Beyond waste management – an article as background to the Lancs Best Practice Club event on Sustainability, Carbon Footprints and Waste Management Plans was posted on to the Building Magazine website last Friday.
And a reminder that details of the event LBPC Event 12 February
Fittingly the event will be held at the Solaris Centre in Blackpool
Two thousand seven may go down as the year that green buildings became cornerstone of a global strategies to address global warming
Green building in the US gets a good review in the recommended recently published paper from Greenbiz.com State of Green Business. (Download from Greenbiz.com). The report neatly summarises sectors into swimming, treading water or sinking in efforts to address green and environmental issues.
As to building and property, the following extracts should wet your appetite to download and read:
In this fast-rising environment, green building is becoming less the exception than the norm, embraced by sectors ranging from hotels to health care to housing
The price premium for green building is shrinking, reducing one of the few remaining barriers to the industry’s growth.
Moreover, green building can provide a competitive advantage in a tough market,
Demand and planning for green buildings is rising like a skyscraper on steroids, the product of everything from high energy prices to corporate vanity to a better understanding of the dividends paid by environmentally sensitive facilities
LEED (the US version of BREEAM) is piloting a LEED ND – a neighbourhood development assessment system. The FAQ refers to it as a rating system that integrates the principles, of smart growth, new urbanism, and green building into the first national standard for neighborhood design
Details are available from the LEED website – but looking at the assessment checklist it looks very familiar to our sustainable communities and community based facilities management approaches.
I have just been reading the very informative paper The Law of Green Building from US Law Attorney Stoel Rives LLP, which has a useful chapter on LEED ND. – LAW OF BUILDING GREEN – Community and Neighborhood Development
Do we have a BREEAM equivalent? (not to my knowledge – but if any more experience BREEAM people out there know better then please post below)
Has Prince Charles reignited debate on architecture, traditional construction, eco homes and zero-carbon? – isdefining zero-carbon is the key? – the original articles at BD website are well worth the read – as is the astute comments from Phil at zerochampion (sorry Phil cant get use to Sustainable Blog!)
The following Press Release was posted into the Steering Group pages by Andrew Platten at Elevate, but needs a wider distribution. Any other good news out there in the Lancashire / North West?
Introducing New Companies
Construction companies from across Pennine Lancashire came together to share their experiences and contacts to boost the industry. The event held at Shere Khan Restaurant, in Blackburn, united BME Businesses in the area, helping to benefit the local business community.
This is one of the latest initiatives from The Constructing the Future programme from Elevate East Lancashire, working in partnership with the enterprise initiative No Limits.
The event introduced representatives from 40 construction companies to the idea of creating a business consortium for BME businesses – as well as workshops on how to work together and gain more business by developing skills and business practices. In particular CTF promoted the innovative Pennine Lancashire independent training group to the attendees which will enable business to plan their training needs.
Andrew Platten, Head of Constructing the Future, said: “The aim of the event was to unite BME businesses and allow them to share their experiences and skills, benefiting them and encouraging them to work together in the future.
“The event was hugely successful, and will hopefully be the first of many in this new project we plan to continue to roll out throughout 2008.”
One of the attendees, Yasir Ahmad, Director of Crystal Baths said: “The event was really well attended by companies in the community and was a great opportunity to network with fellow entrepreneurs.”
The No Limits initiative has secured a three year funding allocation, of which £130,000 will be allocated to Constructing the Future to aid local businesses and people into employment helping with the Elevate overall aim to regenerate East Lancashire’s disadvantaged communities.
No Limits is a £23m initiative to help support new and existing businesses throughout Pennine Lancashire with advice, finance, accommodation and a whole range of other support.
It is supported by the three professional football clubs of Pennine Lancashire – Blackburn Rovers, Accrington Stanley and Burnley – and by the borough councils of Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, and Pendle, and Lancashire County Council.
For an excellent and refreshing read of a collaborative project that is aligned to and sensitive to nature, read the the account of the new fishing store development at LL Bean (an old haunt of mine when living in New England many years back) on the Building Design and Construction website
To reinforce that we cannot address sustainability, carbon reduction and waste management from a hearts and minds, save the planet for future generations, common sense point of view and approach, JCT have started a consultation process as to which sustainability items should be made contractual within JCT forms of contract, as in legally binding commitments.
Details are on the JCT site
One of the consultation questions allows you to choose from a list of themes you would like seen as a contractual issue (see below), which gives a pretty good indication of what JCT is thinking.
Would the sustainability contract be with client and contractor, or all, as per the JCT Constructing Excellence Collaborative Contract (one would hope!). Or following a growing school of thought that that the earth should have ‘legal status’, hence with the earth itself?
