Category Archives: comment

Cost of Managing Project Photos

Seeing the wood from the trees. Are we taking too many site photos?

Last week I was discussing the issue of site photos with a contractor. The discussion included the cost (time) of taking so many photos which were probably never viewed, the increasing storage costs and the cost (time) in trying to find suitable photos for bids, publications or to verify events on site for many reasons.

A number of solutions were discussed including the mandatory tagging of photos before being uploaded or saved on to company sites, using open sites such a flickr, or an emerging approach of embedding photo’s into the site online diary – or blog where they exist.

At the same time Paul Wilkinson @EEPaul was tweeting live from a COMIT event where the same problem was being discussed – the vast number of photos taken across the industry, made all so easy with smart phones, picture storage requirements increasing as the mega pixel cameras on site increase and so on.

Its not surprising then that we will see construction picture applications emerge, one of the first to come to my attention is Geedra (http://www.geedra.com/) which discusses the issues above in their blog – see Construction Photo Management Just Changed

I can foresee that construction companies will baulk at the cost (just under $2000 per annum, with a limited capacity free option). But given the cost in time on taking unused pictures, server space for unnessary pictures and time in searching, this may actually be saving costs.

We should perhaps understand, like pictures taken and developed on film, there is a real cost of taking so many digital pictures.

Green Deal Consortia Launches in Lancashire

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The following is the press release from Industry Today ‘Green Deal’ service:

Wednesday 22nd February saw the launch of the Lancashire Construction Best Practice Club’s ‘Green Deal Consortia’ initiative supported by the FMB, fairsnape, DIEMltd, the NFB, SMPR (Simply Marcomms Ltd) and UCLan.

Over 40 organisations attended the breakfast launch at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston. The event saw the coming together of like minded individuals keen to learn more about the forthcoming Green Deal which is set to go live in October 2012.

This Lancashire initiative is thought to be the first of its kind in the country to support local companies in preparing for Green Deal

The ‘Green Deal’ scheme, the Governement’s CO2 flagship programme for addressing building performance, will tackle fuel poverty and improve the energy performance of British domestic and non domestic properties, creating a high number of new jobs and work opportunities for the construction industry.

Whilst there remain many uncertainties in the detail of the Government’s Green Deal initiative, however, there is high certainty that it will happen and it will change the way refurbishments are funded and carried out.

Those that intend to carry out measures that fall under the ‘Green Deal’ eg insulation and re-newable installations will need to work in accordance with the recently issued standard PAS 2030:2012 “Improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings – specification for installation process, process management and service provision”.

As of October 2012, only accredited Green Deal contractors and installers (those that have achieved the PAS 2030 standard) will be eligible to carry out installations that fall under the Green Deal umbrella.

The Lancashire Green Deal Consortia members will be supported in understanding Green Deal, assisted in attaining PAS 2030, advised on improving green skills at operative and managerial levels, and importantly facilitated in forming consortia of organisations, who, through working together will be able to offer ‘whole house’ solutions and a far more robust Green Deal offering.

Those present and registering interest in the Consortia approach comprised of organisations such as Local Authorities, construction contractors, surveyors, electrical contractors, plumbing and heating firms alongside industry and educational bodies.

If you want to know more about how the Green Deal could affect your organisation or you would like to know more about becoming a member of the Lancashire Green Deal Consortia programme, contact Martin Brown, fairsnape, and chair of the Lancashire Construction Best Practice Club by emailing fairsnape@gmail.co.uk.

You can also keep in touch with progress of the Green Deal Initiative along with other news from the Best Practice Club by following @lcbpc on twitter or on linkedin via the Lancashire Construction group.

Posted via Industry Today. Are you into it? Follow us on Twitter@IndustryToday

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Katie Brown @katiebrowntweets
SMPR (Simply Marcomms Ltd)
Industry Today was developed by Simply Marcomms (SMPR) Online B2B PR services. Visit www.industrytoday.co.uk to publish and distribute news from your Industry. Optimised press releases now appear in Google News.

Is this the Green Deal tipping point?

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Building broke with the following news today (16th Feb), which can only serve to increase the importance of preparing for Green Deal, attaining PAS 2030 and creating Green Deal consortia to deliver.

“Local authorities team up to issue large-scale retrofit schemes initially worth £1.7bn

Billions of pounds worth of retrofitting work is set to be procured by some of England’s largest regional cities in response to the government’s flagship Green Deal scheme.

