Category Archives: sustainability

ecological cities

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Now the Eco City World Summit 2008 has concluded there is a rich source of live blog reports, reviews and videos over at the Eco City blog.   Go view and mine the collective source of global views on the future of cities

If you take away one thing from the summit : the ecological city message is summed up in the BBC Interview on the World service with Richard Register.

Other recommendations:

worldchanging ecocity highlights

Holly Pearson live blogged:  An incredible assemblage of the world’s brightest minds that are working to build greener cities and towns gathered for three and a half days of presentations, discussions, city tours, arts & culture, and celebration. As an urban planner for whom the sustainable cities movement is not only a passion but also a raison d’etre, professionally speaking, I found the conference to be nothing short of mind-blowing.

A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil

documentary focusing on innovations in transportation, recycling, social benefits including affordable housing, seasonal parks, and the processes that transformed Curitiba into one of the most livable cities in the world.

Brent Toderian – City of Vancouver’s Director of City Planning,  many projects related to the 2010 Winter Olympics, and visioning/CityPlans, including the new “EcoDensity” – the most livable city in the world, removing car facilities from the city, through a travel plan than favours walking.

Jaime Lerner Key Note

Facilities Management now in Second Life

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The inaugural Centre for Facilities Management Second Life (SL) seminar took place today, Wednesday April 2nd 2008. The seminar, facilitated by Martin Brown, (aka Brand Woodin in SL) focused on Sustainable FM, but also referred to the developing research area of Community-based FM which looks at FM outside of the traditional boundaries and organisational settings and suggests the FM has a role to play in community (in its broadest sense) settings also.

By putting FM into context the debate began to consider the effect FM has or could have on the environment. It led to debating issues such as transition towns (see Totnes as an example) – what role does FM have?; and building consumption -v- building production – to what extent is this about FM usability agenda or is it just an issue for the construction community?

The debate also led to discussion about developing a wider definition of FM which encompasses the sustainability agenda and could be accommodated by the wider construction community. Such a definition could look at how FM could be a means to facilitate understanding about the environment, about communities and about facilities. Debate then ensued as to what the tag line for this could be!

Wednesday April 9th 2008 was the second Centre for Facilities Management SL event. The seminar was delivered by Helsinki Institute of Technology by Nils Gersberg (aka Nils Lowenstark in SL) and looked at Pro-work research.

Pro-work is a relatively new research concept and focuses on how organisations and teams in organisations work together, and how they develop knowledge. The debate considered how different types of organisations – for example those that use hot-desking, those that employers freelancers / contract staff, those requiring staff to come to the office or work from home – develop their strategies for team collaboration. Additionally the effect dispersed working -v- office based working has on FM was also considered, and this debate connected back to the previous weeks debate on sustainability considerations as well as wider definition and working practices of FM.

Thanks to Eleanor Jackson for the above text ( aka Salfordfm Destiny in SL)

Centre for Facilities Management Second Life has a meeting place presence in Second Life on the Manchester UK sim.  Drop by and say hello and participate within our debates.

Email for further information on CFM in SL or future meetings.

Reducing the environmental impact of existing non-domestic buildings

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Addressing the existing uk building stock and in particular non domestic stock is mush talked about – but unlike housing not too much action as yet.

The All Party Urban Development Group is undertaking its latest inquiry, exploring ways to reduce the environmental impact of existing non-domestic buildings that are concentrated in our city centres and business districts. It will examine:

  • improving energy efficiency of existing urban buildings;
  • barriers to reducing emissions from urban buildings; and
  • the policy initiatives needed – including regulation, fiscal incentives, penalties and educational campaigns – to address these barriers effectively

More talk – or start of something with teeth?

There is also a Call for Evidence.

… on st georges day

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Today being St Georges day I thought some typically english and traditional post would be in order, but that has relevance to our sector and the themes of sustainability.

I recently  heard a reading of Elliots East Coker, which may be a troubled peice of literature but the opening few lines stuck in my head:

In my beginning is my end. In succession
Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,
Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place
Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.
Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,
Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth
Which is already flesh, fur and faeces,
Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.
Houses live and die: there is a time for building
And a time for living and for generation
And a time for the wind to break the loosened pane
And to shake the wainscot where the field-mouse trots
And to shake the tattered arras woven with a silent motto

Simon Jenkins, along with commentors  on Comment is Free, has interesting views on this peice, not least on East Coker in Somerset  “Here the southern tip of England’s great limestone scar peters out round the rolling flanks of Ham Hill, whose stone is the colour of biscuit sprinkled with gold, able to trap sunlight in day and release it at dusk. Ham is the loveliest stone in England, rendering the Somerset/Dorset borders a magic place hovering at the end of the rainbow. The rainbow touches in particular the walls of East Coker”

new sustainability forum

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I really should promote Phil’s new sustainability forum at Building.  There is a danger of being awash with forums and blogs and comments, but the caliber of those registered so far gives this forum much promise.

