Elemental

These are my links for August 25th through August 30th:

• 500 Internal Server Error – 500 Internal Server Error
• Is it worth it? Energy project viability – excellent post from Jamie clearly explains ROI and other ratios.
• Footprint » Q & A on Ropemaker – Fascinating interview with Sarah Cary and others on Ropemaker: "The biomass boiler was driven primarily by the renewables requirement at planning stage in 2006. We also find that the climate for biomass in urban areas has changed, and that air quality issues are driving some local authorities to reconsider biomass. We have received a number of quotes for biomass pellet supply, and consider that we could have a reliable supply for the building if we desired. The price is variable, but it is currently more expensive than using the dual fuel boiler on gas. Given the low heating demands in city offices, the current cost of biomass, and the growing resistance on air quality grounds, we are finding that biomass generally does not currently make sense in urban offices. As Ropemaker Place was under fit-out construction last winter, we have not yet used the biomass. "

admin News biomass, feasibility, metrics, ratios, ropemaker

These are my links for June 3rd through June 7th:

• UNEP DTIE SCP Branch: Resource Panel – Quite: "Population and economic growth will hence lead to higher impacts, unless patterns of production and consumption can be changed."
• Protocols for Performance Measurement Offered by Leading Building Groups – "A new book from three leading building industry associations provides a standardized set of protocols over a range of accuracies and costs that can be applied consistently to the assessment of building performance. Published by ASHRAE and developed in collaboration with the Chartered Institution of Building Service Engineers (CIBSE) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), Performance Measurement Protocols for Commercial Buildings identifies what to measure, how to measure it and how often it is to be measured for inclusion in buildings’ operation and maintenance plan."
• House 2.0: Grant Shapps to define Zero Carbon. Really? – "But I fear he has inherited a poisoned chalice and hasn't quite grasped its nature. The reason its taken four years of "dithering" is that anyone with half a brain can see that there is not and never can be such a thing as zero carbon housing (at least as long as we continue to burn carbon to power our society), and that the Code for Sustainable Homes was based on a conceit. It was spin of the highest order, based on dodgy carbon accounting and masses of offsetting, so that a housebuilding programme could somehow be branded as "green". About as green as the third runway at Heathrow."
• Blogs and Comments – Comments – Other Comments – Get down off your Dark Mountain: you’re making matters worse – The Ecologist – Solitaire of Futerra (in the bright green camp) takes on the doom-mongers of Dark Mountain (very much the same kind of thinking as Dave Pollard amongst others).

admin News consumption, environment, green, Housing, metrics, unep, zero_carbon

These are my links for November 14th through November 19th:

• Welcome to amazonails – Enerything you ever needed to know about straw bale building.
• Footprint » Common carbon language – "The ‘Common Carbon Metric’ will be piloted by the leading green building rating tools and made available to anyone dedicated to promoting the understanding and development of a low-carbon built environment. The real impact of this initiative lies in the detail which has yet to be announced, but it is an indication of the growing consensus about the role the built environment can play in mitigating climate change."
• Publications – News & Publications | BioRegional: solutions for sustainability – via Hattie at AJ, I find that BioRegional are making lots of their reports free. Will be interesting to read the One Planet Communities and compare to BREEAM, LEED and Estidama. Communities (rather than buildings) will be the buzzword for 2010. Unfortunately Pooran Desai's book is not free, but can be ordered from Amazon.
• marklynas.org | Closed because of geoengineering works – Mark Lynas on geo-engineering (something I'm really not comfortable with): "Geoengineering deeply divides scientists and environmentalists. Should we really consider spraying sulphates into the stratosphere, planting artificial trees across deserts or dumping iron filings in the Pacific as legitimate options to cool down our planet? Kruger, whose preferred solution involves spreading billions of tonnes of lime in the oceans (see cquestrate.com), likens the approach to having an airbag in a car: it’s better not to crash, but also sensible to insure against the risk that the worst will happen. Plus, “the time to design an airbag is before you are skidding on ice”."
• Predicted vs. Actual: Closing the Gap – "Marcus Sheffer, chair of LEED’s Energy and Environment Technical Advisory Group (TAG), shared some ideas under consideration for the next update to the rating system slated for 2012. The group is closely looking at LEED’s energy credits so that energy simulations more accurately predict performance. For example, the TAG is looking at ways to encourage modeling earlier and more frequently in the design process. “We need to change the practice of validation modeling at the end of a project,” said Sheffer. “We need more iterative modeling.” "
  Interesting comment after the article – can we *really* predict performance?
• Three older houses to be Passivhaus retrofitted – "An architects practice is being funded by the Technology Strategy Board to undertake design and feasibity studies into a proposed scheme to retrofit three empty houses to Passivhaus standard. The Retrofit for the Future competition is designed to address the challenge laid down by the government's target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by the year 2050."
• Announcing Living Building Challenge Version 2.0 — ILBI – For those unfamiliar with ILBI, think of it as uber-LEED: "Version 2.0 of the Living Building Challenge expands its focus to local food production, unrestricted access to nature, no gated communities and other equity issues."

admin News Accreditation, actual, aletrnative, bales, bioregional, buildings, carbon, climatechange, communities, Energy, environment, geoengineering, globalwarming, ILBI, LEED, materials, metrics, passivhaus, predicted, refurbishment, retrofit, standards, straw, use

This appeals to my inner rationalist, the little voice which makes me an engineer and also resonates with something I have been wrestling with all week.  I found it a while ago but hadn’t picked out this section  before:

Metrics do not get in the way of being creative. Almost everything is quantifiable, and just the exercise of trying to frame up ecological and labor impacts can be surprisingly instructive. So on your next project, if you’ve determined that it may be impossible to quantify the consequences of a material or process or assembly in a design you’re considering, maybe it’s not such a good material or process or assembly to begin with. There are more and more people out there in the business of helping you to find these things out, by the way; you just have to call them.

Allan here is talking about designing “things” – Looking for metrics (even if you don’t necessarily find them) and quantifying the consequences is a very useful exercise. I would add that second guessing unintended consequences (eg: looking at scenario planning) is a step even further.

mel starrs Diversions design, metrics, unintended consequences