zerochampion

Pitt put in his place

I see Brad Pitt's self importance knows no bounds. Not content with boring us with self importance about his acting craft he now has taken it upon himself to explore his "passion" for architecture. Announcing his desire to design a "sustainable" resort in Dubai he adds: "It will underpin not only my values for environmentally-friendly architecture, but also embrace my career in entertainment." Thankfully some Building readers, including a D Vinnels, give it to him with both barrels. Please leave our industry alone Brad.

Fashion and sustainability

Today's Guardian profiles Marie Claire editor Marie O'Riordan, who is taking the celebrity tile into a new environmentally conscious direction - this month's edition (it's out later this week) comes in a recyclable brown paper bag, runs interviews with eco-heroes and offers pages of 'guilt-free indulgences'. The piece offers a decent insight into the potential pitfalls of taking on such a challenge, especially when it's for a magazine dedicated to consumption. "I think we're just trying to reflect the reality of our readers' dilemma and confusion. There's not point in us saying 'you have to stop shopping' or 'you have to stop flying'," she says.

Sustainability = Resource crisis

I'd heartily recommend a new offering from architect and blogger Jon Goodbun on the BD site, and not just because: I commissioned it; and he mentions me in the introduction. Definitions of sustainability can be at times be reductive but I think Jon's attempt at grappling with the problem is timely. Its importance for me is in identifying the broader crisis we face - a lot of people say 'this is more than just about carbon', but Jon explains this better than most.

The optimists

Two trips in the last week that crystallised a newly determined optimism on my part. I've had enough of whingeing at Government incompetence and inaction and want to concentrate on what can and is working.
This cheeriness may be a little at odds with the prevalent national mood, which if you judge by the recent reports on economic woe is on a par with a Bergmann film. Perhaps we should be taking more inspiration from Sally Hawkins, the relentlessly cheery leading protagonist in Mike Leigh's newly released effort Happy Go-Lucky.
I digress. First destination was Leamington Spa for the almost open new Wolseley Sustainable Building Centre.

Boris Johnson - green warrior?

Not sure what to make of the current race to become London mayor. Ken is being portrayed as rather less than scrupulous, whilst Boris is a buffoon. The latter is interviewed in this month's Regenerate magazine, which is dubbed the sustainability issue. He comes out green, although it doesn't quite feel like it's from the heart.

Weekend Review, 2-3rd February

There was no overriding green story in the weekend's papers, but great men, such as Prince Charles and Adair Turner featured. The former's sixitieth birthday wish is to be remembered for saving the rainforests, he has disclosed to Gordon Brown. He will be lobbying world leaders through his birthday year.

Witty Wicks

To the House of Commons last night for a birthday bash in honour of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, which is a quarter of a century old. Very well attended, not least by a barrage of politician keen to display their environmental credentials. I spotted quiet a few Liberal Dem MPs and Lords, deputy mayor Nicky Gavron and a sprinkling of Tories and former ministers, including former energy minister Elliott Morley. Guest of honour was current incumbent Malcolm Wicks, who's been having a rare old of time of it of late.

2008 - Is a backlash on the way?

I can't help feeling that we may face something of a backlash to the drive to go sustainable this year. A little pessimistic, perhaps? Am I being overcome with the general gloom over politics/the economy/international instability etc? Time will tell but the trend of 'Green fatigue', as the Observer described it on Sunday, has plenty of credibility.

A sustainable comedian

It's always good to hear from someone interested in our environmental impact who has a sense of humour as well. Step forward comedian Mark Watson, who has written a book called Crap at the Environment and started a community for "people who are concerned about climate change and environmental damage, yet, until now, have been completely or fairly shit at doing anything about it" on MySpace. He will also be touring a show based on his attempts to be sustainable from late January onwards. See Karushi for more details.

New Year new job

I have a new job, which is an extension of what I've been doing already. It's grandly titled editorial director, sustainability, and it covers the events my company produces as well as online content. The mission, so my boss said in the announcement yesterday, is to "develop communities of like-minded individuals". So I'm going to be offering some help to the Think08 conference and exhbition (expect plenty of discussion/blatant plugs for the show in early 2008) as well as conferences we are planning. The challenge is to create events that have a must attend-feel as well as create a different feel and atmosphere to the usual B2B events that are put on.

