest Challenge Facing Science” « The Dirt – "In the case of energy-efficient buildings, Chu argued local knowledge drives local building development, and needs to be updated to ensure best practices in energy-efficient buildings quickly go global. ”Buildings are local. We don’t ship buildings to Denmark.” He described the type of knowledge needed for creating energy-efficient buildings as a sort of “hands-on,” practitioner’s knowledge –”it’s like a gardener’s craft or like those who know how to cook well.” Still, he thinks it is possible to “teach each other how to capture carbon, how to create more energy-efficient buildings.” To those who argue that any intellectual property (IP) transferred overseas should be protected, Chu added “it’s not about intellectual property (IP), it’s about people.” He also argued that the case for energy efficient buildings is economic — highly energy-efficient buildings can reduce current energy consumption by four-to-five times, putting “more money into people’s pockets.”"
• Ch 13 Page 79: Sustainable Energy – without the hot air – From David MacKay's excellent book:"“it’s better to drive than to walk.” Whether this is true depends on your diet. It’s certainly possible to find food whose fossil-fuel energy footprint is bigger than the energy delivered to the human. … According to a study from the University of Exeter, the typical diet has an embodied energy of roughly 6 kWh per kWh eaten. To figure out whether driving a car or walking uses less energy, we need to know the transport efficiency of each mode. For the typical car …, the energy cost was 80 kWh per 100 km. Walking uses a net energy of 3.6 kWh per 100 km – 22 times less. So if you live entirely on food whose footprint is greater than 22 kWh per kWh then, yes, the energy cost of getting you from A to B in a fossil-fuel-powered vehicle is less than if you go under your own steam. But if you have a typical diet (6 kWh per kWh) then “it’s better to drive than to walk” is a myth. Walking uses one quarter as much energy."
• DOE: Building Energy Codes – News Item – "The decision to create the joint publication resulted from the recent legislation passed by the U.S. Congress, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The Act establishes an energy efficiency goal of 90 percent compliance with the 2009 IECC and Standard 90.1-2007 in all 50 states by 2017. In establishing this goal, the Federal legislation recognizes the 2009 IECC and Standard 90.1-2007 as the energy efficiency benchmarks for residential and commercial buildings.
  Because the ICC and ASHRAE documents complement each other, publishing them in one book benefits architects, designers, engineers, and code officials. It makes it easier to choose between design options, and helps make sure new and renovated buildings are in compliance with the latest references and local building safety codes."
• Bad British Architecture: BLAR MHOR HOUSING IN CAOL, FORT WILLIAM BY ARCHIAL FOR LORNE DEVELOPMENTS – Very quickly, a firm favourite on my blogroll. Ghost of Nairn in acerbic form as usual: "One helpful rule of thumb, from Nairn to you. When someone presents a masterplan with a perimeter of a line of trees, it means they're trying to hide something. Do not trust these people."

admin News amee, Architecture, ashrae, building, buildings, business, carbon, carbon_intensity, CBI, Chu, climatechange, code, criticism, development, Dubai, Economics, efficient, electricity, Energy, food, global, globalisation, green, international, IP, Jane_Jacobs, local, manifesto, masterplanning, New_Urbanism, partnering, planning, RDA, recession, RTPI, Sustainability, TCPA, UK, urbanism, US

These are my links for April 30th through May 1st:

• Women in construction get funding boost – "A successful initiative set up to support women working in the construction sector, has been granted £420,750 further funding to continue."
• Building Sector Must Change to Meet Global Energy Targets, New Study Finds – "New modeling by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) shows how energy use in buildings can be cut by 60 percent by 2050 – essential to meeting global climate change targets – but this will require immediate action to transform the building sector…
  “The market alone will not be able to make the necessary changes. Most building owners and occupants don't know enough and don't care enough about energy consumption, and inertia is reinforced by assumptions that costs are too high and savings too low…” Stigson said.
  The project took a bottom-up, market-driven approach to understanding the barriers to lower energy use, based on the most detailed view ever of the current state of energy demand in buildings… Using computer simulations, researchers were able to show the market response to various combinations of financial, technical, behavioral and policy options, identifying the optimum mix to achieve transformation for each market studied."
• How to… prepare for an economic recovery – Times Online – Great list of ten things to remember – including learning from history.
• Zero Carbon Hub releases report on zero carbon definition – Building Sustainable Design – "Complexity of ‘allowable solutions’ – Suggestions for ‘allowable solutions’ – to make low carbon buildings more efficient – were thought by some to be too complex and difficult to deliver in practice.
  The report also indicates consensus on the following issues:
  Biggest challenge is in meeting design standards on site: Achieving low air leakage rates and eliminating thermal bridges regarded as bigger challenges than high efficiency windows, highly insulated floors, walls and roofs.
  New definition and framework should be carried over to non-domestic buildings and to the energy section of the Code for Sustainable Homes
  Over 90% of delegates agreed or strongly agreed that legislation is required to ensure higher energy efficiency in homes.
  Delegates wanted to see advice on the energy efficiency targets for 2016 specified with the 2010 update of Part L of the Building Regulations."
• USGBC: LEED 2009: Technical advancements to the LEED rating system – Regionalisation has been done on a zip code by zip code basis (US only). Eg: Colorado has 650 odd permutations of priority credits (obviously many are the same). Bonus points (one per credit) are awarded if the priority credits for the building location are achieved. An interesting way of recognising regional differences – carrots rather than sticks.

admin News 2009, building, Building_Regs, construction_industry, emissions, forces, gender, global, LEED, market, recession, UK, WBCSD, women, zero_carbon, zero_carbon_hub

These are my links for September 11th through September 19th:

• BREEAM set to cover communities – Building – Unlike existing BREEAM tools, the assessment will take into account regional requirements. Cotter said: “For example, does the development meet the criteria for employment stimulation? It’s about making sure development complements regional local planning requirements.”

