Noticed this (free) Envirowise event in Loughborough on 30th Oct. Delighted to see David Hampton (Carbon Coach) is one of the speakers. I plan to attend and report back through here, and hopefully track down that elusive Construction Carbon Calculator.
For Lancashire Best Practice Club members – this is the type of event we need to host here in Lancs. I will investigate.
…. to run a 100-watt light bulb 24 hours a day for a year?
Came across the useful – and frightening – link on How Stuff Works. Take a look – the answer is a lot and a lot of carbon emissions as a by product.
Timely as news from the government to phase out traditional light bulbs. But why wait till 2012 – they are already yesterdays news in Australia and elsewhere.
Greenpeace director John Sauven, reported in the Guardian, said: “For every year of delay in getting rid of these bulbs, 5m tonnes of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere unnecessarily.”
I have mentioned the Architecture 2030 programme here before. (An American programme to reduce carbon levels in construction and use of ALL buildings by 2030, 5 years ahead of the predicted point of irreversible damage when carbon emissions are predicted to hit 450ppm – they are currently at 380 something.)
Architecture 2030 is very focused on removing existing and halting planned coal power plants in the states ( and elsewhere) as the single biggest contribution we can make.
Today they placed a full page ad in the New York Times. Although obviously focusing on the states the ad carries some strong messages for the built environment generally.
Have we, here in the UK , stopped to think of the relationship between coal power stations, our built environment, and the use of energy within buildings that continues to ‘justify’ the continuation of these power stations to generate electricity. Just think of our typical night time cityscapes – illumination from empty buildings, lighting and other unnecessary illuminations, nearly all pulling power from coal power stations, and thereby needlessly increasing carbon emissions.
According to the BAA Campaign for dark skies – the amount of additional carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere due to inefficient UK street-lights in the last 12 month is 540,271 tonnes. (That’s the British Astronomical Association . not the other BAA). (and that’s just street lights?)
There has been an inetresting series of articles and reports recently on technology versus hearts and minds approach to climate change, carbon management and the approach we seem to be taking to becoming green, and greening the built environment.
As mentioned here before, it was Einstein who said “we cannot solve todays problems with the same patterns of thought that created them in the past” and that we need to rethink. Technology and its use has contributed to the environmental problems of today, can we now rely on technology to take us out of it? There is a very strong case for more focus on hearts, minds and spirit, or what is becoming known as the eco-mind.
Mark Lynas (whose book High Tide should be on every shelf) writes in a recent Guardian article Can shopping change the planet?
Some in the business community argue that the whole green consumerism thing is just a passing fad, a sort of climatic version of the dotcom bubble. … According to Phil Downing, head of environmental research at Ipsos Mori, the majority of the population are “fairweather environmentalists” who remain very reluctant to take lifestyle change seriously.
George Monbiot on his blog writes
“Green consumerism is becoming a pox on the planet”, Green consumerism will not save the biosphere … drowning in eco-junk … heading for eco-cide
Are we seeing the same green commercialism, or greenwash in our built environment sector. Increasingly every product and organisation is keen to inform of green credentials.
Most material suppliers carry their Environmental Commitment on their web sites – prominently – which usually has the aim of reducing pollution or carbon emissions (eg Travis Perkins) yet how serious can they be in attempting to save carbon when these companies still sell patio heaters ? (Just one patio heater will negate the climate value of half a dozen micro wind turbines)
There is a growing need and call to verify green, carbon and environmental claims.
We seem to be heading down a technological solution route, coupled with carbon off-setting, and yet, seeing carbon emissions continue to increase.
Interviewed in the current issue of the informative Plenty journal, Function Over Form. Travis Price, a seasoned architect, architectural and environmental pioneer, takes aim at the green building movement he’s been part of for over thirty years, arguing that it’s veered off course: more technical than spiritual; more about regulation than nature. The answer, he says, is to move away from a mandated “checklist” approach and toward an inherently eco-minded design aesthetic. (take a look at the Travis Price website)
Price uses expressions like building in the spirit of place, the context of the earth, a lexicon we dont hear too much in built environment … and yet may be just the rethinking we need.
And, last week we had the Arup report for the Academy of Sustainable Communities, Mind the Gap which assessed the gaps in the supply and demand of skills required to deliver the sustainable communities programme. These are a combination of technical skills, linked to regeneration and the built environment, and generic skills, linked to, for example, finance and project management, leadership and communication and in summary
The key finding is that England faces a significant shortage of qualified professionals with the necessary skills to deliver sustainable communities between now and 2012…. A national drive to address labour shortages and skills gaps is needed .. and … Organisational culture must evolve.
Are we, in the built environment, stuck in an accommodationist view – ie we can accommodate climate and ecological change, by embracing a fair weather environmental approach, by using technology and through a little legislation – but crucially without changing lifestyles, or as the Arup report suggests educational and training issues.