Thom Yorke on green taxes

As a fan I'm always interested in what Thom Yorke has to say on most issues. Here's his views on the current political climate in an interview in the Observer's Music Magazine yesterday. He thought the Conservative Party's green report was going to be exciting "but then it got quietly shifted to the side". "That was a downer," he says, before adding: "But maybe, you know, Gordon Brown's now on the case and maybe things are looking up. Unless you have laws in place nothing's going to happen.. It's a bizarre form of rationing that we're all going to have to accept, just like people did in the Second World War."

Let's dump the name building services engineer

So says Dr David Strong, the man who has had quite a 2007. Just to remind you he was one of the figures behind the launch of the UK Green Building Council in February, he also had a hand in the Conservative Party's Blueprint for a Green Economy document published in September and he jumped ship from the BRE and last week launched a sustainable consultancy called Inbuilt. To top his year off he proposes in this month's Building Services Journal to dispense with the building services epithet and to replace it with the word sustainability.

Acting now

I was with a consultant this morning who was very much hammering home the rhetoric Vs realism/action point that I was discussing yesterday. He's focused on creating a series of handy tips/checklists for different sustainable subjects. And I've just got back to my desk from the meeting and found one dreamed up by a design agency called Thomas Matthews. It's called Ten Ways Design Can Fight Climate Change and it's a nifty little document.

Paul King's passion

The new chief executive of sustainable group the UK Green Building Council has hit the ground running. Since starting in the Spring Paul King appears to have a set a clear strategy for the group, which he sets out in his latest interview in this month's Building Services Journal. I also witnessed him in action last night at the launch of a new sustainability report by Lend Lease, a UKBGC member.

The wisdom of Bill Bordass

Bill Bordass, one of the key figures behind the Usable Buildings initiative, is spoken of in hushed tones by most in sustainability circles. The group has been one of the few bodies to really try to get to grips with post-occupancy evaluation. He offers some wisdom in an interview with architect Rab Bennetts in a supplement of Building called Digging Beneath the Greenwash released late last week (there's a digital version of this here). He begins by offering a critique of designers.

The man on the Clapham omnibus and sustainability

Interesting survey on the great British public's attitude toward the environment carried out by DEFRA. There's a lot of stuff there you would expect, such as some apathy towards making small or significant changes to our lifestyles. And you have to take some of this stuff with a pinch of salt given that a proportion of people will make claims about their behaviour that bears little relevance to reality. I was a little disturbed by the statistics on what the public felt were the most important issues the Government needed to deal with. Environment came fourth, behind crime, health and education, which is not a surprise, but the proportion of people mentioning the environment slipped from 25% in 2001 to 19% this year. Given that this survey was carried out in June it appears the climate change message has still yet to sink in fully with the vast majority of our fellow citizens.

Why aren't we acting now?

I've been thinking more and more about the great gulf holding back the attempt to stave off climate change - the yawning chasm between intentions and actions. A couple of recent sources have helped me, as well as my own consideration of what I can do to my (relatively) new flat to improve its efficiency, generate on-site energy etc. The sources are George Monbiot's book Heat, which I've been meaning to read for months, and a recent edition of Analysis Radio 4 (I only a found a transcript of it online).

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."

Faber Maunsell hits YouTube

The video sharing phenomenon that is YouTube is probably best known in the UK construction industry for the site workers carrying out stunts on site, which caused a strom of outrage in the industry (see coverage in Building). Well here's something a little more constructive. Engineering group Faber Maunsell has put up three rather professional videos on the site - I'm indebted to fellow blogger Mel Starrs for bringing my attention to this. One is to advertise its commitment to tackling climate change, called the Carbon Management Programme.

Sir David King, the optimist

I managed to take in one of a series of lectures on sustainability running at the RIBA on Tuesday night. Present for the evening was the Government's chief scientific advisor Sir David King to deliver some wise words on 'Building a Sustainable Future'.

