Elemental

Well, that post title may be a little OTT, but I am delighted to report that the complete technical guidance for BREEAM 2008 will be available to the public from June (thanks to Tom Saunders for letting me know).

Also available for comment until 18 May is a discussion document which looks at how well three of the most highly regarded Environmental Assessment Methods; LEED, CASBEE and Green Star  ‘travel’ when compared to the local UK benchmark BREEAM.  Download and comment here (registration required, 46pp. pdf plus 2 appendices). More on this when I get a chance to read it properly…

A related, but older (2004), document is available here (pdf, 118pp.), via bldgsim, an international Survey of Life-Cycle Assessment Tools, Assessment Frameworks, Rating Systems,Technical Guidelines, Catalogues, Checklists and Certificates. Includes LEED and BREEAM but not CASBEE or Greenstar.

In other news, Thomas Tredgold has risen from the grave and is commenting on blog posts and writing his own.  Either that’s a nom de plume or a very fated young man…

mel starrs Uncategorized BREEAM, CASBEE, Green Star, LEED, Thomas Tredgold, Tom Saunders, United Kingdom

These are my links for April 6th through April 8th:

• So you want to be an environmental performance assessor – Article from BSJ on EPC, etc. Interestingly, Gifford plan to have 6 assessors, but do not want to waste "good" engineers on the scheme. Certification already seen as a second tier profession and it has scarcely kcked off yet…
• An apple a day gets thrown away – via WRAP, the Love Food Hate Waste campaign finds over 4 million apples a day are being chucked out in the UK – scandalous
• Design for Good – Blogger jking has a useful history of green building. Favourite phrase re: BREEAM and LEED "a lot of scorecard-motivated 'eco-architecture' that lacked anything resembling a sustainable ethic"

mel starrs News BREEAM, building, certification, EPC, food, green, history, LEED, United Kingdom, waste, wrap

These are my links for April 1st through April 5th:

• How To Find Lost Objects – via LifeHacker – a 122 page pdf on a similar vein to www.flylady.net
• IES <VE SBEM> EPC SOFTWARE MEETS 6TH APRIL DEADLINE – IES on the ball again when it comes to SBEM (even though their DSM software IMO is the tool you ought to use)
• Cover It Live – via Simon Dickson, a killer live blogging app. Might try this for Think 08…
• Cutting carbon will grow US economy – Researchers at Yale University reviewed 25 leading economic models and showed that GDP would increase by around 3 %/y if dramatic carbon cutting measures were adopted across the country.
• 1 April 2008: New release of iSBEM_v3.1.a for EPCs – The overheating calculation still isn't working – expect yet another version in the future…
• Hong Kong BEAM – Green Building Label – Interesting statistics – "A US study, for example, found that certified green buildings cost 1.8% more to design and construct, but yield 20% cost savings over the life of the building."
• PM helps householders go green – Article not that exciting in itself, but found it via Twitter. I love Twitter…"Green Neighbourhoods initiative will give a "green makeover" to up to 100 neighbourhoods in England with an aim to reduce their carbon footprints by more than 60 per cent."
• China Launches Green Building Council: An Interview with Kevin Hydes, World GBC Chair – China, BREEAM and LEED. International standards currently only used in office buildings for multinationals or upscale apartments. China's version called what? (link goes to mandarin site)

mel starrs News BEAM, Blogging, BREEAM, business_case, calculator, carbon, certification, China, commitments, dsm, ebook, Economics, free, government, green, Green Building Council, gtd, ies, Kevin Hydes, LEED, lifehacks, Productivity, SBEM, Simon Dickson, Software, United Kingdom, United States, web2.0, www.flylady.net, Yale University

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

• Feed Copyrighter Plugin – via Casa Salt Shaker (excellent Buenos Airean food blogger) a WP plug-in to add a note at bottom of feeds in readers asserting copyright.
• Fast Track: Libya – More on BBC World's Fast Track about Libya's ecotourism attempt by Foster's (first reported in UK press September 2007). Worth catching (can't find online)
• The cost of food: Facts and figures – Via Bitten – some great BBC graphics on global food and consumption
• Bitten: The Coming Food Crisis – Short piece by Bitten on wheat prices, but good links to other sources. Added bonus – his NYTimes blog often has tasty recipes…
• FT.com / Companies / Financial services – Tosca increases stakes in housebuilders – Redrow next for consolidation in the housing sector? "the majority of UK housebuilder stocks are trading below their book asset values and the potential cash value of land holdings"
• Build it Green and they will come – Some useful stats on the business case for building green offices

mel starrs News BBC, food, food blogger, Libya, United Kingdom

What caught my eye today, March 28th:

• FT.com / Companies / Financial services – Tosca increases stakes in housebuilders – Redrow next for consolidation in the housing sector? “the majority of UK housebuilder stocks are trading below their book asset values and the potential cash value of land holdings”
• Build it Green and they will come – Some useful stats on the business case for building green offices

mel starrs News United Kingdom

What caught my eye today, March 23rd:

• This much I know: Amory Lovins – The US has cut by half the total amount of energy used to make a dollar of GDP. It has cut oil use per dollar by 54 per cent and electricity use by 17 per cent. The UK has started to think about ways of catching up.

mel starrs News electricity use, Energy, oil use, United Kingdom, United States

Welcome news in Building this morning that BREEAM is to be revamped in May (just in time for my return to the UK). The article states:

The new version of the 18-year-old BREEAM assessment tool will make post-construction reviews mandatory, set maximum levels for energy and water consumption and minimum requirements for material selection. It will also introduce an “outstanding” category to recognise buildings that surpass the “excellent” rating.

Given where CSH has gone, it should be no surprise that minimum standards have been reintroduced for energy and water. For those either not old enough to remember or those who didn’t come across BREEAM in the early nineties, the scheme used to have minimum levels for categories – so we are going full circle in a way. I welcome this, by the way. It is possible to pull off an “excellent” score by virtue of location and judicious spending with the current scheme without necessarily addressing carbon and water issues. Some might argue that this is making the scheme more prescriptive rather than the flexible scheme I dreamed of here . But I’m resigned to the fact that human nature being as it is, we’re stuck with checklists for the forseeable future. By the way, it’s worth checking out the comments on that post – some really good points from Matt Grace and David Strong amongst others.

PCR’s are also long overdue to become mandatory. As I have explained before, a D&P certificate at stage E is no guarantee that your building is still “sustainable” at completion after several rounds of “value engineering”.

The only issue I have with this announcement is the “Outstanding” label – it’s like awarding A* for GCSE’s. Why do we need to introduce a new level? The whole mantra of BREEAM over the past few years is that the goal posts shift from year to year. That is why certificates are dated and buildings should only be compared with their peers e.g. an office gaining “Excellent” in 2004 should only be compared with other offices in 2004 – it makes no sense to compare it with an office which gained an “Excellent” in 2007.

This aside it looks like Martin Townsend is settling into his new job. I have a couple more points I’d like to see added to the “to-do” list:

• Instead of listing only the assessor organisations , list the actual assessors and their normal location, so clients can gauge the suitability of the organisation they are employing. Something like CIBSE have done with Low Carbon Assessors would be ideal.

• My biggest wish is that the methodology becomes freely available on the website. As this is the default for CSH (pdf, 225 pages) , I’m hopeful BREEAM will follow suit. Currently, only pdf checklists for BREEAM for Offices are available (D&P here and M&O here , pdf 16 and 13 pages). As far as I know, BREEAM will form the Code for Sustainable Buildings, although I don’t know for certain that this will happen in May – can anyone confirm?

If anyone at BREEAM would like to send me an advance copy* for further review, I would be more than delighted ;o). My email address is to the right of the page…

edit: Claire Howe has an excellent piece up at edie.net covering the changes in more detail and echoing some of my thoughts above.  Any chance of starting a blog Claire ?

* as I’m not technically working for anyone at the minute, I’ve lost my BREEAM extranet privileges

mel starrs Opinion assessment tool, Claire Howe, David Strong, Energy, Martin Townsend, Matt Grace, United Kingdom

What caught my eye today, February 29th:

• FT.com / Home UK / UK – Walkable, pleasant, urbane, hot – Not sure if Edwin Heathcote is defending the new wave of Middle East architecture and planning or not, but food for thought…
• Tim Harford’s top 10 undercover economics books – Jane Jacobs at No. 1 – good taste. Must add a few of these to my wishlist.
• Build me a pyramid:; Daniel Libeskind and the oligarchitects – Times Online – Tom Dyckhoff’s take on Libeskind’s ethical stance, plus a useful primer on current dubious projects by starchitects (mostly in Russia)
• Construction Industry Faces Ethical Challenges, Exec Says – Fascinating US article. Are Gen X less ethical than Baby Boomers? Breslin argues the talk (Do no evil) is very different to the walk (succeed at any cost).
• Good Homes Alliance say ‘keep sustainability simple’ – Yesterday, AECB were converging with CSH. Today, GHA break away again with Level 3++ (2 extra conditions above CSH). Where will this madness end?

mel starrs News Daniel Libeskind, Edwin Heathcote, food, Good Homes Alliance, Jane Jacobs, Middle East, Russia, Tim Harford, Tom Dyckhoff, United Kingdom, United States

