Category Archives: comment

FMB Condemn eco towns

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Press Release from FMB, thanks Jane:

Lord Rogers is absolutely right to describe eco town plans as ‘one of the biggest mistakes’ the Government could make, says the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

Brian Berry, Director of External Affairs at the FMB says:

“Eco town plans are nothing short of a Government ‘greenwash’ to hide its outdated housing policy. The reality is that we already know how to create sustainable settlements as demonstrated by the BedZed affordable eco-homes development in south London which has been a shining example to the UK house building industry since 2002. The simple fact is that building brand new ‘eco-towns’ outside existing towns and cities is a really bad idea when there are 675,000 homes in England alone sitting empty and ripe for refitting with green technologies.:

Berry continued:

“Given that demand for housing is right across the UK it makes more sense for every village, town and city to have new housing rather than creating brand new settlements. How green are these new towns are going to be in transport terms? The sad truth is that any new eco-town can only be another car-based satellite suburb. Even with car clubs, cycle lanes and a top-notch bus service, these places are going to be packed out with new roads and, as we all know, new roads lead to more car use – and more carbon emissions.”

time to re-read rethink construction…again

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Following my post yesterday and having had chance to read the transcript of Egans speech on 10 years of rethinking, I am convinced that this is a must read for all in the construction, and indeed in the built environment, to understand What the report set out to do?; What’s going wrong?; and how do we fix it?.

I am sure Egans comments will be picked up and discussed by many in the UK built environment blogging fraternity,  giving a wider view – for example take look at Mel’s comments over at Elemental

Egan cites the successes within the demonstration projects, producing some 20-30% cost savings.  In addition I am aware of and work with projects that have achieved similar benefits that are not demonstration projects. Yet for many the understanding of Egan, the Rethinking Construction report and targets just isn’t there. KPI’s derived from the Egan Report are seen as a nusaince, something to get through for bidding, rather than used or real improvement.  At mosts events and training sessions I lead I have to distribute copies of Rethinking Construction.  (A copy can be downloaded through the documents link on the left hand side panel on this page)

Egan’s recommendation for the future is to … go back and read Rethinking Construction and try and get it right second time around.  The key for me, ever since first reading back in 1998 (although I must admit to providing some input, albeit remotely) was in the title Rethinking Construction.  And I think ever since I have used the Einstein quotation of not being able to solve todays problems with the pattern of thought that created them. Those that have embraced new patterns of thought with in the industry are those who see benefits in winning work, in profit and in working conditions generally.  Those who haven’t still fight for work in competion on lowest cost, (ie on lowest profit) struggle to make margins and profits and generally have a hard time of it.

Egan on productivity:

The activity rate on a building site is still probably I guess no better than 30-odd per cent, and yet 60-odd per cent is quite easily attainable with good pre-planning and having everything available when you want it on the site.

Egan on lowest cost

I think lowest cost tendering (and I think the government is absolutely the culprit here, they were very bad as the main buyer of projects, still buying the education department with lower cost tendering) is absolutely ridiculous.

Egan on collaboartive working:

And the point to remember is that it’s a team that does it – a designer, a construction team a supply chain and so on. Working hard together they can produce a good cost. But they can’t do it if they work separately. And lowest cost tendering starts them off as separate groups.

And on how to fix it:

So, I think if anybody wants to know how to reduce the cost of what they do a lot, they could read the ‘Rethinking Construction’ report all over again. Any of the steps you miss out will cost you. I think if you don’t do all of the steps you’ll fail. But in the mean time, I think there should be the concept of two teams of target costs with plus or minus 15% gained or pained between the client and the industry, and perhaps then we might start seeing some real improvements.

reconnect with nature: return to the outdoors

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Connecting with nature is one of the underlying themes to this blog, (see the welcome panel on the left), but unfortunately that gets lost sometimes with the more day to day built environment stuff. I feel this is important – to experience the outdoors, whether by walking or cycling, camping in the backgarden, under a tarp or bivvy under the stars on a Scottish mountain top. We need that reminder of context and time to think.

I have mentioned Yvon Chouinard many times on this blog, as inspiration for environmental and business approaches. I must also admit to being a fan of the quality Chouinard Equipment, Black Diamond and Patagonia clothing for longer than I care to remember. But it is for environmentalism through the great outdoors and wildness (or should that be wilderness) that Chouinard is best associated. Oh and fly fishing …

I was delighted therefore to receive an email from Sara at Timex Expedition introducing Return to the Outdoors, a joint endeavor with the Conservation Alliance to inspire reconnection with nature and outdoor activity. Conservation Alliance have made a number of short online films, featuring outdoors icons, with hopes of motivating everyone to spend more time outdoors and raise awareness of the Conservation Alliance’s mission to protect outdoor spaces.