  It has not been decided whether the assessment will include existing buildings.

• Rogers and Foster shun nuclear design framework – Building – “Ethically, we wouldn’t get involved in projects like this. We have a fairly strict constitution set up by Richard [Rogers] which prohibits work on military schemes and power stations.”
• NHF demands stricter CO2 timetable for housebuilders – Building – Orr said: “Currently, private developers are not being compelled to meet minimum standards on greenhouse gas emissions at all. In fact, they are being allowed to put their profits ahead of the survival of future generations.

  “It's time that ministers legally locked private developers into the same timetable as housing associations. We have long been calling for the government to ensure that from April 2008 all new private homes emit 25% less CO2. And we would like ministers to make certain that all new privately built homes are zero carbon by 2016, at the very latest.

  “Unless the government compels the private sector to meet the same standards and timetable, private companies will simply try to wriggle out of their environmental duties, saying it costs too much.”

• The Question of Global Warming – The New York Review of Books – "Environmentalism has replaced socialism as the leading secular religion. And the ethics of environmentalism are fundamentally sound. Scientists and economists can agree with Buddhist monks and Christian activists that ruthless destruction of natural habitats is evil and careful preservation of birds and butterflies is good. The worldwide community of environmentalists—most of whom are not scientists—holds the moral high ground, and is guiding human societies toward a hopeful future. Environmentalism, as a religion of hope and respect for nature, is here to stay. This is a religion that we can all share, whether or not we believe that global warming is harmful."
• OMNIVORACIOUS: Thomas Friedman and Fareed Zakaria: Author One-to-One – via Ben Casnocha, Friedman takes Zakaria to task on the alleged green revolution: "So you'll know the green revolution is happening when you see some bodies–corporate bodies–along the side of the road: companies that didn't change and therefore died. Right now we don't have that kind of market, that kind of change-or-die situation. Right now companies feel like they can just change their brand, not actually how they do business, and that will be enough to survive."
• Felicity Lawrence: We could slash our CO2 emissions if we ate less meat. What a pity Boris Johnson doesn’t agree | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk – Whilst the article is good, the reason I am flagging this one is the fact that McD's are the Olympics 2012 official caterer. Cognitive dissonance, anyone?
• TALL BUILDINGS OFFER ECONOMIC BENEFITS, SAYS REPORT: British Property Federation – Fascinating study on tall buildings (in response to Boris quashing some of Ken's plans, I strongly suspect) in London: "The exercise was one of changing the distribution of employment, rather than total levels of employment. The economic benefit was equivalent to the annual output for each of those 80,000 workers increasing by £2,500 a year. A second scenario redistributing those 80,000 workers to less accessible parts of Central London produced a decline in output equivalent to £1,600 a year for every one of those 80,000 workers."

mel starrs News 2016, BREEAM, carbon, change, co2, communities, company, corporations, Economics, environmentalism, ethics, food, global, green, Housing, London, nuclear, policy, private, quote, revolution, Sustainable, tall_buildings, warming, zero

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

• My M&M’s® – Get Your Favorite Faces on Your Favorite Candy – Upload a Picture and Message – Completely OT, but really? Printing photos on M&M's.
• Sex and the City and Handbag Insanity » Transition Culture – Poor Rob is stunned that women rent handbags in NY. I don't have the heart to tell him they do it in the UK too…
• workinproperty: Spinning Blocks in Dubai – OMG. In fact OMGG. Where do I even start on this one. Twisting to optimise orientation would be almost forgiveable, but on the occupants whim? Barking…
• Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (National) RAB says UK’s proposed renewable energy target is achievable – 3.3% of 15% to come from built environment.
• GOOD Magazine: The Life And Death Of Green Design – Living on The Huffington Post – Excellent article on LEED from Huffington Post: "Like any standardized test, LEED works best as a measurement tool, not a paradigm shifter. Change has to come from the architects themselves."
• BeGreen Launches First-of-Its-Kind Calculator to Help Businesses Achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED(R)) Certification – The tool allows businesses to calculate the number of RECs required to meet the Green Power LEED certification standard, based on actual or estimated energy usage.
• Home – The Carbon Trust Standard – The Carbon Trust Standard certifies that an organisation has genuinely reduced its carbon footprint and is committed to making further reductions year on year.
• Where Has All the Water Gone? | The American Prospect – via the Triple Bottom Line. "The world may not exactly be running out of water, but it is running out of clean water."

mel starrs News BERR, blogger, calculator, carbon_footprint, certification, crisis, Dubai, Economics, global, LEED, orientation, OT, renewable, renewables, skyscrapers, water