I found this post on The Top 25 Signs of a Dysfunctional Workplace via Tim Berry and would normally just have added to my del.icio.us feed. Until I read the comments from T R. :

Thanks, sometimes it is difficult to understand if it’s you or your work place that is dysfunctional. I work for an Engineering Consultancy firm; a new London branch of an American company. I’ve been there over two years as CAD Coordinator and are still waiting for help from both sides of the Atlantic for setting up what I would of thought was one of the most important setions of a company that sends drawings out as the main ‘face’ of the company. I won’t go into detail, but i am basically locked out a system controlled by the States, who don’t understand that things are done differently in the UK and still have yet to send someone here to help set up the system that is at least – metric! There are other added issues with the symbols still not completed due to a requirement of an UK Engineer to actually give the nod that these are the standards we are actally going to use? Finace and marketing have liberally been going back and forward across the Atlantic, but no help for a section which is where all the design work ends up and is displayed. I just don’t get the lack of interest in setting up standards for this section? I also have from your list 1, 2 – the main MD is not allowed to make decisions on the floor of the office as he doesn’t understand how his own company is run or how to do things procedural, 3. The MD isn’t actually the real boss, the project coordinator is. 4. Consultants are not being paid for at least one month pass handing in of bills – run stateside, 6. meetings just aren’t being held, 10. 12, 17. being bullied and yelled at by certain members of staff is the norm…and yes it was over someone using ‘their’ milk. 19..that’s me and 3 other senior Engineers and just as fed up, 22. what’s a holiday again, what’s a 7.5 hr day feel like, what’s it like to be home before 8pm, 25. – this one really pisses me off as it’s common here. You forgot one . 26. High turn over rate of senior members of staff who can already see the writing on the wall. Well thanks for that; though I would like to piont out that I am planning to leave in April if nothing improves by then and coming back to Oz next year where at least the Australians know what the word hard work means.

Thanks

T R, Feb 11, 2008

mel starrs Opinion CAD, London, Tim Berry, United Kingdom

Remember about a year ago there was an epetition floating around regarding the use of the word engineer?

Because I signed up to the petition (along with 1,726 others), I received the response in my email. I’ve copied it out in full in case anyone’s too lazy to click through. Basically, they aren’t going to stop housewives calling themselves ‘domestic engineers’ but they’re not legally allowed to call themselves ‘domestic chartered engineer’. Hmph.

Lots of stuff on funding I didn’t know about, but it’ll be 2015 before today’s 14 year old’s graduate…

The Government looks to the Engineering Council UK to regulate the professional status of engineers, through its Royal Charter. It is true that there is nothing to stop anyone from describing themselves as an “engineer” but only those individuals who have a current registration on the ECUK Register of Qualified Engineers and Technicians may use the professional titles of Chartered Engineer, Incorporated Engineer and Engineering Technician. It would not be practical or appropriate for the Government to attempt to introduce new legislation on this matter.

However, the Government is committed to increasing the number of young people studying science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects right throughout the educational system from the early stages and beyond. If the UK is to be able to compete in the global economy of the 21st century, we must ensure that everyone’s skills and talents are developed throughout their lives so that we have a world-beating workforce.

The Department for Innovation Universities and Skills (DIUS) has made a major investment (£12.7 million for 2005-08) in STEMNET – the Science, Technology Engineering and Maths Network – with its UK-wide network of 53 SETPoints. This is designed to promote STEM awareness, especially among young people, to help ensure that the UK maintains a flow of well-motivated, high-quality individuals into STEM jobs.

Under STEMNET, £6.7 million has been provided to set up the Science and Engineering Ambassadors Programme. Over 17,500 Science and Engineering Ambassadors are supporting school activities, offering mentoring, career guidance and are positive role models. There is a commitment to increase the number of SEAs to 18,000 by 2008. This target is likely to be met by this financial year.

DIUS works closely with the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) on the STEM skills agenda; wanting to ensure that the needs of employers are met, that the Science Curriculum is sufficiently challenging for the top 25% and increases scientific literacy of the population at large, and that there are good enrichment and enhancement activities as part of science education.
DCSF have funded a number of measures to take this forward, for example:

• a pilot of 250 after school science and engineering clubs to offer an engaging and stretching programme of activities to Key Stage 3 pupils.
• 9 regional Science Learning Centres providing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to science teachers and technicians.

The most recent UCAS figures for 2007 university entry show increases in physics (up 10.3%), chemistry (up 8.3%), maths (up 9.2%) and engineering (up 4.3% overall). We are not complacent. There is more to be done. But we are on the right track.

mel starrs Uncategorized Chartered Engineer Incorporated, Department for Children, Department for Innovation Universities and Skills, Engineering Council UK, GBP, Schools, Schools and Families, United Kingdom