The latest in the series features environmentalist and author Yvon Chouinard, founder of Chouinard Equipment, Patagonia and One Percent for the Planet, fly fishing and discussing his love of nature at a secret lake in Argentina.


For inspiration and motivation to get back outdoors, take a look at the first film featuring mountaineer Conrad Anker discussing some of his earliest memories from Wyoming’s Teton Crest, or the second film featuring Steph Davis base-jumping in southern Utah’s canyonlands.

And I should plug here my business outdoor approach – benchmarkwalks – get out of the classroom, the hotel room or conference center and do the improvement stuff on a walk, on a camp or under that tarp.

egan: four out of ten for effort

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As reported on Building today, Sir John Egan Author of Rethinking Construction speaking at a reception at the House of Commons to mark 10 years since the publication of his report said he would rate the construction industry’s performance since as “four out of 10”.

Egan particularly criticised housebuilders for failing to follow the guidelines laid down in his report. “[Housebuilders] have made no cost improvements at all. Absolutely nothing. Also, their productivity processes actually generated much less than half of the demonstration projects.”

“I just don’t think they were trying. In this ‘nice decade’, as the Bank of England called it, they really didn’t try. And now they’ve got their comeuppance. It’s very, very sad.”

Egan said that housebuilders could have made progress with simple productivity and design improvements and more off-site building. “the houses could be costing a great deal less than they do, and there would still be a market.”

Egan went on to say that the government was partly to blame for “not trying” to be a good client in its construction projects.

Summing up the lasting impact of the report, Egan said: “We have to say we’ve got pretty patchy results. And certainly nowhere near the improvement we could have achieved, or that I expected to achieve.”

I would concur with Egan on this one, with some very successful exceptions, the principles and targets set by the Rethinking Construction report have not been understood or adopted let alone met. Many in the industry are not even aware of these targets. It continues to amaze me the lack of knowledge, in some cases of the existence, of the Egan report, across the industry and in education.

With a score of four, questions must surely be asked of the effectiveness of the organisations established, with government funds, to deliver Rethinking Construction.

on the zero carbon house

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Barratt Developments has unveiled what it calls the first zero-carbon house developed by a volume housebuilder, built at the Buildings Research Establishment in Watford, packed with the latest technology, including solar panels, rainwater harvesting and an air source heat pump.

Its new kind of concrete walls and floors, combined with super insulation and triple-glazed windows, means its heat requirement will be minimal as it is airtight. Fresh air is brought into the building through a heat exchanger, which extracts the heat from outgoing stale air and puts it back into the house.

Mark Clare, chief executive of Barratt, said it would not be easy to reduce the cost of the prototype to commercial levels but he was confident it could be done. The important thing, he added, was to build houses that people would buy.

The public and builders still need to be convinced, according to the NHBC Foundation report, and it would seem todays kids – who will buy the homes – Kids dream homes – whose dream homes aren’t high on eco features.

The UK Green Building Council released a report this week defining what a zero-carbon house should be in practice. This is likely to form the basis of the legislation that the government is soon going to work on.

Housebuilders had been unhappy at the costs of going zero carbon and had wanted to be able to invest in off-site renewable energy such as wind turbines that would be cheaper for them. But the government is likely to endorse the GBC proposals that a zero-carbon house should produce almost all its energy on site or very near by in, say, a communal heat and power system.

Barratt plans rolling out its zero-carbon homes on the site of Hanham Hall hospital near Bristol. It will build 200 of them, a third of which will be affordable to lower-income buyers. All will be code level six and will completed in 2011, five years ahead of the deadline.

Source

a guide to zero carbon homes

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Zero carbon homes in 100 words.

The UK Green Building Council released a report this week defining what a zero-carbon house should be in practice. Download from here

Still to read in detail but on first read appears to be a welcomed, considered and helpful guide, with a time-line to help organisations on a route to zero.

