Just catching up on some of the material from the Think07 event.
Tesco publicity material was contained on a USB stick, which contained an informative video explaining there approach to sustainable stores. For an understanding of where the retail clients in the industry are heading take a look at their website thinkonceagain. Their green flagship store is Tesco, Wick, where they claim to have halved the carbon footprint.
A few recent issues have reinforced my view we may be slowly replacing environmental impact with carbon impact. Whilst carbon management is a good focus on our environmental impact, and a relatively easy one to calculate, we still need to keep a balance on our environmental impact.
A good balance is in the triptych from Patrick Geddes – being fit for Planet, for People and Purpose
It is good therefore to see CABE’s report focusing on their ecological footprint as well as their carbon footprint. .
As we see more and more clients looking for evidence of environmental impact management and evidence in procurement, for example on construction transport miles, this report is well worth reading for its background in calculating footprints, in addition to CABE’s own footprint and action plans.
And on a wider, global scale we see reports in the media of the devastation of forestry and food land around the world in a rush to produce bio-fuels for energy or transport including bio-materials for our industry.
A number of people have suggested I put the Think top ten actions in here as well as the link to the Think 07. Here they are again – what do we make of them ( more to the point what will John Prescott make of them!) Maybe we use these as the agenda for our question time event in September.
1.To draw up SMART targets for the reduction of carbon emissions, waste & water and to protect biodiversity.
2. To develop industry-wide, consistent carbon modelling and measurement tools for existing and new buildings to achieve these targets.
3. To halve the amount of construction waste taken to landfill every two years.
4. To devise a more effective renewable energy strategy, including district-wide strategies.
5. To encourage landlords and occupiers to share and publish data on buildings’ energy consumption, with the aim of collectively reducing emissions.
6. To adopt operational energy labelling certificates across all buildings.
7. For landlords to adopt a new code on leases which discourages the reinstatement of properties to their original state.
8. To promote the use of life cycle analysis, including embedded and operational carbon emissions.
9. Every building to have a master ‘off’ switch.
10. To encourage the adoption across the construction and property industries of the May Day commitment to action.
Picked this up from Mel Starrs at Elemental this morning.
Property week have made their news and searchable database free on line at propertyweek.com As Property Week say:
“News, gossip and data are ‘must haves’ for property people the world over. Today Property Week brings you all three every day FREE through our new website”
This follows on from Building who have adopted a similar approach in moving away from subscription for on line publishing. Lets hope many others follow
Powered by ScribeFire.
Fairsnape 