zerochampion

The Green Way

Back in 2003 when I was full-time at Building - yes those bygone print days - I got to know Mark Way pretty well. A thoroughly nice bloke he was at architect and engineer RMJM at the time as head of research. He'd dreamt up a simple yet great concept called Soft Landings, which I wrote an article on it back in 2003. As a typical hack I moved on to the next subject and have given the idea little thought in the intervening years. Until a piece I spotted in BSRIA's website came to my attention which promises to give Way's vision renewed momentum.

Dunster and Egan - the unlikey pair

Two fundamental problems and challenges facing the industry in the past decade. Two figures with wildly different backgrounds and perspectives who come up with eerily similar conclusions. Step forward the unlikely pair - industrialist Sir John Egan and the architect Bill Dunster.

Egan wrote his report, Rethinking Construction, ten years ago and there's a good catch-up on what has, and hasn't, happened since in last Friday's Building.

George Monbiot has an off day

Certain things which we cannot do without have become uncool - carrier bags, cheap flights, fruit from far afield. We must use them but vocalise our distaste. Surely there is something we can all agree to get rid of? Something that we can consign to the past? Coal seems a likely candidate. Coal is bad because those naughty Chinese are building two new power stations a week. It's far more polluting than gas. It involves digging up the ground. We don't produce it in this country any more. Activists want us to wear blue for World Earth Day on April 20th and call Congress and say, 'no new coal power stations!'

George Monbiot certainly seems to think so.

Industrial revolution?

Guest post by Phil's boss Adrian Barrick

At this week's Shed Show at the Celtic Manor near Newport, you might have expected all visionary talk of creating more sustainable industrial property stock to be drowned out by the general hubbub surrounding the credit crunch and plunging capital values. And, frankly, who'd blame Britain's hard-boiled industrial property developers for concentrating on the business fundementals in these straitened times? Far from it, though.

The R word and sustainability

I don't know about you but it's been pretty gloomy year so far. And now the R word enters stage left. Yes recession appears on the cards. So where does this leave clients, both in the private and public sectors, and their decisions on future sustainable budgets? Will the talk be cheap or will the rhetoric really turn to reality?

Sustainability and PFI

This is a bit of a hornet's nest, and one that has received scant attention. Is the PFI process inherently unsustainable as it is such a long, inflexible and complicated process? Or as LibDem member of the London Assembly Mike Tuffey says in an excellent report in today's Building Design: "These 30-year PFI deals are like supertankers.. We are calling on the Treasury to issue a changed protocol.. it needs to come forward with a way to bring flexibiliy in." The London Assembly issued a report, called Emission Creep, yesterday on the public sector and sustainability and it claims that PFi is preventing on-site renewable energy being installed on new hospital sites, such as the new Barts & Royal London scheme.

Olympics - bronze medal?

If as I just wrote 2008 (and beyond, of course) should be the year of delivery what are we to make of the Olympic green targets set yesterday? Permanent buildings to perform 15% better that Part L 2006 standards? Homes to reach Code Level 4? A legacy target of reducing emissions from the Olympics Park by 50%? I'm sure the clamour to keep costs down on this job has probably hampered the environmental ambition. So our next challenge for the next year and beyond is achieve the dream, to prove that the sustainable solution is the lowest cost one. It's a target set by a evangelical consultant I met last week and if he nails it I'm thinking he's found a licence to print money.

Costs confusion

The glut of sustainability reports continues. How many major documents have been published this year and how many trees does that equate to? One released by the Renewables Advisory Board put the cost of hitting Code 6 in terms of the need for renewables as an average of £6K. Cue some laughter from a QS I spoke with this morning. Alliance & Leicester has also come up with some figures this week claiming that it will cost homeowners £9,000 to make their properties carbon neutral. I'm not sure guestimates such as these are really helping matters much.

TV reality

The 800 Million Pound Train Station, a documentary on the making of the new St Pancras train station now showing on BBC2, has been gripping. Not really because of the scale and the ambition of the project but due to the access the cameras have had to the team involved. It's extremely rare to have such a warts and all view of the construction process, and confirms a lot of industry cliches: the precious and pompous architect, the stressed out but hard-nosed contractor, the feckless subbie etc etc. But in spite of the tantrums, tears and bust-ups it presents an industry that is (largely) honest, hard-working, passionate and determined.

