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The Green Way

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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.

The sustainable quiz

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Mel helped me out by flagging this up at the weekend. I wouldn't want to deprive you of earning a 20 quid Amazon token, so try the sustainability quiz on the Building website. Good luck.

Rebound effect

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I think we probably all know that the small changes some have of us have made in our lives, and are constantly reminded about doing, to reduce our environmental impact are more symbolic than really effective. Many of these, and more ambitious steps, are aimed at energy efficiency, but the more you think through the logic of this on the overall generation of CO2 the more you start to wonder the impact it is having. An article The Economist clarifies this concern, introducing a concept called the Rebound Effect.

Olympic footprinting

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Last week's sustainable plan for the Olympics received a bit of stick for not setting contractors enough targets. What has not been picked out from the document is a two-page section entitled Footprinting the Games (pages 20-21). It's appears a fairly ear-bleeding exercise since as the document says there is "no national or international standards or guidance" that exists on "how to apply environmental accounting techniques to large scale public events". The Olympics team has come up with a threefold definition of the impact of an event - direct; shared; and associated.

Flooding plan for Thames Gateway

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I had a brief but very interesting chat with a technical manager from the Environment Agency last week. The body is working on a major piece of work mapping out potential flooding scenarios for the Thames Gateway so as to plan out what should be done in the near future. The irony of the EA having a stand bang in the middle of the Thames Gateway Forum appeared to be lost to most of the delegates.

Measurement - the basics

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In my former life editing a magazine for quantity surveyors and project managers there was plenty of concern and interest in measurement. This was because there was a view amongst many practitioners that the core skill of a QS - actually producing a bill of quantities that included all the details, dimensions etc of a job - was disappearing. Without such building blocks, to pardon the pun, how can you rely on accuracy and quality of the end product was the argument? Clearly the same applies for sustainability.

Skills - make sustainability part of the basics

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Every practitioner in sustainability knows that they are a scarce resource. A new study by Arup for the Academy for Sustainable Communities confirms this, but also offers an excellent breakdown of which professions will be in most demand in future years and where geographically the need for skills is particularly desperate. On the professional front there is one pretty clear conclusion - we should all resign from our jobs tomorrow and become landscape architects.

New green book out

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There's a growing pile of them building up but here's a new book one that may be of interest. Hailing from the US, Green Building A to Z is written by LEED trainer Jerry Yudelson, who runs his own firm Yudelson Associates. It's hailed by the press release from publisher New Society as "a must read for any emerging green building enthusiast".

Green lies

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The Times reports on an interesting survey this morning where nine out of ten people admit to telling "little green lies" so as to avoid being perceived as bad people. The survey by Norwich Union, called Be Good Guilt, highlights "concerns that, although people want to live ethically, they do not know where or how to start and so end up anxious and guilt-ridden". A fifth of the 1,500 respondents said that they had little idea of what to do, and half said that they were too confused or had too little time to make their lifestyles greener. Corinne Sweet, a psychologist, said: “We want to be ‘good’ but often are too busy, or it seems too complicated, so we cut corners, or forget altogether, and then feel guilty."

Lacking inspiration

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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