Noted from the latest Ciria e-newsletter
Standards for the repair of buildings following flooding (C623)
Author(s): S Garvin, J Reid, M Scott
Date: 2005
ISBN (13 digit): 978-0-86017-623-7
ISBN: 0-86017-623-1
Pages: 134
Publisher: CIRIA
CIRIA has made this publication temporarily available as a free download here and reduced the price of printed copies to £40 until 31 August 2007.
Earlier this week the Government launched the draft Government and Industry Sustainable Construction Strategy for conusltation.Reducing on-site waste, using sustainable materials, and increasing skills in the workforce are just some of the 35 or so targets set out for our industry, in a strategy that will undoubtedly have a profound impact on education, design, procurement, construction and facilities management.
The draft strategy’s key areas include:
Stephen Timms, Minister for construction said:
“The threat of global warming is of enormous concern to the community, and it demands change from Government, industry and the public alike.
“Currently the built environment accounts for around 47% of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK (Construction accounts for 1.5%). Not only must the construction industry rise to the challenge of reducing those emissions, it must also consider how it will adapt its products to deal with the impacts of unavoidable climate change.”
Use your chance to comment – download the consultation document
Zero Champion blog has been re-branded and given a face lift, as Zero Hero ** says
It’s part of the development I’m working on which will see this space being integrated more closely to the websites my company publishes – Building, Building Design, Property Week and Building Services Journal
check out the new look at Sustainability Blog
** (sorry couldn’t resist that)
Key to innovating within the built environment is our understanding of the future, future trends and impacts.
Shaping Tomorrow can be described as a futures portal that helps people and organisations better anticipate and respond to change.
Yours truly is a built environment researcher for Shaping Tomorrow, contact me for further information
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As reported on today’s Contract Journal website, WRAP has published plans for a new standard to measure waste neutrality. Further details and a pdf brochure can be downloaded from the WRAP web site Net Waste Method page.
In simple terms, WRAP considers ‘waste neutral’ to be where the value of construction materials wasted is matched by the value of additional reused and recycled content employed on a project. Adoption of this approach promotes consideration of all aspects of materials efficiency: reducing waste, recycling waste that does arise and using materials with recycled content. This is to be achieved with a reduction in overall environmental impact. By focusing on the commercial as well as the environmental costs of waste, it should deliver real benefits for the construction sector.
In particular, it highlights where companies can reduce costs and increase profits through greater efficiency. It also supports the demonstration of Corporate Social Responsibility.
Don Ward, chief executive at Constructing Excellence reported in Contract Journal said:
“We hope that contractors will look carefully at the real opportunity that the Net Waste Method can unlock in terms of improved profitability and reducing the impact on the environment.”
Comment: But are we still missing the point here – real effort need to be applied upstream in the construction process, in the design, specification, procurement and planning stages to eliminate waste in the first place. With recent reports from Defra that 1/3 of all solid materials going to a site are not used on the project, and the UK Green Building Council that construction accounts for 20% of all waste, we really need to focus on the first stage of the waste planning – elimination, then the other stages of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Dispose are not as much an issue, and reduction in costs along with increased profits will be easier to achieve. Take a look at the pre-construction sections of the WRAP construction web pages
The WRAP website contains a wealth of information and should be on all construction / facilities management managers bookmark or favourite lists. (there is a section on Asset Management – within the construction section !)
It is possible to sign up for a construction wrap newsletter, but unfortunately I cannot see any RSS feed on the site, even for the news items
I have added two new links to the blogroll panel to the right.
Elemental – a mine of interesting and informative information and sustainable solutions for the built environment from Mel Starr, a Sustainability Consultant based in Leeds.
Dave’s Diary – Dave Hampton is a carbon coach, committed to reduction of carbons. Read his posts and subscribe to his newsletters. Dave’s background is in the construction and facilities management sectors, (we worked together a few years ago in Be (now Constructing Excellence) trying to raise the image of FM as being the industries sustainabilioty ‘champion’) -so alot of the information from Dave is very relevant. (If nothing else – check out Dave’s purple skies ‘theory’)
I will post items from these two that are relevant to us here in the North West into this weblog – but do check them out from time to time yourself
Fairsnape 