Category Archives: green buildings

Fringe climate events at conservative conference, Blackpool

Leave a reply

There is an impressive series of fringe events being organised by Climate Clinic along side the conference next week in Blackpool. Of note is the Ask an Architect event on Monday and Tuesday, hosted by the RIBA, billed as

Get advice from some of Britain’s best green architects on creating new, environmentally friendly buildings or improving the energy performance of existing buildings. Understand the science of climate change and get advice from the science experts – Met Office Sustainable Energy Advice – learn about easy steps you can take to be more energy efficient – Energy Saving Trust

I am hoping to get to some of these events and will feedback through here.

Updated -comments here: conservatives, blackpool and the built environment

Details at Climate Clinic

Greenwash buildings

Leave a reply

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.

building greener roofs

Leave a reply

This seems to be the buzz at the moment in web news and blogs.

CIRIA have just published their guide Building Greener:

Green roofs and walls are widely used in many countries to provide a range of benefits for the built environment. Numerous studies have been carried out to monitor and assess the effectiveness of green roofs and green walls in the areas of biodiversity, stormwater management and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Meanwhile HOK Green BIM have posted a directory of Green Roofs, including  Carlisle Roofing here in the NW and the informative  Green Roof Directory

Tory green and carbon views …

Leave a reply

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  

zero carbon Britain ??

Leave a reply

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?

Lib Dems view on low carbon housing

Leave a reply

In what will most likely be the first of many reports, papers and manifestos as we approach conference season and elections, the Lib Dems have set out their vision of a zero-carbon Britain by 2050 when it published the most ambitious blueprint for climate change reform ever produced by a mainstream political party. (Guardian article here)

On housing the blueprint covers

Introducing ‘green mortgages’ to enable people to make their homes more energy efficient. (see previous isite post)

Cut carbon emissions from new buildings by 95 per cent compared with our existing housing stock by ensuring that all new homes have to  be built to the GreenHouse standard no later than 2011

Ensure that the housing stock is completely updated by the year 2050.

Ambitious maybe but the pattern has been set for the other political parties to follow or address.

Lib Dem Zero Carbon Britain from here

the real cost of green building?

Leave a reply

A recent report identified high levels of awareness of the issue of sustainable building but low levels of specific knowledge and involvement. It identified three key barriers to addressing energy efficiency in buildings

• Lack of information about building energy use and costs
• Lack of leadership from professionals and business people in the industry
• Lack of know-how and experience as too few professionals have been involved in sustainable building work.

Phil Clarke reported in Building earlier this week:

Study finds professionals misjudging sustainable budgets and underestimating carbon footprint of buildings

Construction and property professionals are overestimating green construction costs by 300%, a new survey has found.

Source:

Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Business Realities and Opportunities (PDF; 1.9 MB)
Source: World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
From their press release:

Survey finds green costs overestimated by 300% and a need to foster zero net energy construction. Key players in real estate and construction misjudge the costs and benefits of “green” buildings, creating a major barrier to more energy efficiency in the building sector, a new study by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) reports.

Respondents to a 1400 person global survey estimated the additional cost of building green at 17 percent above conventional construction, more than triple the true cost difference of about 5 percent. At the same time, survey respondents put greenhouse gas emissions by buildings at 19 percent of world total, while the actual number of 40 percent is double this.

Comment

Of interest within the report, after a quick scan are:

The EEB vision is a world in which buildings consume zero net energy

Use less, make more, share There are three key elements to achieving zero net energy:
• Use less energy
• Make more energy (locally)
• Share surplus energy (through an intelligent grid)

An Integrated Design Process (IDP) involving all participants in the early design phase of the project.

