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
Category Archives: resilience
Sustainability: Breaking on through to the other side
“Break on through to the Other Side” sang Jim Morrison in the Doors way back in the 60s. Listening again recently started me thinking of how ‘sustainability’ could be ‘breaking through to the other side’ … to a time / … Continue reading
Posted in built environment, comment, improvement, resilience, route2zero, sustainability
Tagged 2012, Chounard, CSR, Jim Morrison, Patagonia, resilience, sustainability, tipping points
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another decade of waste or something different?
One of the potentially more powerful influences that could shape future thinking on waste and waste management that emerged during the ‘noughties’ is Cradle to Cradle, Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart This is … Continue reading
Posted in comment, futures, resilience, waste
Tagged construction, cradle to cradle, futures, thinkzero, waste, waste is stupid
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a transition view of the uk transition housing plan
A welcomed and important perspective on the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan was posted by Rob Hopkins on the Transition blog: After many months of Ed Milliband putting himself out there are a Secretary of State for Energy and Climate … Continue reading
Posted in built environment, carbon, comment, construction, energy, housing, politics, refurbishment, resilience, sustainability, technology, transport
Tagged transition towns, zero, zero carbon
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recession thoughts and tips
The recent excellent BBC Life on Mars series painted a harsh, dark and in many ways ugly portrait of life in Britain in the mid 1970′s. It was in that this environment I started a career in construction, a young … Continue reading
Posted in comment, fairsnape, futures, innovation, knowledge, resilience, web2.0
Tagged Charles Handy, Empty Raincoat, guide, networking, recession, sigmoid curves, survival, Twitter
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on going local – part one
Mel Starrs over at Elemental has a great and useful article on local resources as seen from the LEED and BREEAM perspectives. Local materials, for local people (or a review of LEED credit MR5.1) Essential reading for those using these standards and grapling … Continue reading
Posted in blogs, BREEAM, built environment, comment, LEED, procurement, resilience, route2zero, sustainability, transport
Tagged BREEAM, Hanham Hall, LEED, transition towns
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sustainable resources and publications update
Items of interest to built environment + natural environment + sustainable communities filtered from the Sustainability Development Research Network (SDRN) update Engaging Places A new initiative has been launched by CABE and English Heritage to help every school exploit the … Continue reading
local authority in peak oil tranisition
Last week, Somerset County Council voted unanimously to endorse a motion that they become the UK’s first ‘Transition Local Authority’ reported the Transition Culture blog yesterday What this means is that SCC will take a more integrated approach to its … Continue reading
Posted in built environment, comment, links, News, resilience, sustainability
Tagged bidding, peak oil, PQQ, Somerset, sustainable communities, transition towns
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no limits … route to zero
The presentation for my recent Route2Zero event for No Limits (Constructing the Future @ Elevate East Lancs) is available here: No Limits Route2Zero. The pdf is more print friendly than the actual slides used, with the images removed to reduce … Continue reading
08 thoughts from think 08
I attended Think08 yesterday afternoon, visiting some of the free seminars and chatting to a good number of exhibitors. It was also good to meet up with fellow bloggers Phil, Mel, Paul, Rob and Casey for an early evening drink. … Continue reading
Posted in built environment, comment, facilities management, links, resilience, sustainability
Tagged eco-towns, Think 08
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Heros and Texts for a future Built Environment based on #CSR
“suddenly the air smells much greener now” Listening to ‘These Streets’, lyrics by Paolo Nutini summed up the brilliant, inspiring Green Vision conference in Leeds – exploring CSR within the built environment. A mix of talks, presentations, round table discussions … Continue reading →