martin brown
Improvement advocate in the built environment with a passion for social media, wildness, music, mountains, walking, cycling, astronomy, geostuff, outdoor, inspirations, dark skies, connectivity, edge of chaos, improvement, natural environment, CSR, built environment, virtual worlds, resilience, community enterprise ... and more
Author Archives: martin brown
From Greendeal to Mindfulness in Sustainability
My More than Just a Green Deal keynote to the Merseyside Construction Conference March 13th 2013, making the case to see Green Deal as part of the Green Build and Sustainability agenda, and the need for doing the right green … Continue reading
Posted in Green Deal, sustainability
Tagged carbon, chouinard, climate, environment, fairsnape, Green Deal, keynote, mindfulness, Route to Zero, survivability, sustainability, think different, winning work
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PAS91: Update for LCBPC
Although we still await the revision to PAS91 that will align it with the Government Construction Strategy, PAS91 was included in the Lancashire Construction Best Practice Club event looking at winning work, reducing costs and adding value through adapting the … Continue reading
The Carbon Cycle: Transition Event
In 2006 Kate Rawles cycled 4553 miles from Texas to Alaska. Along the way she talked to ordinary Americans about their views on climate change and saw for herself some of what’s at stake. In 2012 she published a book … Continue reading
Posted in carbon, cycling, events, literature, sustainability
Tagged carbon, co2, cycle, Garstang, Kate Rawles, The Carbon Cycle, transition
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Social media in construction – whats happening?
Towards the end of last year the Construction Marketing Association conducted a US national survey of construction professionals regarding their use of social media. Of note is that 90% of those surveyed used social media, and of those 91% managed social … Continue reading
Posted in comment, social media
Tagged be2camp, built environment, business, construction, social media, Social Media Construction
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#PPPConf2013 – Industry Day to Explore Public Private Partnerships
Cover it Live blog for Days 1 and 2 now live here Are PPP’s the way forward for construction, energy, health, education, infrastructure and wellbeing projects? UCLAN are hosting an industry day with industry and academic thought leaders on the … Continue reading
Posted in built environment, comment, construction, events
Tagged built environment, fairsnape, PPP, Social Media Construction, UCLAN
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Ecologically Rethinking Construction
Jonathan Dawson, head of economics at Schumacher College, writing on Guardian Sustainable Business asked “How do we redesign a new economic theory framed by ecological systems?” A question we need to ask and start addressing within the built environment. We are seeing a new … Continue reading
Posted in comment, ecological, nature, route2zero, sustainability
Tagged Biomimicry, biophillia, built environment, co-operation, complexity, Ecology, economic, Egan, environmental impact., Jonathan Dawson, Living Building Challenge, Living Buildings, Rachel Armstrong, rethinking construction, Route to Zero, Schumacher, social media, Social Media Construction, sustainable construction, symbiosis, water, zero energy
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Construction Localism – how do you compare against benchmark?
Construction ‘localism’ is currently high on the agenda. And set to grow in importance. There is, rightly, much talk and focus on localism within construction projects and frameworks at the moment, based on the principle of keeping project spend local. … Continue reading
Posted in carbon, procurement, sustainability
Tagged benchmark, benchmarking, built environment improvement, carbon emission, constructco2, construction, Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, environment, fairsnape, footprint, frameworks, localism, Route to Zero, Social Media Construction, sustainability, sustainable construction
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Sustainability beyond the low hanging fruit
My sustainability lecture to UCLAN SNBE and CSD 31/1/2013 Beyond the Built Environment Sustainability Low Hanging Fruit from martin brown Links referred to in presentation: previous blog Have we picked the low hanging fruit? Zero Built Environment Green Vision tweetchat #GVischat … Continue reading
Managing sustainability knowledge across social media.
After last weeks UCLAN Centre for Sustainable Development, Social Media launch session I was asked how to ‘manage’ and ‘filter’ what you can learn and share across the world of social media sustainability. It was not too easy to summarise in a few minutes … Continue reading
Posted in comment
Tagged Buffer, built environment improvement, Coffee, CSD, evernote, flipboard, google reader, Green Vision, instapaper, Linkedin, Route to Zero, social media, social media clinics, Social Media Construction, support, sustainability, sustainable construction, Twitter, UCLAN
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A low carbon diet for construction boards
Question for you:who on your board is really championing sustainability and the low carbon agenda? Board members, as Lucy Marcus reminded us at construcTALKs, need to balance continuity with change, to embrace the changes in technology. From my experience in (small-medium) construction organizations, boards are … Continue reading →