Which would you like to see as a contractual clause:
| Carbon emissions associated with construction process |
| Carbon emissions associated with the end use of the ‘project’ |
| Commercial vehicle movements |
| Consumption of energy during construction process |
| Consumption of energy associated with the end use of the ‘project’ |
| Consumption of water during construction process |
| Consumption of water associated with the end use of the ‘project’ |
| Economic sustainability in construction supply chain |
| Maintenance or optimisation of biodiversity |
| Origin of construction materials |
| Waste management in construction process |
| Waste management associated with the end use of the ‘project’ |
I have recently registered to visit Eco Build in London at the end of the month. Billed as Europe’s biggest event dedicated to sustainable design, construction and the built environment.
It is disappointing to note that there appears to be no webcast or webinars or any web broadcasting of the presentations or events. 20,000 people are expected – all making fossil fuel based journeys to attend. Lets have some web based sharing to spread the messages from Eco Build wider and reduce travel miles. Events such as this should be sustainable themselves.
A call to the Eco Build organisers to comment …
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently launched “Walk the Walk,” , a multi-faceted campaign to educate, promote and encourage sustainable design among consumers, business owners and architects.
(It is a pity they don’t include builders, fm and end users in that list. Sustainability is a collaboartive approach, across all project and facilities stakeholders.)
Walk the walk is rich in resource, including:
A sustainability resource center for practitioners. The Walk the Walk Toolkit 2030 highlighting green building issues and provides samples of effective ordinance language for communities, as well as examples of what others are already doing to pursue green building programs. A 50to50 how-to resource intended to assist architects and the construction industry in moving toward the AIA’s public goal of a minimum 50 percent reduction of fossil fuel consumption in buildings by 2010 and carbon neutrality by 2030.
I found the Sustainability 2030 Green Meeting Guidelines , a resource to help reduce the environmental impact of meetings and events and the Measures of Sustainability (PDF) overview of interest.
Most of the resources seems to be available to all, for which the AIA is to be commended.
A visit to the RIBA site brings up an equal wealth of resource at Climate Change including the useful Guide to Low Carbon Standards and Assessment Methods, an overview of recommended low carbon performance standards and associated assessment methods for new and existing buildings.
Of particualr note however is the RIBA’s adoption of Contraction and Convergence, within its Climate Change Policy
(Contraction and Convergence is the science-based, global climate-policy framework, proposed to the United Nations since 1990 by the Global Commons Institute, itinvolves a globally balanced approach to the stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations at safe levels, consistent with the aspirations of different communities to development and quality of life.)
The RIBA has adopted Contraction and Convergence as the overarching policy to guide its targets for the reduction of GHG emissions associated with the use of energy in buildings.
So plenty of resources out there, all good stuff, but really does need that walk the walk, the changing of mindset, the rethinking and the collaboratives approach. The AIA’s Walk the Walk is a step in the right direction – we need a similar ‘outreach’ programme here. How many architects here would be aware of C and C for example and how that can be applied to everyday design.
Following on from earlier posts (whats wrong) on this site where I raised the question that Level 6 of the Code for Sustainable homes was seemingly too low a standard – as Barratts and Eddie Shah, and others, already claim they can achieve it , apparently without doing to much different, it is encouraging to see Bill Dunster pushing the goal posts further.
‘Anybody can build to Level Six,’ says Bill
Bill Dunster claims his RuralZED house, which will be shown at the Ecobuild exhibition (26-28 February at Earls Court), meets the unprecedented (and non-existent – he invented the term) Level Seven of the Code for Sustainable Homes, with a wind turbine producing energy to make up for the embodied energy in the materials and construction of the structure. more info at AJ
Level 6 and now Level 7 must remain stretch targets – targets to stretch our rethinking, our innovations and our urgency in addressing sustainability issues. To say we can achieve them today is plain greenwash. (Greenwash sin number 1, 2 3, or 6? )
And, on a similar issue will we see a higher level BREEAM assessment to continue to stretch our sector? After all if BREEAM Excellent doesn’t achieve the targets we need to reach nationally or globally then indeed we do need higher, tougher standards.
As Dr Jo Williams, in the latest edition of Journal of Environmental Planning and Management shows, the current government strategy is unlikely to drive the required increase in technological, infrastructural, service and knowledge capacity needed to deliver zero-carbon homes. If it is going to meet its carbon targets the government should make the current “code 6-star rating” (ie zero-carbon standard) mandatory for all new housing, and invest in the technology, infrastructure and knowledge needed to support its delivery… Without which we will head to an environmental disaster. (Guardian report – where are the green houses)
Or – the will (hearts and minds) and motivation to do so without legislation and standards – ie just getting on and doing it as in the spirit of Contraction and Convergence for example – but thats another post.
Fairsnape 