Behavioral, organizational and financial approaches to overcome barriers:

Encourage interdependence by adopting holistic, integrated approaches among the stakeholders that assure a shared responsibility and accountability toward improved energy performance in buildings and their communitiesMake energy more valued by those involved in the development, operation and use of buildings

Transform behavior by educating and motivating the professionals involved in building transactions to alter their course toward improved energy efficiency in buildings.

at last … low cost solar power that works in the (Welsh) rain…

Leave a reply

Excellent article in today’s Guardian reports on the innovative approaches being taken by G24 Innovations in Cardiff to revolutionise solar power panels.

This is just the innovation that the drive towards green, self generated energy for the built environment needs.

… those behind the Welsh operation think they may have made a crucial breakthrough. Their solar cell works in a different way from most, and is not based on silicon – the expensive raw material for conventional solar cells. G24 Innovations (G24i), the company making the new cells, says it can produce and sell them for about a fifth of the price of silicon-based versions. At present, it makes only small-scale chargers for equipment such as mobile phones and MP3 players. But it says larger panels could follow – large enough to replace polluting fossil fuels by generating electricity for large buildings.

and the applications could be wide ranging, with many safety related uses on building sites…

Design students have also been involved with the development process. Earlier this year, the company ran a competition with 45 product design students at St Martin’s college of art and design in London, who were asked to think up new uses for the Cardiff solar cells. The winning entries include portable safety lights mounted on life buoys, and lamps to mark scaffolding and hoardings around roadworks and on building sites. They also featured solar-powered security lights, fire exit signs, and window blinds, which could cut electricity use.

and addresses the social, global need for energy

The first commercial uses are likely to be in the developing world, where access to electricity is difficult. The firm is working with mobile phone companies including Nokia and Motorola to test whether the G24i cells could charge handsets in rural Africa. For £6-£8, he says, the company can supply a flexible strip of solar cells that can produce 0.4 to 0.5W of power. It’s a relatively meagre output, but more than enough for at least 10 minutes of phone calls a day. And that, says Betzel, can make a big difference. “Over two billion people live without access to energy. This isn’t about providing expensive, Rolls Royce- quality solutions. It’s about improving their quality of life.” Similar solar chargers made of silicon cost about £30.

Affordable Zero Carbon Homes…

Leave a reply

The Cooperative Bank has teamed up with Living Space 21 to provide a new green solution to housing.  From the press release (7th August):

Co-operative Bank sponsors ground breaking green housing initiative

Tackling climate change and providing affordable housing for first time buyers are the biggest challenges facing the British housing market today. With this is mind; the Cooperative Bank has teamed up with Living Space 21, a new housing developer, to offer homes that are not only eco-friendly but, also within reach of those starting out on the property ladder.

This exciting new partnership directly addresses the Government’s promise to increase the UK’s house-building programme by 20%, which would provide an additional 3 million homes by 2020. Furthermore, with the Housing Green Paper 2007 setting targets to reduce property carbon emissions by 25% by 2010, these new homes, which have inbuilt eco features will be well placed to help meet this objective.

The eco benefits of these homes include timber frames, sourced from sustainable forests, rain water capture and recycling, plus sloped roofs which maximise solar efficiency. However, these features do not in any way comprise the quality or design of the build. The contemporary apartments have been designed by Living Space 21 and their pioneering building techniques enable them to be tailored to almost any location, leaving the lightest environmental footprint possible for the price.

Fit for people planet and purpose

Leave a reply

A recent post to the worldchanging site (Non Energy Benefits …in Buildings) reminds us of the other, arguably more important, benefits that arise from improved environmental performance of our building and built environment.   It has long been recognised that improved envionments lead to improved performance, comfort, health and well being, yet some how this has been lost in our head-on rush to address carbon, carbon and more carbons.

There is always the need to balance our approaches, ensuring a balanced triple bottom line – ie that of environmental, social and economics, or as was in common use a few years back, fit for people, planet and purpose.  (I do still like the Patrick Geddes triptych of Folk, Place and Work, he agrued amongst other issues, that all design and particulary planning should benefit folk, place and work in equal measures)