Hot on the heels of my post yesterday questioning targets for our building sector is the announcement from British Land:

Three reports came through to my PC today:

Britain’s ‘biggest landlord’ to go carbon neutral 

One of the United Kingdom’s largest property developers has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2008/9, according to a report published on Wednesday.

In its new Corporate Responsibility Report, British Land PLC outlines its initiatives aimed at reducing energy and associated CO2 emissions in landlord-controlled areas.

Edie News 

British Land to go carbon neutral by 2009

Sustainability drive will include solar panels, turbines and carbon-off setting

Building 

More from British Land – offsetting, targets and KPI’s

Zero Champion  

The British Land Corporate Resposnibility Report and associated web material is well worth reading.

Another  sign of the fast changing times for our industry ?

It is sad that at a time when climate change and carbon management in our industry is in the spot light the Lancashire Best Practice Club has had to postpone a sustainability event due to low take up and apparent lack of interest.

Is this typical of our attitude and approach to the whole carbon ‘thing’ within our industry?

Are we, as an industry putting heads into the sand hoping it will blow over like other initiatives?

Anyone watching An Inconvenient Truth (the Al Gore film – which if you haven’t seen – why not? – I understand it is now freely available to all schools to use as part of climate change awareness) and following the media and political debates, (including today’s budget speeches) will realise that our industry will be transformed on the back of climate change agendas.

For example:

The draft climate change bill calls for a 60% reduction in domestic carbon emissions – an enormous challenge – for us as home owners and more so for our industry….

Zero Carbon homes will be the norm -in design, construction and use ….

The Stern Report calls for major innovation and take up of low carbon technologies …

Gordon Brown, addressing the Green Alliance recently called for Britain to be a leader in collaborative sustainability research and technologies …

Today’s budget will give tax credits to domestic mirco generated energy put back into the grid – a shrewd move that will see an increase in mirco generation – changing the way buildings are used ?…

Carbon taxation will increase, with business and personal carbon allowances on the horizon ….

We heard at a recent Lancashire best Practice Club event that local authorities will start to look at the green travel plans of their contractors as part of their procurement process . . .

To meet these demands and challenges for the future we need an industry with the necessary skills and knowledge. Worryingly, we do not seem to have them as yet – as noted by the Construction Excellence Climate Change briefing and the Stern Report itself.

Unless this is addressed, it is higly possible that we will fail in meeting the carbon challenge – and those with the knowledge and technologies will succeed – be they from other regions or abroad.

I hope the sustainability event will be rescheduled soon.

You may be interested in the Think 07 event being held early May – The Think conference and exhibition explores the wider responsibilities of the property and construction industries as we deal with the issues of climate change, urban renewal and redevelopment.

And, on a wonderful clash of dates – Sustainabilitylive! 2007 1-3 May 2007 held at the NEC, Birmingham details here

To finish this post on a positive note – proof that things are happening not to far from home – Housebuilder Bellway claims it has reduced its carbon footprint by more than a third for the 7,117 new homes it sold last year. The housebuilder says it did so by providing renewable energy for its home owners. The firm has also offset some of its CO² emissions by saving trees in Ecuador. Source – Zero Champion blog – see link in the blog roll box on the right.

Looking back to Andrew Platten’s Elevate Carbon Challenge – where are the positive stories in Lancashire?

Leave your comments here – what do you think of the climate change agenda? – do we have our head in the sand on this one? Do you have a positive story?

There seems to be a lot happening in politics and environmental circles this week. Just what does all this mean for construction and facilities management. I am reading the latest draft bill to determine that and will feedback through here.

Two very relevant themes that have jumped out though – zero carbon housing, in production and in use was one of the key areas driving the latest draft bill (The Independent 14th March) – and Tony Blairs comment in the house at question time talking about Building Schools for the Future said “it would plainly be sensible to build into the building schools for the future programme… measures for the use of environmentally sustainable energy and energy efficiency. That is very important and right.”

I have copied that quote from a blog I am finding increasingly useful – zerochampion, written by Phil Clark, recently editor of QS News. The link to this blog can be found in the blogroll panel on the right.

If you have any views on what is happening re climate change at the moment – and how it affects our region – let me know – I am also providing consultation back to government on the draft bill and a member of the Governments Sustainable Development Panel – so can feed your views back into those who may listen.

And don’t forget -LBPC Event on Sustainability – 22 March Solarus Building – Blackpool – Book Now

Martin

Following in the trend of Asda, M&S and the NHS, the John Lewis Partnership have announced plans for a green future for its energy and buildings. All future John Lewis and Waitrose stores will be based upon sustainable designs.
This will affect all aspects of new buildings and refurbishment projects, from design and planning through to construction and maintenance.

Stuart Hampson, chairman of John Lewis Partnership said via Sky News “The scale of construction work now in prospect presents a tremendous opportunity for us to develop and implement new standards to minimise our impact on the environment and on the communities of which our shops are a part.”

We are seeing trend of customers to green their built environment performance. However, following on from the Stern Report and Constructing Excellences briefing on the Stern Review, this will place even more pressure on our industry to develop its skills knowledge and understanding : there are far too few people out there with the right skills and knowledge at the moment. It will also be of interest how this ‘greening’ drops down the supply chains.

Click here for more information on the Stern Report and CE Briefing

This makes the Elevate Carbon Challenge all the more important as we prepare for a green future.

The Lancashire Best Practice Club event in April will address sustainability issues. Check out the Events Page for more information.

powered by performancing firefox

Andrew Platten writes …

I hope visitors find the site interesting, I for one would like to see any evidence in Lancashire of the following on construction sites:

zero carbon developments
examples of locally manufactured triple glazing, low energy structures
examples of water conversation and recycling
closed loop recycling and waste management
examples of group transport to and from sites

If someone has a brig idea then I am interested in talking to you, any new technology which saves energy and or carbon emissions in the house or on the site.

Leave your comments here….

Comment and news from Andrew Platten moved to this ‘front page’ .  Contact Andrew or myself for more information

CITB Construction Skills are funding a new programme called Built To Last which will run over 2007. CCI NW will be running the programme. The programme will feature a series of development seminars and workshops which are aimed at developing companies across the region. It is an ideal opportunity for local companies to develop their capabilities with regard to reducing on site waste, increasing awareness of reducing their carbon footprint and meeting Eco-homes standards. I would welcome enquiries from any company located in the Lancashire area who wish to take part in this programme.

Further, Elevate East Lancashire provided support to several local companies in achieving ISO14001 in 2005. This featured a fast track method to achieving compliance. As the ISO standard is one of the prime requirements set by our partner developers, we are interested in hearing from other companies who are interested in going through this standard. The offer is open over this February and open to those companies who have a BB post code business address.

 Thanks Andrew