Perhaps I'm not used to listening to scientists holding court but having patiently tried to follow his 'basic'  handholding through the science of climate change I was really struggling (loss of focus, eyes flickering etc). Was it really necessary to take nigh on an hour to show us a long series of complicated graphs, maps, visuals etc. Didn't Al Gore do all that stuff in the Inconvenient Truth?

Zero heroes

Cradle to Cradle, a book co-written by architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart, is a breath of fresh air. It blows away the stale and fusty thinking that can undermines a lot of hard line ‘green’ thinking, and offers clarity and optimism in a sphere that can often lead you to muddle and doom.

The book is nearly five years old but for my money is probably even more relevant to the environmental debate as it was earlier this decade. It was given to me last Thursday by developer Adrian Wyatt (more on him later this week), a very enthusiastic convert to the Cradle to Cradle thinking. I’m one now having raced through the tome in a couple of days.

Green King part two

Two weeks ago I interviewed the UK Green Building Council interim chairman Peter Rogers. If only I'd have known the name of the incoming chief executive of the body and I'd have saved up the headline I used for the aforementioned piece, Green King. Yes the name of the new boss is Paul King. He has pretty impressive credentials, having been at the WWF for over a decade. In the last three years King has overseen that body's One Million Sustainable Homes campaign and he's also a director of the One Planet Living campaign. We wish him well in taking on the huge challenge of really rethinking construction.

My fellow bloggers and I

So it's nearly a month after 'outing' myself as a blogger and so far it's been a lot of fun (for me, anyway). All the buzz talk in the media is about building communities online and allowing users to generate content online. It now feels more real than theoretical talk when there are readers and fellow bloggers picking my facts and arguments apart. Keep 'em coming.

So who else is out there blogging on sustainability in the construction and development area?

We need a sustainability head fast

Yes, you know an issue is really taking root when firms are jumping over each other to bring in new blood to beef up their service offerings. Hence a glut of new sustainability bosses - recently White Young Green has made Richard Linger sustainablity director. Now Gleeds has got in on the act, prizing Jeremy Percy away from airports behemoth BAA to come in as its first head of sustainability.

There's an interesting aside to the announcement of the appointment in today's Building. The story in print form pops up (a blob is the technical term us hacks use) at the end of a story about Gleeds rival Davis Langdon launching sustainability training for all of of its technical staff. The irony? I'm told Davis Langdon were very keen on adding Percy's skills to its sustainability team, but he plumped for Gleeds instead.

Green King

I'm cooking on gas today. Here's my first interview for Zerochampion.

The familiar industry figure that is Peter Rogers has now stepped into the green debate. Clearly a glutton for punishment after running industry bodies such as Constructing Excellence and the Strategic Forum Rogers, as well as knocking up 12 construction commitments for the London Olympics last year, he has now taken on the mantle of chairing the UK Green Building Council. This is a new group stretching across the development and construction industry to push the sustainable agenda which will formally launch itself to the world at this month’s Eco Build conference.

Yet another body you must be sighing. Well, it does feel a bit like that. But if Rogers, brother of architect Sir Richard and director at one of the UK’s most enlightened developers Stanhope, is involved it should have clout. And the membership is impressive – from Agrregate Industries to Arup, British Land to the BRE, Willmott Dixon to HBOS. “It’s a bit like Noah’s Ark,” as Rogers puts it, referring to its wide industry coverage. I spoke to him about the challenge that the body has set itself on its website, no less than

'To dramatically reduce the environmental impact of buildings by radically improving the way they are designed, built and maintained.'

We talk renewables, energy, BREEAM and light switches. Click below for the full Q&A

New Hoare Lea environmental head

Hoare Lea Consulting Engineers has appointmented Dr Antonino Saporito head of environmental modelling. Saporito holds a PhD in Engineering Systems and Design and Energy Studies from London South Bank University. Antonino gained experience in environmental design and building while working as a research engineer at BRE (Building Research Establishment) Fire and Environmental Modelling Centre.  Prior to this appointment Antonino was building simulation specialist in charge of the Modelling Group at WSP F+K.