Author Archives: martin brown

out breeam’d ?

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The UK Green Building Council has promised an open source sustainability code, to help address the confusion arising from the myriad of different green building standards with a new Code for Sustainable Buildings, joining in the debate / tussle between LEED and BREEAM.

Paul King, Chief Executive of the UK-GBC,: “Industry needs a clear and practical route map and milestones that are aligned with Government policy to give it the confidence and knowledge to move forward on a trajectory to 2019.

UK-GBC Chairman Peter Rogers , “The UK-GBC wants to see very wide take-up of robust and customer-friendly tools, and we believe that the standards at the heart of a new Code for Sustainable Buildings should be ‘open source’, meaning that such a Code could potentially be incorporated into a range of different tools, from a range of providers who could then compete in terms of service provision, without confusing the industry with different standards.”

The concept of open source, is to be welcomed, allowing the code to be incorporated into regional, corporate and community developments, and also allowing other standard bodies, building firms and consultancies to use elements of the code in their own green building guidelines.  And it flies in the face of the more closed and commercial approaches from BREEAM and LEED

The final code, which is scheduled to be published in March next year, is expected to mirror the government’s Code for Sustainable Homes and as such, will feature wide-ranging rules and guidelines on the metrics and best practices builders should embrace to limit the environmental impact of offices, commercial properties and other non-domestic buildings.

Is there something else here,? Can codes, approaches, tools and technologies which in essence will improve environmental performance, carbon emissions, sustainability generally, and ‘save the planet’ morally be closed and commercial. The emerging models of wikinomics, freeconomics etc must be applied to sustainability, where the economic model is built upon giving away free ‘lead’ products.

I would love to see much more open approaches with the built environment sustainability agenda using for example the creative common model.

European monsoon

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Just as I read in the Guardian about European monsoons, Gridworks colleague Pam over in Illinois blogs on her Public Works site about dealing with water quantity and a one in 500 year event.

Questions to be asked of our storm drainage perhaps?

Leo Hickman:

But discuss it we must, because talk of a “European monsoon” is increasing, not just due to this summer’s frequent cycle of deluges but last summer’s washout, too. Is a recognisable trend now occurring, whereby the prevailing westerly winds from the Atlantic, which weaken at the end of spring, pick up again at the beginning of June and bring with them wave after wave of rain-laden depressions that can last into July

Public Works Blog

We need to start questioning the (water quantity) standards under which we design – do they need to be updated to address any climate changes?

best practice procurement and support

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The Lancashire BPC event last Thursday saw a good number of organisations exhibiting and discussing procurement and support issues with around 70 delegates.  The objective of the day was to allow organisations in the Lancashire area to showcase their procurement requirements and or areas of support, and for delegates to find out their customers requirements and talk to organisations who may be able to support them.

Throughout the day there were a number of small seminars on related themes:

Clive Weston – College and Apprenticeship schemes available through ACCROS

Martin Brown – Bid To Win – ten top tips for improving bid submissions

David Parsons – BSRIA – an overview of the work of BSRIA

Andrew Platten – Sustainable Stars competition as part of the Constructing the Future October conference

Chris Gold – Elevates Women into Work programme

My thoughts on the day:

  • a successful and well attended event with plenty of buzz and discussions. It was good to see small group discussions within the networking area.  The seminars were well attended with about 25 present at each. A formula for the club to repeat, taking on board the feedback from delegates and lessons learnt.
  • as expected the sustainability based seminars generated the most discussion.  David from BSRIA generated discussions on biomass boilers not being suitable for schools,  on air tightness and zero carbon homes. Once again it was evident sustainability issues are only just being to be understood by construction people, with the efforts required for zero carbon targets of 2016 for example not fully appreciated as yet.
  • on my ‘stand’ I talked about and gave out information relating to fairsnape services.  I was also pleased to be able to communicate information and goodies on footprintfriends. However the take up on a free one to one session to demonstrate how using web2.0 on the Internet can save time, through bringing news, planning and project leads freely to your computer, was extremely poorly taken up.  Maybe if I charge a corporate fee the take up would be better?

Slides from the seminars should be available soon on the club pages

more on eco towns …

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Two articles today that bring a worthwhile and balanced view to the eco-town debate:

So, just how green will the eco-towns be?
The plan to build 10 new eco-towns across the UK has been beset by fierce local opposition and concerns over the state of the housing market. …

Eco towns worldwide
Just 20 minutes by bus, tram or free ferry from the centre of Stockholm lies Hammarby, an eco-town of 10000 homes that has become a favourite destination of …

carbon trust standard

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The Carbon Trust new certification acknowledges organisations that reduce their greenhouse gas emissions without using offsets.

The Carbon Trust Standard certifies that an organisation has genuinely reduced its carbon footprint and is committed to making further reductions year on year.

“Our research shows that not only do consumers currently mistrust business’ climate change claims, but that business thinks existing carbon award schemes are confusing and lack credibility,” said Carbon Trust Chief Executive Tom Delay. “What business and consumers both share is a desire for one, credible way to prove an organisation has not only measured, but actually reduced their carbon emissions year-on-year without the use of offsetting.”

The 12 case study organisations who have acheived the standard are Abbey Corrugated, B&Q, Crown Prosecution Service, Dept. of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Dept. for International Development, DSM Nutritional Products – Dairy production site Scotland, King’s College London, London Fire Brigade, Morrisons, Thames Water, Trinity Mirror and University of Central Lancashire.

free ceequal manual

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I see that manual for CEEQUAL, the civils sustainability scheme is available as a free download

Its objective is to encourage the attainment of environmental excellence in civil engineering, and thus to deliver improved environmental and social performance in project specification, design and construction.