Now trying to sort out the RSS feed from the forum into my igoogle homepage, and wondering how long before twittering tweets appear within the sustainability question section.

Good luck Phil and team …

News from the SD research network

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News from the SD research network

CABE ‘Climate Change Festival’
31st May – 8th June 2008; Birmingham
CABE is joining forces with Birmingham City Council to host the world’s first climate change festival to link climate change with urban planning and design. The Festival aims to illustrate how a successful planning response to climate change can transform the quality of life for people working and living in the city, and to stimulate fresh thinking about low carbon cities. Events will include a range of community-based projects, a green day for schools, a hothouse event for professionals working in the built environment sector, and the launch of Birmingham’s first climate change strategy and action plan to coincide with World Environment Day. It is hoped this festival will become an annual event, involving at least eight cities in 2009, and going international in 2010. More…

ASO Conference – ‘Obesity and the Built Environment’
3rd June 2008: The Kennedy Lecture Theatre, Institute of Child Health, London
This one-day conference will discuss and review the role of the physical environment in providing opportunities for, and barriers against, the adoption of healthy lifestyle choices.  more

JRF Report – ‘Regeneration in European cities: making connections’
In this report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, case studies from a range of European cities are used to explore different approaches to tackling deep-seated urban problems, such as the regeneration of run-down industrial areas.  More…

BRASS Working Paper 45 – ‘Supporting skills and knowledge to deliver sustainable communities: an exploration of the conceptual and policy context’
Written by Julie Newton, Terry Marsden, Alex Franklin and Andrea Collins
Delivering ‘sustainable communities’ is increasingly being recognised as an implicit component of the wider goal of sustainable development. However, a lack of appropriate skills or sufficient understanding of which skills are necessary has remained a significant obstacle to attaining this goal. This paper responds to a growing academic and policy interest in the role of skills in delivering sustainable communities. I Download the paper…


earth day presentation

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Here are the slides /presentation I have made, in different formats, to a number of groups recently, pulling on a number of sources relating to sustainability in the built environment.

profit from sustainability?

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Is there profit to be made from sustainability is a question I am often asked at sustainability events, presentations and workshops. It has cropped up again today on publicity for the excellent Think 08 event next month.

In some ways the question misses the point on what sustainability is about – ie the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental sustainability – where profit is a key element of economic sustainablity.

Within our industry if we could really move from lowest price thinking (ie meaning competition is on profit levels), start moving to ringfenced profits, then we can start to focus on the other two ‘bottom lines” with more vigour. Allowing real profits through the supply chain would have the same affect. Energies applied to trying to make a project profitable can be applied to environmental and social sustainability issues, whilst the project players remain economically sustainable.

Really tackling the 30% or so waste within our sector, (waste in time, costs, materials and most importantly management energy), would more than pay for sustainability improvements whilst allowing a profitable, viable and economically sustainable industry.  For example, recent on-site studies have shown the true costs of skips to be £1300 or so.  One medium size contractor I was working with recently used on average 12 skips a week across 20 projects.  Do the math, as they say!

I often quote Yvon Chouinard – a mountaineering and eco hero of mine – founder of Patagonia clothing, who says that “every time I have done the right thing for the planet I have made a profit…even if the right thing cost twice as much”. Of course it needs the appropriately correct organisational ethos in place to achieve this. (see Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman for inspiration)

Take a look this review extract of Let my people go surfing:

Yvon Chouinard is one of the most important business leaders around today because he’s made a values-lead business highly profitable. Any aspring business leader (and, more importantly, those already running businesses) should be forced to read this. It’s the future.

So yes, there is profit in sustainability – currently, we cannot see it for the barriers and blinkers within the baggage we carry.  We cannot fix todays problems with the same thinking that created the problems.

all homes to be code level 6

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All UK homes could meet a Code Level 6 by 2050  in line with the planned Code for Sustainable Refurbishment to reduce carbon emissions from existing homes.  Source

Now this will surely start another, necessary, debate on how this is possible, and how it will impact on the huge sector of our industry that refurbs and maintains our housing stock.

Do we have the skills? ( I sense another Skills Gap analysis report will be on its way soon, stating the obvious)  It starts to make the 2010 Great ReSkilling programme predicted by Rob Hopkins in the Transition Handbook sound more feasible.

bloggers uncover greenwash

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A new Nielsen Online report, Sustainability through the Eyes and Megaphones of the Blogosphere, argues that firms that are guilty of overstating their green credentials are being routinely uncovered by bloggers.

Bloggerskepticism is the cost of entry to play the green game

Bloggers are a new form of investigative reporter who doggedly pursue the facts

See also greenwash sins and greenwash index