Elemental

These are my links for June 27th from 10:35 to 10:35:

• FT.com / Reportage – High-speed trains will transform Europe – These trains are more than just amenities for spoiled travellers. Western Europe’s unique selling point has always been fast travel between cities. The region’s good luck is what the historian Norman Davies calls a “user-friendly climate”: it is mild and rainy. Because of that, the land is fertile, allowing hundreds of millions of people to inhabit a small area. That creates networks. For centuries now, the interconnected peoples of western Europe have exchanged ideas fast. The “Scientific Revolution” of the 16th and 17th centuries could happen in western Europe because its scientists were near each other, debating and networking.

admin News train, travel

These are my links for September 18th through September 24th:

• The Architect’s Newspaper – Incredibly honest article from Adajye: "My sense of setting up a practice was about working, not business, and about expediting projects, basically out of my bedroom, that came my way, and the opportunities born out of a series of private commissions in the domestic realm.".
• B******s to Architecture: 261 : Fair Trade? – B2A with one of the best OFT summaries this week, worth clicking through and reading the entire piece: "I reckon that the real reason all these reputable contractors got together and arranged cover-price deals was simply to ensure that the lowest tender was at a price that enabled the successful contractor to make just enough profit to stay in business and not get screwed-down to a price that was completely unrealistic. Look at it this way – is any contractor going to willingly let a rival get away with a hugely-inflated tender price which they know they could beat and still make a handsome profit? No, of course they aren't. Cover-pricing is just a way of ensuring that the successful contractor gets the job for a fair price and the others don't lose a fortune in the tendering process."
• The new serendipity? « Scott Berkun – Every piece of software can be turned off. Every email deleted. Every mailing list can be abandoned. The choice to feel committed to things people send you is an insane thought, as you might as well religiously read every piece of junk mail that arrives at your door or spend hours talking to telemarketers. If you feel obligated to do anything you didn’t promise, whose responsible? It’s not the technology’s fault, it’s yours.
• The true costs of congestion « – According to the University of Zurich’s Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, a commuter who travels one hour one way would have to earn 40 per cent more salary to be as fully satisfied with life as a non-commuter.
• Regeneration & Renewal blog: Off target? – "The Government’s target of making all new homes conform to zero-carbon standards by 2016 is effectively unattainable. This is the view of the Audit Commission’s chair, Michael Higgins, who told this magazine that it will be “all but impossible” to meet the goal. His comments came in the wake of a report published by the public services watchdog on housing, in which it largely blames the absence of an agreed definition of "zero-carbon"."
• Global aviation emissions must be capped to tackle climate change – 9 September 2009 – Enough? :"The CCC’s Chief Executive David Kennedy said: “It is vital that an agreement capping global aviation emissions is part of a Copenhagen deal. We are calling for a cap that would not require people to fly less than today, but would constrain aviation emissions growth going forward. Such a cap together with deep emissions cuts in other sectors would limit the risk of dangerous climate change and the very damaging consequences for people here and in other countries that this would have”."
• Statistics and industry information – The Concrete Centre – Looking for information on the sustainability of concrete?: "The following links will provide you with an insight into the sustainability performance of the different industries and materials that make up concrete."
• Top 100 2009: full table unveiled – 08/09/2009 – Contract Journal – More doom: "Based on industry forecasts, the chances are, put crudely, that there will be about 25% to 30% drop in the cash coming into the industry as a result of the combination of reduced workloads and reduced prices. If that is so, on average construction firms will have to cut output by about 25%.
  But it will not happen that way. The pain will not be spread evenly. Many firms will go bust and a few will grow, if only as a result of consolidation."
• Which comes first; the social media strategy, or the social media tactics? – The Viral Garden – "Once you know what your strategy is, then you can talk tactics. Because each tool works in a slightly different way, and as such, makes it more or less likely to work for your particular strategy. If you want to connect with your customers quickly, as in a crisis situation, or to provide customer service, a tool that facilitates more real-time communication, like Twitter, would probably work well. If you want to establish your expertise within your industry, maybe a blog would be your best bet."

admin News aviation, blogs, carbon, commuting, concrete, contractors, cover-pricing, emissions, flying, materials, media, OFT, recession, Social, tendering, travel, twitter, zero_carbon

These are my links for July 25th through August 5th:

• New Infrastructure Levy will help communities thrive and give developers certainty – Housing and Planning minister Caroline Flint announced further details of the Government's plans for a groundbreaking Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) today, which will support local communities by raising funding for new schools, hospitals, transport schemes, libraries, parks and leisure centres.
• Carbon Trust Professional Services Partnerships | Carbon Trust – The Carbon Trust incubator scheme, which accelerates the commercialisation of promising low-carbon businesses, has announced partnerships with business advisory firm Grant Thornton and law firm Mills & Reeve LLP, to provide corporate finance and legal advisory support to its incubator companies.
• A Learning History of Low Carbon Innovation in Local Authorities – Looks like a fascinating blog: This Blog website charts a current history of how carbon reduction is coming about in Local Authorities in 2008. A handful of councils are known to have made great strides. Other councils are making changes too, but are less well known for it. What are their stories? And others are feeling blocked and disempowered from bringing about change. Why is this? What are the common themes and challenges?
• Slow Travel: Where do you begin? – Ed Gillespie (of Futerra and the blog Slow Travel) takes Micheal O'Leary to task over the recent Times article. Hilarious (although MO'L has clearly lost his marbles).
• How To Concentrate – via Brad Feld, a 1930 article on how to concentrate (or think, to put it another way). Good read, very GTD "When harassed by the three devils; hurry, worry, and fear, the mind never has a fair chance to center on anything"
• Building a Greener Britain – via Mark Brinkley, an FMB report on Greening the Existing UK housing stock – specically looking at policy changes.36 page pdf to download.
• Ethicability test – My love of online psychology tests grows. Are you a philosopher, judge, angel, teacher, enforcer or guardian? I'm a judge and my moral DNA type is PRS.
• How to Save the World – I dip in and out of Dave's blog but recently found this gem: Seven Steps to Business Sustainability model. It's very robust. I would argue that you can think you are at stage 6 without going through 4 and 5 – a detrimental occurrence overall.
• Government launches one-stop shop for adapting to climate change – Building – "We are already starting to see some visionary climate-resistant buildings around Britain. I want builders and designers to follow the lead of the innovators behind these buildings by factoring a changing climate into their plans."

mel starrs News authorities, building, business, carbon, carbon_trust, CIL, climate, ethics, FMB, funding, Grant_Thornton, green, Housing, local, merton, model, Psychology, refurbishment, resistance, rule, Sustainability, test, thinking, travel, UK