Green £3.5 Billion Market

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Press Release from FMB  reads:

Building firms, product manufacturers and suppliers could stand to tap into a new market worth between £3.5 and £6.5 billion per year if the UK developed policies, skills programmes, and financial incentives to upgrade our existing housing stock to make it greener and more energy efficient. In addition a refurbished housing stock would help reduce escalating household energy bills as well as making a real difference to climate change. These are the startling conclusions from a new research report, ‘Building A Greener Britain-Transforming Britain’s Housing Stock’, commissioned by the Federation of Mater Builders (FMB) from the Environmental Change Institute, at Oxford University.

The report’s recommendations include:

· New government housing policy to demonstrate its commitment to low-carbon refurbishment of existing homes, so that manufacturers and suppliers can invest with confidence in the development of the necessary supply chains

· Cut VAT from 17.5 per cent to 5 per cent on housing refurbishment across the UK as soon as possible.

· Introduce Council Tax rebates to promote energy efficient homes

· Introduce a feed-in tariff to stimulate greater uptake of micro-generation technologies

· Review of Energy Performance Certificates  to improve accuracy and reliability

· Energy efficient to be carried out at the same time as other refurbishment work.

For more information please visit: www.fmb.org.uk

a pecha kucha fm side view

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I have just tidied up my last Pecha Kucha attempt into a pdf to share, with added subtitles. This presentation was a sideways look at facilities management and presented in a pub in Manchester to an international audience as part of the recent eurofm conference.

Pecha Kucha, literally ‘chit chat’ is a fresh approach to presentations, like an open mic event at a comedy store. You get 20secs for each of 20 slides – its fun fast and furious. As someone said – there’s more information per sq in of slide than in many full day events. Something about a picture painting a thousand words, and that very few of the Pecha Kucha presentations had bullet points or even text – most were full screen photos.

Oh and the ease in putting together is refreshing. The images I used were taken on my new Nokia N95 mobile over a cycle weekend in Scotland, or from my iphoto plus one or two borrowed from the web. And then the presentation assembled in Keynote on a train journey from Lincoln to Manchester. Easy and enjoyable.

Download here the pdf here  fm pecha kucha

on sustainability now

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Last Tuesday I attended the Building Sustainability Now conference event, from my study, popping out from the event and discussions only to deal with phone calls and other work issues. I also made a good number of new contacts, either through email address exchange or social connections such as Linkedin. Oh and I didn’t use the car on that day.

Phil Clark has posted lessons learnt from the event, which as Paul Wilkinson points out must be seen as a success judging by the numbers registered and attended.  Phil has asked for ‘delegates’ feedback so here are my two pennies:

I loved the chat room in the lounge but would agree that there needed to be themed areas, as sometimes the debate was hard to follow.  The excellent moderator services of carbon coach Dave Hampton kept the discussion alive, particularly on the climate change debate with Brad, which must go as a classic on on-line forum debates.

However, being used to other forms of online events, I found the interface too static and became tiring too quickly.  For example compare with Second Life events where there is action, avatars moving, places to virtually visit, camp fires to sit around and discuss issues, the opportunity to talk in open chat or on a one to one or in a group, to pass information and links to others etc make it a more ‘live’ experience.

The question has been asked-  is the industry ready for Web 2.0 ?.  I would answer yes, but needs a little nudge and encouragement to join in. The increase in information that is communicated through web2 is increasing all the time, and the cost of attending real events (fees, travel and time away from office) will improve the take up I am sure.  And again I must plug the up and coming October Be2Camp event, which will have introduction sessions to web2.0 as well as exploring the leading edge of web2 and possibly web3 communications.

As to costs, I had a choice of event to attend last Tuesday – Sustainability Now – free and I could participate in my own time in my own office, or a Business in Virtual Worlds event – cost £599, travel to London, and a fixed agenda of speakers. Its a no brainer.

Outside of the event, I found it fascinating the twitter conversations that were taking place, on themes and discussions from within the event, illustrating the use of Web2. For example I was able to send a twitter message to Rob Annable, (who was online at the event, but not in the lounge when the discussion was praising his eco-terrace project), suggesting he pop back into the lounge.  Reinforcing my view Twitter stands to be the next email and texting killer application.

I did have technical problems in viewing the presentations – Real Player playing up this end – but question why recorded events where played at set times – maybe these should be available on demand

I like the exhibitors place but found a number of questions emailed to the stands still remain unanswered.

As to more international input, there has to be a programme that caters for international time zones to attract.  Nothing worst that turning up at an event real or virtual to find everyone has gone home.  In fact this may be one of the work-life balance issues that virtual events need to address.  I sometimes find myself on line in Second Life debates at 2 in the morning – because they are held in the sunny Californian afternoon time zone.

But saying all that it was an excellent event Phil, well done – and I hope that it will be repeated.

on power blogs and tweets

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Impressed that our Foreign Secretary blogs to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office blog, FCO Blog , and these are picked up through twitter, Downing Street and HMGov as a means to communicating.  Through this we can keep in touch with G8 summit, not only on the main issues but also on background stuff, like the weather, the view from the hotel and the ‘fringe’ events,  plus a whole array of government communiques and activities.

For example today:  the tweet and blog on Climate Champions…

150 school children gathered in an ex-sewage works (honestly) for presentations from the international climate change champions and Q and A with me.

And on G8 check out the summits own blog.

Illustration of how Web2 approaches can be used to good effect,