Category Archives: News

getting to zero

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One of the excellent articles on the new Building Sustainability site is The Year to Zero.  putting many of the important targets and objectives being set for our industry in a chronoligical count down to carbon zero, neutral or ‘sustainability’. (or wherever its is deemed we need to be)
The article, in conjunction with Fulcron Consultaing will be updated as and when more targets are set, so definelty one to watch.

I use a similar approach, looking into the ‘planned future’ for our sector, helping organisations set their own strategies and targets, on green and other related topics.  How do your business or improvement plans map onto this timeline?  Will you be ahead of the game, prepared, or lagging and playing catchup? Do you even have a route-map to get you there?

New building sustainability site launch

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Work has kept me from blogging for the last week or so … plenty to catch up with though.

First up is the welcome for Phil’s (he blogs at sustainability blog) new  Building Sustainability site project that launched this week.

Looks good Phil. One to bookmark, RSS etc

“Anatomy of a disaster” to reopen

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I note that the Clissold Leisure Centre is to re-open next month .  It was described, when it closed in 2003, a year after it opened as a ‘landmark Millennium project’, as the wrong building in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The building became a case study in bad practice, in focusing on the building rather than the users needs, (on the 1, rather than the 5, or 200, if you follow the 1:5:200 concept), It has been used by many quality and technical managers across the country as a lessons learnt case study, and to reinforce the 1:5:200 thinking of relationships between design, construction, fm and (business) costs.

The project attracted a huge amount of industry,political and local – social – attention, including one of the early reports in the Guardian by Jonathan Clancy – Anatomy of Disaster:

Clissold leisure centre’s catalogue of problems is a frightening read. A local activist group, called Not the Clissold Leisure Centre, lists no fewer than 59 defects on its website. These include a “changing village”, which Orthodox Jews and Muslim women would be unable to use. The children’s changing areas, moreover, were located next to two-metre deep water. Shower drains have blocked. Dirty water from showers flowed into the pools. Tiles around these were slippery.

Yet these are relatively minor complaints compared with defects number 32, “roof leaking across whole centre”, 33, “roof sweating with condensation”, 34, “glass walls around pools retain fetid water”, 40, “inadequate ventilation to both pool areas”, 56, “significant cracking in squash-court walls” and, last and by no means least, 59, “water damage to sports-hall floor causing warping and lifting at less than 12 months, with injuries sustained by users.”

And, now ….

It reopens with a new toddler pool, improved disability access, reception area and new office space. Contractor Wates has installed a new roof, with a vapour control layer to prevent condensation, and new pool floors. The total cost of the centre, originally budgeted at £21 million, has risen to £45 million. bd online website

Ouch.

MIT, Gehry and more questions

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Blogs and the Media are awash with news and comments of MIT sueing Gehry for an ‘unbuildable design’ at the MIT Stata Center in Cambridge, Boston. (The Guardian, Building etc)
I find this fascinating and a reminder of the failures and flaws in the more traditional (or historical – traditional sounds too craft, and heritage-like), un-collaborative,  approach to construction.  The best reporting is in the Boston Globe,  which provides the contractors (Skanksa) view as well.  (Boston being an old home of mine, I try to keep informed through the Globe)  And its very illuminating.

“This is not a construction issue, never has been,” said Paul Hewins, executive vice president and area general manager of Skanska USA. He said Gehry rejected Skanska’s formal request to create a design that included soft joints and a drainage system in the amphitheater, and “we were told to proceed with the original design.”

After the amphitheater began cracking and flooding, Skanska spent “a few hundred thousand dollars” trying to resolve the problems, but, he said, “it was difficult to make the original design work.”

It also delves deeper, citing  former Boston University president John Silber, who said “It really is a disaster,” and sharply criticizes the Stata Center’s design in a new book, “Architecture of the Absurd: How ‘Genius’ Disfigured a Practical Art.”  A book that questions why the Guggenheim is always covered in scaffolding? Why the random slashes on the exterior of Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum, supposed to represent Berlin locations where pre-war Jews flourished, reappear, for no apparent reason, on his Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto? Or why Frank Gehry’s Strata Center, designed for MIT’s top-secret Cryptography Unit, has transparent glass walls? Not to mention why, for $442 per square foot, it doesn’t keep out the rain?

Ouch.

He goes on … and asks all the questions that critics dare not. He challenges architects to derive creative satisfaction from meeting their clients’ practical needs. He appeals to the reasonable public to stop supporting overpriced architecture. And most of all, he calls for responsible clients to tell the emperors of our skylines that their pretensions cannot hide the naked absurdity of their designs

Time to order a copy !

