The latest report from the EA (The Environment Agency Science Report – The economic and environmental benefits of resource efficiency in construction ) calls for better resource management in construction. For this to happen, the report recommends Continue reading
Pams second post on snow and ice clearance over at Public Works blog, reminded me of two items I had collected into my google notebook for future isite posts.
Reported in the Guardian Friday last Under Road heaters may beat snow and ice , the Highways Agency plans to install pipes underneath a section of road to gather solar energy in summer and recirculate it in winter. Experts hope the scheme could be a way to treat the roads which are the first to freeze.
The scheme, known as interseasonal heat transfer, or IHT, will lay a network of plastic pipes filled with water just below the road surface. In summer, when road temperatures can reach 40C, the water is warmed and pumped to pipes insulated with polystyrene. In winter, when sensors detect the temperature at 2C, warm water is pumped back under the road to heat the ground and prevent ice forming.
Also a Guardian mp3 audio item to download Which discusses the technology and approach to using IHT on UK roads.
Too cool for schools – featuring a pièce de résistance of the building as the construction of the world’s first IHT system underneath the playground. IHT will take heat from the sunshine that falls on the tarmac playground, then stores it and releases it in the winter to heat the school.
The inaugural Centre for Facilities Management Second Life (SL) seminar took place today, Wednesday April 2nd 2008. The seminar, facilitated by Martin Brown, (aka Brand Woodin in SL) focused on Sustainable FM, but also referred to the developing research area of Community-based FM which looks at FM outside of the traditional boundaries and organisational settings and suggests the FM has a role to play in community (in its broadest sense) settings also.
By putting FM into context the debate began to consider the effect FM has or could have on the environment. It led to debating issues such as transition towns (see Totnes as an example) – what role does FM have?; and building consumption -v- building production – to what extent is this about FM usability agenda or is it just an issue for the construction community?
The debate also led to discussion about developing a wider definition of FM which encompasses the sustainability agenda and could be accommodated by the wider construction community. Such a definition could look at how FM could be a means to facilitate understanding about the environment, about communities and about facilities. Debate then ensued as to what the tag line for this could be!
Wednesday April 9th 2008 was the second Centre for Facilities Management SL event. The seminar was delivered by Helsinki Institute of Technology by Nils Gersberg (aka Nils Lowenstark in SL) and looked at Pro-work research.
Pro-work is a relatively new research concept and focuses on how organisations and teams in organisations work together, and how they develop knowledge. The debate considered how different types of organisations – for example those that use hot-desking, those that employers freelancers / contract staff, those requiring staff to come to the office or work from home – develop their strategies for team collaboration. Additionally the effect dispersed working -v- office based working has on FM was also considered, and this debate connected back to the previous weeks debate on sustainability considerations as well as wider definition and working practices of FM.
Thanks to Eleanor Jackson for the above text ( aka Salfordfm Destiny in SL)
Centre for Facilities Management Second Life has a meeting place presence in Second Life on the Manchester UK sim. Drop by and say hello and participate within our debates.
Email for further information on CFM in SL or future meetings.
Videos from Eco City 2008 day one presentations are now up on the Eco City Blog. As expected the key note speech from Lerner is well worth the view. I will try to upload to here.
Addressing the existing uk building stock and in particular non domestic stock is mush talked about – but unlike housing not too much action as yet.
The All Party Urban Development Group is undertaking its latest inquiry, exploring ways to reduce the environmental impact of existing non-domestic buildings that are concentrated in our city centres and business districts. It will examine:
More talk – or start of something with teeth?
There is also a Call for Evidence.
Eco city world summit is underway in San Fransisco with Live Blogs. It will be of interest to witness how the concept of live blogging can capture the essence of conferences. I await the opening speech from Jaime Lerner with interest and will repost here.
From the opening plenary I noticed no UK representation – obviously saving on travel carbon footprint 🙂
With on-the-hour video capturing and posting throughout the week of Ecocity 2008, this site will offer an exciting interchange which makes a global connection possible.
Today being St Georges day I thought some typically english and traditional post would be in order, but that has relevance to our sector and the themes of sustainability.
I recently heard a reading of Elliots East Coker, which may be a troubled peice of literature but the opening few lines stuck in my head:
In my beginning is my end. In succession
Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,
Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place
Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.
Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,
Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth
Which is already flesh, fur and faeces,
Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.
Houses live and die: there is a time for building
And a time for living and for generation
And a time for the wind to break the loosened pane
And to shake the wainscot where the field-mouse trots
And to shake the tattered arras woven with a silent motto
Simon Jenkins, along with commentors on Comment is Free, has interesting views on this peice, not least on East Coker in Somerset “Here the southern tip of England’s great limestone scar peters out round the rolling flanks of Ham Hill, whose stone is the colour of biscuit sprinkled with gold, able to trap sunlight in day and release it at dusk. Ham is the loveliest stone in England, rendering the Somerset/Dorset borders a magic place hovering at the end of the rainbow. The rainbow touches in particular the walls of East Coker”
Wear BLUE for Earth Day 2008 to VOTE for No Coal
Want to stop global warming? Wear BLUE for Earth Day 2008!
Join millions of people around the world who will be wearing BLUE to signify their vote for NO COAL.
I really should promote Phil’s new sustainability forum at Building. There is a danger of being awash with forums and blogs and comments, but the caliber of those registered so far gives this forum much promise.
Now trying to sort out the RSS feed from the forum into my igoogle homepage, and wondering how long before twittering tweets appear within the sustainability question section.
Good luck Phil and team …
Sounds like it was fun at the climate-change conference at Yale University on Friday when California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rajendra K. Pachauri, the head of the Nobel prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, squared up on just how to tackle global warming.
Voom and technology says Arnie, Veggie and lifestyle change says Rajendra.
Just about sums it up – I hear the same arguments and dicussions in most sustainability events. Not quite in the style of how Arnie put it though “environmentalists were no fun, like prohibitionists at a fraternity party”
Fairsnape 