Prefab proponents

Two interesting speakers at an event I attended last Friday - John Prewer, who is known as the godfather of prefabrication, and Dr John Barrett from the Stockholm Environment Institute. Prewer not surprisingly offered the benefits of prefab but also added a couple of interesting points - the impression that heavyweight construction was the way to go was "false" (I think I may get him to elaborate on this for Building) and that building below the ground was unsustainable.

Widening the net

There's always the danger with discussions on sustainability that you end up discussing life, the universe and everything. It happened to me a few times this week. It can be slightly defeating as the detail and basics need to be right before you can start trying to change the world. But that shouldn't preclude a widening of discussions. Two disparate issues I considered with a couple of experts need much more thought - the law and IT.

The warm fuzz of freecycle

I'm about to give away my first belonging as part of the Freecyle community. It's an old ghetto blaster that's collecting dust in my bedroom, and to my surprise there were plenty of takers for it, including a woman who had just dropped and broken the one she was planning to give to her teenage children. To quote recent commentor on this site Ian Kemmish there's a warm fuzzy feeling in both getting rid of something unwanted and helping out someone who needs your item. Surely this is transferable to large scale swapping of materials , products etc?

The last 10% problem

I had a very interesting discussion with an experience project manager this morning. He voiced an endemic problem in the industry which he dubbed 'the last 10% problem'. This is being experienced at the extreme end of the industry on the biggest scheme of recent years, Terminal 5 - the team are in a bit of a panic to hit the March 2008 deadline according to Building. The problem is pretty simple - project teams lose enthusiasm near the end of the project, just when the need for effort and focus is at its greatest.

Lifecyle Vs Recycle

I'm shamelessly reusing this catchy phrase from a debate I attended this morning organised by the sustainability conference Think (to declare an interest this is organised by my company). It came from Alan Smith, corporate communications director at contractor Kier, who was explaining the attitude of some clients to new projects, namely that they see them lasting for only seven years or so before they move onto the next model. Such is the pace of change amongst retail brands is that they feel the need for new to catch the attention of their clients. It led to the point being made that new buildings had to have inherent flexibility, or future proofed.

Nobody knows anything

I’m quoting from the screenwriter William Goldman, who won two Oscars for his scripts for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President’s Men. The phrase “Nobody knows anything” was his dictum on just how little those in Hollywood knew about what films would perform and what wouldn’t. It appeared in his fantastic memoir on the absurdities of the film business, Adventure in the Screen Trade.

How green is the Olympics?

Not very reckons the Green Party. It has published a report on the environmental credentials of London's hosting of the Games, reports this week's Time Out. Strangely I can see no mention of this on the Green Party website. I can understand the criticisms in the report - lack of renewables, loss of biodiversity - but have some sympathy for those running the uber project - balancing those demanding the highest possible quality and sustainable standards against those baying commentators ready to stick the knife in when there are slips made on the programme or budget.

Lacking inspiration

There seems a distinct lack of inspiration amongst the industry about green issues, if new research from the CIOB this week is anything to go by. Of those industry professionals surveyed by the body here's the top four examples of green projects given:

1. BedZed
2. Don't know
3. BREEAM eco-homes
4. Eden project
5. Welsh Assembly Building

Green building council accelerates activity

The UK Green Building Council appears to be hitting the ground running if its website is anything to go by. There's some reaction to the housing green paper up, a transcript of a recent speech from chief executive Paul King and a document proposing changes to the government's proposal to make stamp duty exempt for zero carbon houses under £500,000. Further down on the homepage is a nicely packaged video that includes interviews with (then) environment secretary David Miliband, Tory leader David Cameron, Ecologist editor Zac Goldsmith and industry figures such as Stanhope's Peter Rogers, Chris Hiatt from Jones Lang Lasalle and Mike Beaven from Arup. Rogers wants the body to "make it easier" for people to build green while Goldsmith calls for "greedy ambitions" to tackle emissions from the built environment.

A torrent of targets

Yesterday saw the publication of a Draft Strategy for Sustainable Construction issued by the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. There are no less than 35 targets set for procuring and assessing the performance of buildings as well as for waste recycling and a commitment to whole life value. I'm wondering whether there should be a deadline set in the next year after which all public sector bodies and companies must pledge not to issue any new targets. Or perhaps this is just a fact of life for the next few decades.