Councils across the north-east of England, as well as in the Greater Manchester, Leeds and Bristol city regions, Nottingham and West Sussex, are prepping plans to invest more than £300m in the government’s Green Deal over the next few months – a figure that could rise to billions as the schemes are rolled out.

The councils’ plans follow those of Birmingham council, which is currently shortlisting firms for £1.4bn of Green Deal work – bringing the total initial work to £1.7bn.

The push from local authorities to lead on the Green Deal came as retailer Marks & Spencer’s enthusiasm for delivering the scheme appeared to be cooling. Rowland Hill, M&S corporate social responsibility manager, told Building the retailer would not be interested in providing services for the Green Deal “if it goes too far from our core business”.

The government has been keen to involve major retailers in the delivery of the scheme in order to boost its take-up and M&S had previously indicated an interest.

Newcastle council, working with a number of other authorities across the North-east, is set to issue tender documents within the next three months for £80m of work to retrofit 15,000 homes. Leeds council, in partnership with nine local authorities across the Leeds city region, is drawing up plans that could see it leverage up to £75m to start retrofit work in a market it estimates could have a total value of £3.4bn.

Across the Pennines, the 10 councils that comprise Greater Manchester are considering investing £50m in a Green Deal programme, while Nottingham council is planning an £80m Green Deal contract.

Bristol council along with a range of partners is considering investing £34.6m in a programme, while West Sussex council is preparing a business case for a scheme that could see investment in the tens of millions”

Cities plan to invest billions in Green Deal retrofit work Building link

Running an eco friendly home – Infographic

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Interesting infographic courtesy Wickes via http://dailyinfographic.com/

Also interesting to note how many are of these are Green Deal measures and how many behaviour measures, indicating we get greater CO2 and energy reductions through lifestyle choices?

Bhutan’s ecosystem and green wealth is worth nu 700bn a year

As the UK calls on countries to start green accounting, putting value to nature, biodiversity and ecosystems, Sonam Pelden writing recently in Bhutan Business recently gives a fascinating insight into the country’s Gross National Happiness accounting system. Based not only on the market economy but also natural, social, cultural and human wealth, demonstration perhaps that a triple bottom line economy can work at national levels. A demonstration also then of NSR National Social Responsibility?

A new study on Initial Estimate of Value of Ecosystem Services in Bhutan revealed that the country’s ecosystem is worth more than Nu 700bn a year, much higher than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nu 72.3bn a year.

The staggering value of the ecosystem in Bhutan was arrived at to come up with a new national accounting system apart from the GDP. The accounting system, based on Gross National Happiness (GNH), would not only count what market economy produces but also consider natural, social, cultural and human wealth. Benefits are in terms of clean air, healthy soil, recreation and other values.

Recognising the value and importance of forests, not just as market value but as environment and social value is a key component. Something we here in the UK need to heed …

Bhutan’s constitution mandates the country to preserve a minimum of 60% forest coverage for all time to come. Today, Bhutan has total forest coverage of 74.5%.

Sonam and Business Bhutan are on twitter at @sonampelden and @business_bhutan

Pinterest ‘Pins’ to WordPress

#Greendeal and the @LCBPC balanced view

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The following great article written by David at DIEMLtd appeared on his blog (well worth reading, liking and subscribing to by the way)

The impending Green Deal is really whipping some people up into a frenzy, but I’ve been here before. Without naming names and these people should have had some professional responsibility, many years ago I attended a Domestic Energy Assessor (DEA) and Home Information Packs (HIPs) briefing where these persons were saying you could earn £150 per energy assessment and do up to 8 a day.

I knew at the time that these fees were way off the mark and qualified as a DEA expecting a sensible rate, in line with other work I do. Well, lots of people were whipped into a frenzy and bitterly disappointed when there was little work, which was down to the housing market’s problems and the disgraceful management of and dithering with the scheme of the last government. People got trained, then it was delayed by the politicians, but wages needed to be paid. In the meantime, until some more stringent quality approval arrangement were brought in, which actually penalises the ones who do things properly, there were people doing a DEA for as low as £30 (minus about £7 lodgement fee for the report, travel etc which doesn’t leave much profit) and stories about people doing them over the telephone and Google maps.

