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hello there

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 My fascination with maps (bit of a cartophile) and mash-ups that the Web 2.0  internet now allows, (where would we be without all the google map hacks?), I keep an eye on where readers to isite are based.  To share this – below is a ‘real time’ snap shot list of visitor locations who were on line this afternoon, (well afternoon here),

I guess it ‘s what helps me keep blogging, knowing what the maven (*)  in me wants to share is being picked up, and I hope of use.  Now I need to find a way to get you all to comment now and again !

Lancaster, Blackpool, United Kingdom
Menomonie, Wisconsin, United States
United States
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
Rockford, Illinois, United States
Lancaster, Blackpool, United Kingdom
Fort Worth, Texas, United States
Glen Burnie, Maryland, United States
Downey, California, United States
Hampton In Arden, Solihull, United Kingdom
West Lafayette, Indiana, United States
San Carlos, California, United States
Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Bristol, Bristol, City of, United Kingdom
Rochdale, Rochdale, United Kingdom
Downey, California, United States
Leitrim, Monaghan, Ireland
Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
London, Greater London, United Kingdom
Providence, Rhode Island, United States
Countess Wear, Devon, United Kingdom
Stevenage, Norfolk, United Kingdom
London, Lambeth, United Kingdom
Egham, Slough, United Kingdom
Chelsea, Newham, United Kingdom
Mansfield, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Dallas, Texas, United States
Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
Falls Church, Virginia, United States
London, Lambeth, United Kingdom
Peace Valley, Missouri, United States
Erlangen, Bayern, Germany
Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States
Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States
Riga, Riga, Latvia
Brooklyn, New York, United States
Hedgerley, Slough, United Kingdom
London, Lambeth, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
London, Lambeth, United Kingdom
Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Blackpool, Blackpool, United Kingdom
London, Lambeth, United Kingdom
Star, Pembrokeshire, United Kingdom
Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
Lancaster, Blackpool, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Birstall, Bradford, United Kingdom
London, Lambeth, United Kingdom

* Maven: (extract from wikipedia)

Malcolm Gladwell used it in his book The Tipping Point to describe those who are intense gatherers of information and impressions, and so are often the first to pick up on new or nascent trends.  Gladwell also suggests that mavens may act most effectively when in collaboration with connectors – i.e., those people who have wide network of casual acquaintances by whom they are trusted, often a network that crosses many social boundaries and groups. Connectors can thus easily and widely distribute the advice or insights of a maven.

FMB Building a Greener Britain

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In a week when Ken Livingston and joined forces with Sian Berry (Green Party) against Boris Johnson, in their pursuit for the next London Mayor, warning of his negative and regressive green views and plans, the FMB (Federation of Master Builders) released a press statement calling Boris Johnson’s vision for London housing – “fresh thinking’.

Details of the FMB campaign can be found at Building a Greener Britain

Jayne Curtis at the FMB has provided the following  commentary:

 As you will see from the press release the FMB says: “Boris Johnson, the Conservative Party mayoral candidate for London, hits the nail on the head when he says that fresh thinking is needed to get more homes built, and that the quality of what we build is as important as the quantity, says the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) commenting on
his housing manifesto, ‘Building a Better London’.”

The press release goes on to say: “The question still remains about what to do with London’s existing housing stock? Boris Johnson needs to consider how to make London’s existing housing stock greener and more energy efficient.”

The FMB would also like to point out that it does not favour any mayoral candidate and is keen to work with whoever is elected. The FMB works with all political parties; as you will see from the Building a Greener Britain campaign, which is endorsed by David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party, and Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party.

The Building a Greener Britain campaign is focusing on refurbishment and how to reduce carbon emissions in the built environment. The FMB has commissioned research which is being conducted by the Low Carbon Futures team at the Oxford University Environmental Change Institute and is being lead by Gavin Killip, one of the authors of the 40% House report, and Dr Nick Eyre, former Director of Strategy at the Energy Saving Trust.

The vast majority of buildings that are with us now will be around in 2050, the date when the Government hopes to have lowered carbon emissions by 80%, with buildings contributing 47% of the UK’s total carbon emissions it is therefore vital that something is done to look at how we can reduce carbon emissions from the existing building stock.