Terminator meets Flushed Away

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Noted on the USA Building Design + Construction Network website recently:

Governor Schwarzenegger recently signed into law Assembly Bill (AB) No. 715, supported by the Plumbing Manufacturers Institute (PMI), that encourages and provides for the gradual conversion to higher efficiency toilets and urinals in California.

Many existing toilets average 1.6 gallons per flush.  High efficiency toilets only use 1.28 gallons per flush, or less; while high efficiency urinals use one-half gallon per flush, or less.  Under the new law, plumbing manufacturers have committed to producing at least half of their toilet models sold in California to be high efficiency by 2010.  By 2014, all toilets and urinals sold in the state will be high efficiency models.  The new high efficiency toilet and urinals will use less water, helping alleviate demands on water agencies in California.

This illustrates the increasingly acute water problems in many areas of the world.

Construction Carbon Calculator – 3

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National fame for isite

– the isite post on the Environment Agency calculator has been picked up by Building.

Mixed Media Messages

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A mixed bag in the media over the weekend and today…

The Sunday Times launched a four week series on what promises answers to the global warming problems, which seems to be to

wait for Rogers to complete cities of the future,
capture carbons from the air,
geo-engineer solutions in the oceans,
sprinkling iron ocean surfaces , oh,
and build homes of the future that resemble Lost In Space visions of the future 1970’s style

    Meanwhile the Observer investigated 5 carbon calculators – and revealed that a personal footprint can vary from 2.3 tonnes to 28 tonnes – no surprises there!

    And then today in the Guardian – a Guardian survey shows only 48 of the top 100 companies trading on the UK stock exchange have published a plan to address and reduce their carbon emissions and a significant minority refuse even to reveal their carbon footprint. This report contains and interesting comment form Tesco’s Leahy -who predicts that by working with consumers, “we can turn the green movement into a mass movement”.

    Are we about to see a Tescos branded green movement?

    Contraction and Convergence – UK Gov response

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    I recently participated in an online petition to 10 Downing St on the governments response to C and C.  The response here is well worth a read, covering C and C and personal; carbon trading, the climate bill and other carbon iniatives.

    Cant help thinking there is some political greenwashing here.

    Incidentally the petition was organised through Facebook and blogs – demonstrating the emerging recognition and influence these new social networks have.

    Construction carbon calculator – no more excuses…

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    As mentioned before the topic with the highest hits and searches here on isite is a carbon calculator for the construction process.

    I have been reviewing the calculator from the Environment Agency which come close, very close, to removing any excuses for not knowing the construction process carbon footprint, in setting a stake in the ground as a measure for improvement and in benchmarking across sites, companies and clients to drive real improvement.

    In my opinion the positive points are:

    • written by a major client of the built environment for the built environment
    • not linked to carbon offset programmes (a big tick !)
    • based on spreadsheet (Excel) with visibility of data used in calculation.
    • appears easy to use with guidance, references and further reading
    • ‘open source’ in that the EA encourage its use by others
    • provides a great basis for carbon footprint benchmarking (watch this space!)
    • ability to add activities and materials to the base set up
    • deals with personal transport in a sensible and straightforward manner

    The only (very) minor concern is the detail required to complete fully ( but then who said carbon diets were easy! and it would be good to see this tool as part of all site processes) and the materials element could be double counted – in the construction process footprint and the building footprint.

    The EA will use the calculator on all of their projects from November

    Read the Edie news link here

    Greenwashed again

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    A recent survey by Chatsworth Communications of the FTSE 100 green ‘claims’ reveals that top organisations are going green to protect brand and image rather than any concern for the environment.  Over 1200 ‘opinion formers’ from across the UK were asked views on the FTSE 100 green claims as part of the Green Winners and Green Washers Survey

    Of course this wouldn’t be the case for organisations within the built environment sector … would it?

    From the surveys press release

    The results reveal increasing cynicism as to whether UK business is leading on environmental  issues out of a genuine desire to protect the environment or if this is just greenwash aimed at creating an eco-friendly corporate image.

    • The main motivation for UK companies to adopt green policies is to protect their reputation (27%) followed by consumer pressure (20%) and good business sense (18%)
    • Only 1% believe genuine concern for the environment is the key driver for UK companies to adopt green policies
    • Marks & Spencer (45%) and HSBC voted the top green winners – the companies making
    the most genuine green effort
    • BP, Tesco and British Airways considered to be most guilty of ‘greenwash’ by respondents
    • BP, Tesco and Marks & Spencer have the highest profile and most effective green publicity campaigns in terms of coverage
    • Majority of respondents (75%) believe it is better for big business to own up where they are not green and show willing to make any changes

    Nick Murray-Leslie, Director, Chatsworth Communications comments: “The views of the people polled influence millions of consumers across the UK, who will ultimately vote with the purchasing decisions they make.

    (original lead from Edie)