That wasn’t meant to be a rant, but set the scene to where we are today with Green Deal. As someone thinking of applying to be a assessor, it’s difficult to write a business plan as nobody knows how much certificaiton will cost, or will the market be swamped by people looking for a fast profit, or assessments being done as a loss leader, making the small firm or sole practictioner be cast adrift.

I was very pleased that RICS addressed some key problems of impartiality of assessors and other factors in their consultation response to DECC (available from www.rics.org and a very good read), but it is an unknown and people do feel slightly lost.

Yes there are Green Deal web domains registered, but the quality of content varies greatly and some could be deemed to lack transparancy on some websites in terms of ownership and professional standards.

I’m most encouraged about an initiative launching locally to me in the North West by Lancashire Construction Best Practice Club who are looking at setting up a Green Deal Club which will bring interested parties together at UCLan in Preston on 22 February 2012. More details can be found at:

http://greendealclublcbpc.eventbrite.com

I’m very enthusiatic about this Green Deal Club as it’s not suggesting any immediate answers, but are going to address the unknowns and the solutions as they happen in an open, balanced and honest environment.

The only certainty the club is offering is that Green Deal will happen and Construction organisations wanting to become involved in this, and maybe other eco refurbishment schemes, will need accredited certification to PAS 2030, which the club will be looking into giving support.

So, there are more questions than answers with Green Deal, but I’m convinced that we can seek the answers more effectively working together rathern than in isolation.

Green Deal Thoughts: Is green deal missing the behaviour measure?

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Could Green Deal fail it its core objective of reducing CO2?

Green Deal is a necessary and welcome approach to funding improvement to our built environment fabric, increasing the use of renewable energy, and importantly providing structure to eco-fit work via the awaited PAS 2030 standard.

Yet, could the Green Deal approach be seen as ‘too’ technical and not addressing user and occupant behaviour, increasingly recognised as the key ingredient to CO2 reduction in the built environment.

I was reminded at the recent Lancashire Best Practice Club green deal event that our comfort levels within homes and buildings has increased by around 7 degrees over the last two decades or so.

Those of us who grew up in the 60’s will recall the infamous morning frost on the inside of windows, since when, building insulation has improved, but at the same time we use more and more energy to improve our comfort levels.

There is a danger that, as Green Deal makes home and workplaces more energy efficient, users and occupiers, especially older and vulnerable tenants, will simply take advantage of the increased comfort level and keep their energy levels and costs as before. (And coupled with the Green Deal Loan charge could increase energy bills and repayments) There is also research that suggests what we save on heating bills we spend on other high CO2 emitting gadgets or travel.

Alongside the measures within Green Deal we need user behaviour measures.

Perhaps one of the easiest would be the ability to openly benchmark our homes or offices against a CO2 league table of homes in the street, offices on a business park.

The technology and devices exist, see Pachube, the EPC iphone app I blogged on in 2010 and for example I can now easily and freely track my cycle rides against other riders on the same segment of road, on the Strava cycle app. Why not track my energy use against other homes and premises?

This behaviour approach now needs the promotion alongside Green Deal technical measures. And Green Deal Assessors have a prime opportunity to introduce such measures.

Tenant Behaviour: Five Keys to Meeting Environmental Performance Goals

Read Later Connections: from green deal to stargazing and sustainability

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A collection of articles saved to Instapaper this last week (mostly from Flipboard)

There is creative reading as well as creative writing.— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inspiring landlords to take part in the Green Deal

The UK Government are in the final planning stages of the Green Deal launch, their biggest home improvement scheme since the Second World War. The problems they face, however, are trying to get people involved and inspired enough to invest in the Green Deal.

‘Green’ solar cell made from plants news.cnet.com

A paper published in Scientific Reports today describes an improved method for making electricity-producing “biophotovoltaics” without the sophisticated laboratory equipment previously needed. Researchers said custom-designed chemicals could be mixed with green plants, even grass clippings, to create a photovoltaic material by harnessing photosynthesis.

Four hidden tricks for taking stellar iPhone photos by Sharon Vaknin

I hate to admit it, but my iPhone is always the first thing I reach for when I spot a photo-worthy scene. Sure, I own a digital camera, but my iPhone is always with me, packs an excellent camera, plus I have the option to edit and share photos instantly.

Why I’ve Stopped Pitching the Business Case for Sustainability By Jennifer Woofter

One of the most frequent questions that I get when I talk to people about my job as a sustainability consultant is this: How can I convince [my boss, my company, my crazy aunt, etc.] that sustainability makes good business sense?