Construction comes out top in green survey

Guest post by Phil Thornton

The construction industry has a genuine excuse to pat itself on the back when it comes to corporate attitudes towards climate change.A survey of more than 150 UK companies published today earlier this month shows that the sector is head-and-shoulders above other fields of business when it comes to both talking the talk and walking the walk on tackling global warming. The research by accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed that six out of 10 of 26 construction firms surveyed expected to make lots of changes to the way they did business over the next two to three years.

Welcome to the world of flood certainty

I picked up a report produced by the College of Estate Management yesterday. It sums up succinctly the flooding crisis our country is currently in, and how much worse it's going to get in the future. It looks at flood insurance and concludes that the issue "has the potential to seriously undermine both the economic and social fabric of Britain, and as a consequence its political stability as well... it seem that flood risk in many parts of the country is changing to flood certainty and, in such a situation, will cease to be an insurable risk".

The King's Cross tour

I attended a couple of events at Architecture Week, one of which was a tour around the land north of King's Cross train station which is due for a massive facelift over the next decade under the control of developer Argent. Our guide? None other than Argent head honcho Roger Madelin, who turns out to be very far from the public stereotype of a property magnate - dry, softly spoken, witty and approachable. He had managed to charm the 15-odd walkers before the two-hour trot around the 67-acre site, called King's Cross Central, had finished.

Exeter Council back sustainable construction

Exeter council has recently shown its support for sustainable housing by hosting a breakfast event, at the Livestock Centre at Matford, for its preferred suppliers and consultants. During the event, the council made clear how much it wants promote sustainability and that it now requires contractors to adhere to the council's Green Accord and Selection Procedure - a code that sets benchmark targets for all parties in the housing process.

Thames Gateway: A counterblast

In yesterday's Guardian historian Tristram Hunt delivers a stinging condemnation of the Thames Gateway project. He says the £6bn scheme - one that promises 120,000 new homes and 180,000 jobs - will destroy much of the historical meaning and geographical beauty that make up many parts of the Kent and Essex coastlines.

Severn Barrage: one thing Blair and Brown agree on

The proposed Severn Barrage - a barrier that would stretch between Weston-Super-Mare and Lavernock Point, on the south coast of Wales, has been approved by Tony Blair in his closing days in office. However, the barrage has encountered fierce criticism from environmental groups and commentators. George Monbiot, author of Heat, recently said that, "It will cause too much environmental damage: there are far better ways of getting energy from the sea."

Salford City Council leads the way in renewable extensions

Since 1999, Salford City Council have been exploring the development and use of prefabricated relocatable extensions for elderly and/or disabled members of their community. In all, 47 units have been made and used, with overwhelmingly positive feedback from their recipients. Now other city councils, as well as the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), are looking into their work.

Insulation giant comes to the UK

URSA Insulation recently announced that it will be opening a plant in the UK. The insulation company that specialises in the manufacture of glass wool has scheduled the opening of the plant for the second half of 2009. It is estimated that the factory will employ about 130 people; short-listed locations for the plant are Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The Big Build brings visitors to Offsite 2007

One of the main attractions to Offsite 2007 at BRE was The Big Build. This was made up of ten new "concept-buildings" by a number of different architects and contractors, all of which strived to achieve the highest levels in the new Code for Sustainable Homes. Most were private homes; one was a mini-school, another was a semi-detached housing development in which one "half" was fully furnished while the other half had transparent panelling, so allowing visitors to see through the walls and floors.

Muda, Mura, Muri - and how they apply to sustainabillity

Ever heard of muda, mura and muri? You have now. These three terms may seem completely unfamiliar, but - in the way that the English language often does - within a few years they might become part of normal speech.

BRE pioneers sustainability at its three day Offsite conference

The BRE (Building Research Establishment) and EEDA (East of England Development Agency) co-hosted a compelling three-day conference at the BRE's base in Garston, north of Watford. The conference looked at how modular and pre-fabricated buildings can work in three separate sectors: homes, schools and healthcare facilities. The aim, in each case, was to go beyond the traditional onsite methods of building towards looking at the benefits of offsite construction.

India: getting greener, but how quickly?

Three parts of the world are now synonymous with extensive construction: Dubai, China and India. The building industry in the Asian subcontinent now accounts for approximately 7% of GDP, the largest sector after agriculture. Its growth prospects look immense: it is set to grow at 10% per annum over the next five years, far more than the world average of 5.5%.