A dangerous view and route to take:
The effects of climate change will be felt sooner than scientists realised and the world must learn to live with the effects, experts said yesterday. Martin Parry, a climate scientist with the Met Office, said destructive changes in temperature, rainfall and agriculture were now forecast to occur several decades earlier than thought.
It has long been recognised within the blogosphere at least that the biggest contribution the built environment can make to national and global carbon reductions is through existing building stock, not only through the drive for zero carbon homes by 2016 for example.
And in case we need reminding why existing buildings are key, Cyril Sweett estimate that by 2050, 60% of UK buildings will still predate 2006 Building Regs, with corresponding high fuel consumption and carbon emissions. Barring a massive technological improvement in electricity generation at source, our only option is to address existing stock. (Elemental)
Today is the start of the CIBSE 100 days of carbon clean up.
It is good to see programmes like this that address the existing building stock. Signing up to this programme will give you the guidance and tools to reduce energy and carbons within your buildings, including TM22 – the CIBSE guide to measuring carbon savings. For example are you aware of the following carbon emission factors?
Bit of a difference there between electricity and biomass!
Check out the CIBSE programme and make a saving and contribution today.
Making refurbishment a green opportunity
In addition CIBSE are hosting the Great Refurbishment Event
or refurbishment of commercial buildings both on client or consultancy side, then the Great Refurbishment Event held at The Royal Society, London on the 24 October 2007 is a must attend event for you. Experts throughout the building services world will share with you their strategies and techniques to take you from the planning stage through to integrating your refurbishment into improving your energy performance.
A recent Guardian article revealed a survey showing that
Some 55% of survey respondents had either never heard of carbon offsetting, or had heard the name but didn’t know anything about it. When asked which term best described carbon offsetting, 66% were unable to give an accurate definition.
One in five said it was “the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere” while 19% selected “a chemical process which neutralises carbon dioxide gas before it is released into the atmosphere”. Some 2% of respondents thought carbon offsetting was a “new technique that eases trapped wind caused by carbonated/fizzy drinks”.
it may be good news though that:
Only 1% of Britons told researchers they had ever paid into a carbon offsetting programme.
With more and more use of carbon off putting schemes being used in the built environment to archive zero carbon status, one wonders what the level of understanding really is. (Maybe a survey in Building, Phil)
Following on from the Lib Dem green proposals (here) the Goldsmith – Gummer team have pusblished the Tories take on become green and crbon zero.
Among issues which affect the construction and fm sector are :
a doubling of landfill tax for business
a planning presumption against the building of more out of town supermarkets in an attempt to revive and diversify town centres and local, family-run businesses.
The Tories in the run-up to the launch focused on measures to improve energy efficiency in the home including offering big cuts in stamp duty to home-owners who make their homes carbon efficient.
source – Guardian
Anyone who has attended one of my presentations or workshops over the last 10 years or so will be aware of my attachment to a great quote from Albert Einstein “we cannot change today’s problems with the same patterns of thought that created those problems in the first place”
Initially this was used to rethink the way we collaborate or integrate (or dont)within the industry, but now of late has more relevance to the way we are addressing environmental and carbon issues.
It was good to see this paradigm in two recent articles:
Satish Kumar, editor of Resurgence commenting in the Guardian yesterday ‘Cutting carbon is a rich fool’s errand’ makes the point…Focusing only on carbon emissions without protecting ecosystems is simply treating the symptoms rather than the causes of global warming.
It has been said that “the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of ecology”, but the economic paradigm now sweeping the world operates as if it were the other way around. Governments, industries and businesses everywhere, apart from a few enlightened exceptions such as in Bhutan, believe the economy comes first; that with economic growth it is possible to manage ecology and clean up the environment. This is at the root of the climate crisis
What does it matter if the forests have gone and the biosphere is polluted?
With money, we can fix these problems.
Our efforts to reduce carbon emissions, although necessary, are of secondary importance. Carbon trading, finding alternatives to fossil fuels and other technological solutions should not be the reason for failing to take steps in protecting the biosphere or of finding ways of living that encourage climate security.
And secondly in the FT Weekend, in an interview,architect Rick Maher, when questioned on his thoughts on ‘current green thinking’ responded that “you don’t create a problem and then high tech methods to solve it. You need to design the need for energy out of the building in the first place. And it really works” (my ideal house is a wreck)
All good stuff…
Following on from yesterdays post on the Lib Dem’s vision for a zero carbon Britain… one with no fossil fuel cars and a zero carbon built environment by 2050 -Leo Hickman considers the implications in today’s Guardian and rightly points out that the Lib Dems may have stolen the clothes from the other parties, albeit temporarily.
Are we seeing a rising in the ante of carbon politics? along with a new zeitgeist of green taxes and green mortgages?
The fight is has commenced for the greenest party. One wonders where the Green Party will position itself, or has it achieved its aim of bringing green issues to the top of the political and corporate agendas?
Fairsnape 