Britain’s best stargazing locations telegraph.co.uk

One of the most ravishing sights on Earth should be the night sky – the brightest stars from the billions in our Milky Way, the streak of meteors, planetary neighbours such as Venus and Jupiter, the glow of other galaxies such as Andromeda.

Light pollution, however, means few experience this free glory.

AASHE Interview Series: John Robinson, Executive Director, UBC Sustainability Initiative

a detailed look into the making of a regenerative building, and what makes CIRS a new kind of “green” building.

John Robinson, the Executive Director of the University of British Columbia’s Sustainability Initiative sat down with AASHE to discuss the recently opened Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) building.

Stunning Timelapse Video Shows the True Beauty of Yosemite treehugger.com

There’s nothing like a good timelapse video to showcase the beauty of a place or an event. When that place is Yosemite National Park, it’s a recipe for an especially jaw-dropping few minutes. This video, called “Yosemite HD,” is the product of Project Yosemite, a collaborative project by Sheldon Neill and Colin Delehanty to capture the true beauty of the national park.

Building the Sustainability Brand Within

When we think about sustainability strategy we typically think about a series of initiatives around energy efficiency, waste reduction, and product redesign. But our traditional focus on carbon audits and generating Corporate Sustainability Reports (CSR), while important, emphasizes data collection and does not necessarily engage people in ways that generate synergy and build scale. Few companies capitalize on the opportunities sustainability provides for widespread employee engagement and improving the company culture – in effect, “building the brand within.”

‘Microplastic’ threat to shores bbc.co.uk

Microscopic plastic debris from washing clothes is accumulating in the marine environment and could be entering the food chain, a study has warned. Researchers traced the “microplastic” back to synthetic clothes, which released up to 1,900 tiny fibres per garment every time they were washed. Earlier research showed plastic smaller than 1mm were being eaten by animals and getting into the food chain.

New Building Regs Part L to ‘trigger’ Green Deal

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Like many others the new Part L Building Regs will be on my reading list over the next few days. Others will surely comment in more depth than me, but I am interested in how the new proposals will trigger Green Deal.

Paragraph 85 is interesting.

Will this mean that Local Authorities will have the first option to trigger green deal works when a planning or building regs application is made? This could make LA’s one of the most important Green Deal Providers, a key client / flow of green deal work for installers, and a great opportunity for LA’s to act as Green Deal Assessors. (see my previous blog post on Local Authorities)

Also of note this refers to all buildings, not just domestic, opening the door for Green Deal within the commercial and public non domestic sector?

Interesting times.

Main Proposals to Existing Buildings:

85 …., and more significantly, we are proposing to extend the requirements for ‘consequential improvements’. This is the term used to describe the use of the Building Regulations to trigger a requirement for extra energy efficiency works in a building where other controlled work is already taking place. The reason for proposing these changes now is to recognise the urgency of reducing emissions from the existing building stock, and, in a time of rising energy prices, to make homes and non-domestic buildings easier and cheaper to heat. It would also take advantage of a new market mechanism which has the potential to remove some of the existing barriers to action – the Green Deal.

Update: From DECC Green Deal Bulletin

DCLG yesterday launched their consultation on changes to the Building Regulations regime. This includes a package of potential changes to support the Green Deal. In summary, this includes new requirements for additional ‘consequential’ energy efficiency improvements where work (such as an extension or replacement windows or boilers) is already planned to an existing building and Green Deal funding is available as an option to meet the up-front costs. Given DCLG estimate there are 200,000 extensions per year, 1.4 million boilers replacements and 1 million window replacements, this could be a significant demand driver for the Green Deal.

In detail the proposals are:

From October 2012 (to coincide with the introduction of the Green Deal framework) DCLG are proposing that extensions and increases in habitable space (i.e. loft or integral garage conversions) in existing homes would trigger a requirement to carry out consequential energy efficiency improvements where these were technically, economically and functionally feasible.
From April 2014, the same requirement in existing non-domestic buildings would come into effect.
From April 2014 there is also the possibility of further regulation so that the replacement of a domestic boiler or the replacement of multiple domestic windows would also trigger a requirement for consequential improvements. This would be restricted to a set list of lower cost measures (e.g. draught proofing or loft insulation).

If you wish to consider responding to the consultation, the deadline for comments related to the Green Deal is 27 March 2012. Further information can be found on the DCLG website.

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