There would however appear to be little focus on the construction process, the actual building of zero carbon homes, (an estimated 3-4 years or 11% of the total carbons in the homes life cycle). This is the one issue we desperately need to address, to get buy in from builders. Many of whom may look at this and conclude it has nothing to do with them – other than install or assemble different bits of eco kit and / or materials. For example, construction waste, construction site impacts and considerate contractors scheme – all part of the Code 6 requirements isnt mentioned within the guide. (Site waste management planning is mandatory)

Others, and I know fellow bloggers will, soon comment on the renewable energy and technology aspect of the guide… watch this space…

Finally (for now) I hope that this definition is the same in the soon to be released UK Construction Strategy for Sustainability !!

constructing excellence to restructure?

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Paul at ExtranetEvolution carries the news that Constructing Excellence is to restructure, maybe even downsize to focus on delivering value to membership.

Constructing Excellence has announced an organisational restructure to enable a sharper focus on its core business of delivering value to its membership.

Over the last two years, Constructing Excellence has moved from its original Government grant funding to the leading industry membership body devoted to industry improvement. Throughout this transition period it has also won commercially-funded work and other government commissions. Following a review of the mission and objectives of the organisation, the Board of Constructing Excellence agreed that a clearer focus on membership was needed and that the emphasis of future work must be on our core business of performance measurement and knowledge sharing.

Chairman Bob White said: “At CE, we are committed to improving industry performance through working with our members who come from the entire built environment supply chain including clients. We have become increasingly aware during our transition period that performance measurement and demonstration is the vital ingredient to further industry improvement. However, it would be fair to say that, in our transition from government grant funding, some of the diversification into commercial areas such as ad hoc commissions or consultancy has proved an obstacle to focusing on our core mission.”

Don Ward, Chief Executive of Constructing Excellence, added: “The starting point for our members is a conviction that integration and collaborative working is the foundation for industry change. Measurement and demonstration are how we best add value in this regard, and the restructure will enable us to deliver these better.”

Like Paul I have been involved with Constructing Excellence from Design Build Foundation, Movement for Innovation and BE. Circumstances (not having an employer anymore to pay my time for involvement) mean my involvement is limited to the Collaborative Working Champions group and the local Lancashire Best Practice Club.  I do sense though that the initial aims – based soundly on the Egan report, may have run their day and been lost in a now wider scope of CE, and as Don says – time to refocus on the key themes of collaboration and integration, themes that are essential to the success of all industry initiatives – including sustainability.

We will have to await what the changes will bring – but hope for a stronger CE, a CE to support the grass roots of the industry, to move forward to address the challenges of the the next ten years.

Which ties in nicely with the survey for your views on the next ten years – rethinking constructing ten years after

on greening existing buildings

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Within a month of the release date for the UK Construction Sustainability Strategy ( due 11 June) we see another initiative announcement from government:

a parliamentary enquiry into the greening of existing offices, shops and warehouses, aimed at providing industry leaders and public figures the opportunity to contribute evidence that will go into the final report of the All Party Urban Development Group, which will cover what ministers, city leaders and property owners and occupiers need to do to reduce the environmental impact of commercial property.

Key issues are likely to be the lack of clear guidance over standards and the lack of information on costs and benefits of the various available schemes. It is expected that business leaders will call for clearer definitions and evidence on the financial impact of green agendas.

Attention to existing building stock – domestic and non domestic is urgently required so this enquiry is more than welcome, I just hope when the CSS arrives it joins together all the jigsaw initiative pieces.

whats wrong with this picture

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Welcome to Sherford, the Prince of Wales’s south Devon ecotown for 12,000 people, which has recently been granted planning permission. With a typical car based high street.

I read recently if you take the basic elements of a sustainable community – living, shopping, working, leisure etc and move them outside of the walk zone, then you have to stitch the community back together with the car. And once you have done that, the elements can be anywhere and everywhere, and you no longer have a sustainable community.

second life building

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I have been talking about building within second life recently to a number of people and groups. Without actually experiencing second life it is difficult to grasp how individuals, all working from computers in different countries can work collaboratively to design and construct a building.

The following time lapse video may go some way to help vision how second life can work for designers and builders. One of these avatars could well be the client – making design and function decisions with the design / build team. This approach can be used to show potential clients new build designs prior to real life construction as was the case with Aloft hotels and others. Once completed visitors can walk through and experience the building and feedback comments for improvement.

Wanted – eco home builders for second life project

And if you get the bug to design and build in second life:

Design Build Expo – May 17th @ the Monogram Virtua Convention Center. Enter to win L$20000, publicity and lots of advertising. Get the recognition you deserve and show off your building skills at the Design/Build Expo. Display your builds/services & products.