Category Archives: sustainability

Greenwash buildings

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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.

Measuring carbon savings in existing buildings

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It has long been recognised within the blogosphere at least that the biggest contribution the built environment can make to national and global carbon reductions is through existing building stock, not only through the drive for zero carbon homes by 2016 for example.

And in case we need reminding why existing buildings are key, Cyril Sweett estimate that by 2050, 60% of UK buildings will still predate 2006 Building Regs, with corresponding high fuel consumption and carbon emissions. Barring a massive technological improvement in electricity generation at source, our only option is to address existing stock. (Elemental)

Today is the start of the CIBSE 100 days of carbon clean up.

It is good to see programmes like this that address the existing building stock. Signing up to this programme will give you the guidance and tools to reduce energy and carbons within your buildings, including TM22 – the CIBSE guide to measuring carbon savings. For example are you aware of the following carbon emission factors?

  • Natural Gas: 0.194kg CO2/kWh
  • LPG: 0.235kg CO2/kWh
  • Oil: 0.265kg CO2/kWh
  • Biomass: 0.025kg CO2/kWh
  • Electricity: 0.422kg CO2/kWh

Bit of a difference there between electricity and biomass!
Check out the CIBSE programme and make a saving and contribution today.

Making refurbishment a green opportunity

In addition CIBSE are hosting the Great Refurbishment Event

or refurbishment of commercial buildings both on client or consultancy side, then the Great Refurbishment Event held at The Royal Society, London on the 24 October 2007 is a must attend event for you. Experts throughout the building services world will share with you their strategies and techniques to take you from the planning stage through to integrating your refurbishment into improving your energy performance.

rethinking …

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Anyone who has attended one of my presentations or workshops over the last 10 years or so will be aware of my attachment to a great quote from Albert Einstein “we cannot change today’s problems with the same patterns of thought that created those problems in the first place”

Initially this was used to rethink the way we collaborate or integrate (or dont)within the industry, but now of late has more relevance to the way we are addressing environmental and carbon issues.

It was good to see this paradigm  in two recent articles:

Satish Kumar, editor of Resurgence commenting in the Guardian yesterday ‘Cutting carbon is a rich fool’s errand’ makes the point…Focusing only on carbon emissions without protecting ecosystems is simply treating the symptoms rather than the causes of global warming.

It has been said that “the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of ecology”, but the economic paradigm now sweeping the world operates as if it were the other way around. Governments, industries and businesses everywhere, apart from a few enlightened exceptions such as in Bhutan, believe the economy comes first; that with economic growth it is possible to manage ecology and clean up the environment. This is at the root of the climate crisis

What does it matter if the forests have gone and the biosphere is polluted?

With money, we can fix these problems.

Our efforts to reduce carbon emissions, although necessary, are of secondary importance. Carbon trading, finding alternatives to fossil fuels and other technological solutions should not be the reason for failing to take steps in protecting the biosphere or of finding ways of living that encourage climate security.

And secondly in the FT Weekend, in an interview,architect Rick Maher, when questioned on his thoughts on ‘current green thinking’ responded  that “you don’t create a problem and then high tech methods to solve it. You need to design the need for energy out of the building in the first place. And it really works”  (my ideal house is a wreck)

All good stuff…

Lib Dems view on low carbon housing

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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

Local council leading the way with green technology …

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Interesting link and article over at edie.

Also worth following the link there to powerperfector , a voltage optimiser device supplier, which contains, amongst others the following ‘testimonial’:

Energy Manager Wigan MBC Legal and Property Services

‘We have recently installed two powerPerfector’s (a 420 kva and a 280 kva), at our Market Hall in Wigan. The results are staggering, for a 9% reduction in voltage we are experiencing 16% savings in consumption. This amounts to £30,632 p/a (based on 9.074p/kW), with a 14 month payback on investment, figures have been verified on a daily basis utilising half hourly automatic meter readings, so we are satisfied that they are correct. This also means that we are on line to save over 141 tonnes of carbon by the use of the powerPerfector units.

A quick scan of powerperfectors site indicates SME’s may be able to get loans or fundings from the Carbon Trust

the real cost of green building?

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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.

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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.

climate change? … dont worry we have a cunning plan … the moon

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If we carry on, business as usual, not making the carbon and environmental targets within the timespan  scientists tell us we must act withi, then all is not lost.  There is another nearby planet we can start all over again on according to the National Geographic Website

 ‘Lunar Ark’ Proposed  August 14, 2007

The moon should be developed as a sanctuary for civilization in case of a cataclysmic cosmic impact, according to an international team of experts.

NASA already has blueprints to create a permanent lunar outpost by the 2020s

Only local labour and material resources to be used?

Expressions of interest for the design, construction and facilities management are invited.

Need to rethink carbon offsetting?

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Recent reports that trees may not be the solution to carbon offsetting appeared a few days ago in Grist (Their bark is worst for our blight) and in Live Science (Trees may not fix global warming) may prompt a rethink of the carbon offsetting appraoch to addressing carbon reduction. This is based on 10 year research by scientists at Duke University,  North Carolina

So those projects and facilities looking to achieve carbon neutral or zero tragets through off setting need to be very confident the route they are taking is sound.

Although critical of carbon off putting, this report in WorldChanging, Rural Biogas, Global Carbon Market of a grass roots initiative gives inspiration, along the lines of a contraction and conevrgence approach which looks to be a more appropriate alternative to carbon off-putting

Time to commit

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2016 Commitment

Housing minister Yvette Cooper has urged house-builders, councils, and others to sign the 2016 Commitment to zero carbon housing.

More details on the Communities and Local Government website

List of signatories can be downloaded from here. A quick scan shows some 100 plus signatories to date – but none from the north west??

Time to make that commitment to working together and addressing the 2016 target challenge

The Earth fights back

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A real life 70’s style disaster movie script…

Never mind higher temperatures, climate change has a few nastier surprises in store. Bill McGuire says we can also expect more earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides and tsunamis.

Guardian Unlimited
Tuesday August 7 2007