With three quarters of FMB members carrying out RMI work on existing buildings, the FMB has a key role to play in helping the Government achieve its target to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. The ground breaking research will present a series of practical policy recommendations aimed at government which will help encourage
householders to make their homes greener. In order to help the government the FMB strongly believes that builders should play a full and constructive role in building the new greener Britain.

a real school for the future – without eco-bling

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Education Guardian reports today on the development of Acharacle School on the Ardnamurchan peninsula in Scotland.  The report by Tariq Tahir, should make ‘essential ‘ reading for those involved in school design, construction and in community assets. In addition the school childrens blog ‘they are building outside our class‘ illustrates how construction can be a real educational benefit.  One to RSS and watch develop.

And with no eco-bling, no greenwash, this is sustainable development…

The design, illustrating a sustainable future, for two or three generations is based on the use of mass-timber.  Architect Howard Liddel from Gaia comments … “the modern school does what it says on the tin but what it has on the tin is a skull and crossbones, and these are toxic fumes. Modern buildings have huge amounts of formaldehyde coming out of the floor coverings, seat coverings, the walls run with condensation.”

“What this project is doing is ticking a lot of boxes in a very subtle manner. There’s no covering the building in ‘eco-bling’ – the gimmicks people put on to make buildings green. It’s really quite liberating for an architect.”

He promised that the new building would provide a much healthier working environment for the staff and 50-odd pupils. “We have an immense problem with toxic materials in buildings – we have 55,000 chemicals we use in building and only 3% of them have been tested for their effects on humans.

“The timber is very good at dealing with indoor moisture passively. In other words, you don’t need a ventilation system when you’ve actually got a material that’s dealing with the moisture. Continue reading →

ISO9001:2008 … what will the changes mean?

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Shaun over at Capable People flagged up the changes to ISO 9001 on his blog over the weekend … Ah, here’s the inside information you’ve all been waiting for.

The changes are so not dramatic that the BSi are giving you … approximately one year after its publication to make any updates. There should not be any major disruption to your organization or your registration and your client manager will guide you through the process.

Sorry, but if the changes are minor, under whelming and very small, mainly relating to clarification, then why give a year to update, and why the need of a client manager to guide you? Is this a case of quality-wash? (We have white and green wash so what colour would quality wash be?)

Without ISO9001 moving forward in line with world of quality, which is now talking in terms of ‘experience’ rather than excellence, or just quality, can the standard remain at the core of the quality management systems paradigm? Or is its day over, and if so what will replace it?

maybe ISO 9004 …

ISO 9004 will undergo a more significant revision but not until end of 2009. According to the BSi the proposed updates focus on the economic sustainability of an organisation. The current suggested title is “Managing for sustainable success – a quality management approach.”

The cynic in me jumps at the sustainable success in the title – surely this will confuse with sustainability in the CSR, triple bottom line sense. Maybe thats the intention – time will tell – but we have to wait over a year to find out.

Meanwhile …

on learning from eco-challenges …

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What can we learn from the fact that bidders are pulling out of the next carbon-challenge project at Peterborough? (Shortlisted bidders flee from EP flagship project)

Could it be English Partnerships are using a traditional, cost based procurement route? Even with PQQ and other ability or capability ‘gates’ selection may still be based on cost. This could lead to the all too familiar high price of low cost syndrome, but as long as cost remains the main selection paradigm we are not going to think differently about sustainability, carbon zero, social responsibility and all things green.

What an opportunity we are missing. Eco challenge projects must do the same for our industry as Building Down Barriers did for partnering, collaboration and supply chain management a decade or so ago.

Why cannot the builders, designers and others be selected on improvement criteria (- ability and solutions in reducing carbons to zero, in design and in the construction process) and of improvement in cost – yes reducing cost at the same time through waste and improvement initiatives.

The oft quoted 30% waste (time, materials, energy, value, effort) in construction could more than pay for carbon zero and sustainability improvements.

We have a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate and to learn that we can get close to zero carbon, level 6 and all that without adding costs to the overall project – if combined with basic and proven improvement approaches.

The alternative? continue with business as usual from a construction perspective, with the exception of integrating some natty designs and product solutions, and continue to moan about the costs …

on building school futures …

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school things on my radar this weekend…

In May the Lancashire Construction Best Practice Club will be held at Devonshire School, Blackpool an exemplar school that is a significant step forward in the design of learning environments for young children. Details of the event and site visit will be posted on the Events pages very soon

but … Building schools for the future is far too slow …. says the the NASUWT

Almost half of all teachers work in schools where water drips from the ceilings and windows do not fit properly, a study by the NASUWT concludes. A third complained of damp and slippery corridors, while one in five said lighting was poorly maintained. Most said they had to work in excessively hot or cold conditions and 30 per cent did not have easy access to drinking water.

