Noted that troubled EMI over estimated the number of Robbie Williams Rudebox CD’s by a mere million. These are now reputedly to be shipped to China to be crushed for road surface material.
Typical of buyers over ordering, with the excess material being used as site access roads … but on a different scale.
From the Guardian today
Warehouses aren’t normally associated with sustainability and environmentally friendliness; they are rather grey and anonymous looking. But a £50m scheme on a brownfield site at a former colliery in north Staffordshire is set to change this.
The project, called Blue Planet Chatterley Valley, is to be developed by Gazeley UK, which is owned by Asda Walmart, on 31 acres of former colliery land in Newcastle-under-Lyme. It will be a truly carbon positive development; the complex will have its own biofuel micro power station (using oilseed rape) and it will produce sufficient power and heat for the on-site buildings and a surplus which is enough energy for up to 650 local homes.
A new definition to savour here – ‘truly carbon positive‘ – brilliant
The USGBC has published the LEEDS innovation and design credits schedule on line, giving all opportunity to view a listing of proven green building strategies that have been submitted and utilized by LEED Certified projects. (source) in design in construction technology and management and importantly in facilities management
Making a fascinating read with such innovations as:
Extend the useful life of an existing building and reduce construction waste by Moving an existing building from the site rather than demolish it in the course of this project
and
Conserve resources, and integrate the building and environment through Significantly reduce the use of raw materials and integrate site features with the natural environment. Avoid the fabrication, transportation and construction impacts by using locally recovered boulders; Use native raw materials to satisfy structural security requirements
and
Employee Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Analyze the CO2 emissions generated by employee automobile commuting: compare the actual employee/staff mileage traveled to a remodeled building on the existing site vs. several proposed sites for new construction. Convert mileage to CO2 emissions and Use the results to determine the final project location.
As described by the Building Design and Construction online site:
The LEED Rating System is the USGBC’s voluntary building certification program that defines high-performance green buildings, which are more environmentally responsible, healthier, and more profitable structures. LEED addresses a variety of buildings and building project types through individualized systems, including: new construction, existing buildings, commercial interiors, core & shell, homes and neighborhood development.
I need to check if the BREEAM scheme, ECO Homes and or Code assessments do or will publish similar schedules. If nothing else they make great reading and will spark innovative ideas.
Worldchanging suggested in a recent post a collaborative institute with classes for every city (US) to
… offer education and examples about urban design fundamentals – what makes a public (space) work, what makes a street pedestrian-friendly, what makes a neighborhood livable – to those who are actually zoning, approving, building, and planning our cities … Not only would it breed better design, but since these classes would be collaborative, it could help to reduce the ‘silo’ mentality that is still pervasive in local governments.
The proposal also suggests that only the members of the ‘institutes’ and the ‘classes’ run are shortlisted to tender for city infrastructure or facilities work.
An excellent idea, but perhaps better approached by addressing hearts and minds so that we work collaboratively anyway by nature (rather than the opposite at the moment) . This needs the principles of integration to be a key part of built environment education.
The notion of making this a prequal issue is again excellent – understanding how a particular city, town or region works is essential in delivering requirements, and would move to a more local supply base for design, construction and fm. A benefit aligned to Community Based FM (CBfM) and the Transition Towns approaches. (raised on isite before)
An approach our (UK) local authorities and councils should consider perhaps. Add in the merton rule to the equation – ie understanding the local specific onsite renewable energy requirements and opportunites – and this could be a powerful way forward.
Alex Steffen over at Worldchanging posts an interesting comment on the future usability, flexibility and appropriateness of facilities designed by ego -starchitects. Alex calls for : An open architecture, an architecture which asks a question of the future — how does our inspiration today serve your needs tomorrow?
(This question of inspirations today meeting the needs of tomorrow is being raised on many public PFI facilities at the moment, withing education and health for example. (Are we really building schools for the future)
A global, and virtual, open source architecture movement is gathering momentum within second life (wikitecture) and the open architecture network amongst other places.
And of course this all comes back to real integrated and collaborative working across the whole facilities and project players, stakeholders and end users. (see studio wikitecture concept for a nice approach to integration and collaboration)
Whilst the consultant process is closed and BERR deliberate on the comments from industry, Mike Willoughby at Sustainability Blog notes that the M and E sector has joined the chorus of organisations and individuals in calling for more stringent measures within the strategy.
As reported at emonline:
The ECA and HVCA have criticised the government for failing to go further with its draft strategy for sustainable construction. According to the associations, a lack of suitable incentives and enforcement measures means the draft falls short of requirements.
Whilst the strategy needs to be comprehensive and meaningful, its timing (expected later this year) does seem to be behind the cue ball of other strategies, requirements, targets and messages coming out from other government departments and agencies.
Will the tail be able to wag the dog I wonder?
With under three months to go before SWMP become mandatory on projects over £250,000, I was amazed to read the results of a survey, conducted last year by NetRegs suggesting that the construction industry is sleep walking into the legislation with two thirds of respondents (66%) saying they didn’t know what an SWMP is and 63% were not aware that SWMPs could soon become a legal requirement.
SWMP are also a requirement of the Code for Sustainable Housing as a minimum requirement from Level One upwards.
At, fairsnape we have developed a basic and easy SWMP format that uses the project programme as the basis for addressing waste management thats goes a good way to meeting the legislation requirements … more
For more information Envirowise is running a series of events across the country and has much good advise on their website.
I note from the Envirowise documents that the typical cost of a skip is £1300 (when labour and materials are costed) and some 13% of materials deleivered to sites leave via the skips. Ouch
Learning from and sharing with other sectors is important to overall improvement. Colleagues at the Benchmarking Institute have highlighted the following Managing Best in Class Innovation web cast scheduled for Jan 24th , hosted through the Automotive News, but the overview is important to all sectors, including the built environment:
Innovation is important for all businesses and especially vital for those in the manufacturing industry. Successful businesses do not just conceive ideas, they empower their people with the right technology and resources to develop, refine and convert those concepts into opportunities. Join Automotive News for a complimentary webinar presented by Microsoft. This discussion will expose how today’s innovators are:
# Leveraging social networking and enterprise search to enhance the innovation process
# Instilling structure and process to minimize the ad-hoc nature of innovation
# Leveraging rich collaboration and communication technologies to connect internal communities as well as external partners and customers
# Empowering people to contribute and discover new ideas
Register at Managing Best in Class Innovation web cast
The North West Sustainability in Built Environment Education forum is holding a presentation and workshop on Low Carbon Buildings at UCLAN (University of Central Lancs – Preston) on Feb 1st. Download details from the Events page.
The Sustainability in Built Environment Education forum is a mixture of industry and academics looking at improving the provision of sustainability in all levels of he built environment curriculum.
The forum is open to all interested in this important aspect with much activity taking place within a social network online and with four ‘events’ each year. Although there is a North West (England) focus the work and issues are much much wider. If you would like more information, attend this event or participate in the forum online please contact me or the forum secretary.
CarbonLimited have posted a more informed and detailed view on whats wrong with the Code:
The requirement for all homes to be zero carbon by 2016 is going to fail unless we take action now. In particular, a set of interim requirements under the Code for Sustainable Homes must be imposed on private house builders. In addition, the Code must allow more flexibility in how zero carbon is achieved … continues
Links:
isite: whats wrong with code level 6
Fairsnape 