Source: Scandal of Britain’s Crumbling Schools

What happened when Bright Green, an innovative green recruitment organisation brought together leaders from Britain’s top construction firms, sustainability consultancies, schools think-tanks with Kit Rogers, a teacher at Priestlands Secondary School, Hampshire, to discuss sustainability issues in schools?

Source: The Green School Dinner

blue is the colour…

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For those who have asked “why blue” for the Architecture 2030 No Coal campaign, here is the response from Peter over at BYOBlue:

Blue is for clear, clean skies without coal!

The genesis of this theme also comes from the Earth Day Network “Sky Petition” which Architecture 2030 collaborated on, demanding that (the US Congress):

1. Impose an immediate moratorium on the building of all new conventional coal-fired power plants, and require a phase out of 30 percent of existing coal plants by 2030.

2. Require that all utilities generate 30 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030.

3. Require that all new buildings, renovations and developments immediately reduce fossil-fuel energy consumption by 50 percent, and that all new buildings become ‘carbon neutral’ by 2030.

4. Protect the poor and middle class from unfairly bearing the cost of solving the climate crisis.

(thanks Peter)

Meanwhile here in the UK, in Sundays Observer Climate Change special edited by Thom Yorke of Radiohead

  • Drax coal power station emits more CO2 than the 100 least industrialised countries – combined – (22.8 million tonnes annually)
  • Burning fossil fuels for electricity contributed one quarter of the worlds CO2 emissions
  • It was the closure of coal mines that enabled Britain to meet Kyoto reduction pledges
  • There is enough CO2 in coal to take us far beyond the danger level of creating a different planet ( James Hansen, Nasa)

Consider all this in the context of the built environment – the demand it places on energy from coal powered stations and the energy it wastes through poor design, construction, maintenance and the slow speed in which we seem to be moving to low carbon thinking …

is the code for sustainable homes working

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Building Design asks the question is the code working and carries two viewpoints. Andy von Bradsky sees it as credible tool that will evolve and allow us to lead the field in zero carbon futures, whereas Mark Brinkley sees it as a graveyard of intentions.

The article finishes with a what do you think prompt…

I couldn’t resist replying, and include my post to that page below

Code level 6 is, as I have mentioned more than once, the wrong tool for the wrong job.

Why?

It doesn’t pick up on the wider sustainable communities issues, the triple bottom line and CSR issues that contribute to sustainable homes/developments, ie the eco-home within the context of an eco-place.

More importantly it does not address the construction process as Mark illustrates, allowing business as usual for the builders, other than integrating or assembly new bits of building kit. (I was not surprised to hear that the Hanham Hall project will not be monitoring or attempting to improve the carbon footprint of the construction process)

I also question whether we (the UK) are indeed leading the field in zero carbon futures. Are we not just waiting to be led by legislation, and then complaining when its too hard, too expensive, too different ? (as illustrated by bidders pulling out of the next eco-challenge project at Peterborough). I sense elsewhere they are just getting on and doing it – because it makes good sense, commercially, for image, and for the planet.

Time for a re-think on this one. But then thats what targets are for – to learn and improve.

Postscript:

Jonathan Poritt’s view point on this is well worth a read – as he says, Continue reading →

coal – a great green scam?

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Continuing the coal theme (seam?) … for an astute insight to the coal issue in the UK read George Monbiot’s article Burnt Out, on his blog and published in todays Guardian.

Hanham Hall … eco-village

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At the weekend I visited the Hanham Hall exhibition, set up to inform local residents of the development. A nice chat with the project lead gave a nice feeling that this is an exciting project, yet I still have a feeling that this is not quite the direction to go…

Focus seems to be on the Code Level 6 – zero carbon homes, rather than on the wider sustainable communities. Where will people shop, where will they send their children to school and how will they get to work, were questions raised by friends.

Although it was accepted this particular design may not be the one we use in 2016 to acheive level 6, and there will be a degree of learning on the project for future projects, the designs are based on the Chorley homes technology – so I hope the comments made by CarbonLimited are taken into account.

I was surprised to hear that carbon footprints are not an issue, with no focus on reducing carbons in the construction or production of the development. So does this mean business as usual for the house builder – other than integrating a different kit of eco -materials and technologies? If so – is this a greenwash sin?

My biggest moan to the Hanham Hall team though – and a pet hate of the internet is … advertised websites that are Continue reading →