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The next generation

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I attended a new networking event called Phase One last night. Organised by Building (to declare an interest I work for the magazine's publisher) it attracted over 200 younger professionals from a range of specialisms varying from architecture engineering to surveying and contracting. Building columnist and legal legend Tony Bingham belted out (the acoustics weren't too great) a rabble-rousing speech to the attendees imploring them to step forward as leaders in the industry. His speech was inspiational as well as informal and it was great to chew the fat with the younger generation of professionals out there. There was interesting sustainability talk from nearly all the guests I bumped into. Here's a snapshot:

• The Terminal 5 problem - I met a couple of guys working there who underlined a bit of a PR issue there. How can one shout about the sustainable qualities of the building itself, due to open in just under a year, when the whole point of the thing is to attract more air flights?

Policy watch - wind, carbon dioxide and planning

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A round-up of news coming out of Whitehall as well as urgent calls for Government reform:

• The Environment Department has released figures for the amount of CO2 we pumped out last year. It's gone up by 13-14 million tonnes of carbon to a total of 153.
• The government has agreed a licensing regime for transferring wind power to the National Grid
• Planners are not happy with Government reforms, according to a survey carried out King's College, London. They feel they are being pulled from pillar to post - forced to speed up developments whilst at the same time make sure new schemes are environmentally sound. A summary in pdf form is available here

CHP update

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I've been fascinated by the response to a posting I put up last week on a new player in the CHP world. Manufacturer GTC Europe and Cambridge Consultants have teamed up to work on a new mass market micro-CHP unit. Blogger Casey Cole has dug out some more info on how the unit will work.

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What interested me was the debate as to whether CHP is really offering a solution for reducing emissions and a response I received yesterday from Cambridge.

The 2030 Challenge

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Guest Post from Martin Brown

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Are you being trained for the world you will inherit?

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The title came from the recently received e-newsletter from the USA 2030 Challenge. The 2030 challenge seeks to reduce carbon emissions from new and existing buildings by 2030. The newsletter and the 2030 challenge makes for excellent reading, in particular:

• global targets set for each building sector - new and existing
• informative background information on climate change
• global case studies of design and construction that address sustainability and environmental impact
• archived web casts

Hot Topic

Guest post by Will Jones

I went along to the launch of a manifesto for sustainable heat yesterday evening at the House of Commons. Put together by the Green Alliance and Renewable Energy Association, the manifesto tells us that we are missing a trick, and a big one at that, in the environmental debate by ignoring heat and its sustainable production.

   

More from British Land - offsetting, targets and KPIs

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I've just watched the British Land webcast and scanned through its Corporate Responsibility Report for 2006. Interesting stuff. Here's some highlights:

• Carbon offsetting will benchmark emission reduction - Chief executive Stephen Hester is aware that the use of offsets is controversial but reckons that they can help in the firm measuring its carbon reduction. "What's important to me in offsetting is that it produces a price for us against which carbon reductions can be measured. It's a market mechanism for us."
• Split up BREEAM - British Land head of planning and environment Adrian Penfold had some interesting views on BREEAM. "If there's a criticism it doesn't focus enough on issues like climate change. It's watered down by other factors," he says and advocates adopting a "modular" approach to eco-measurement.. "There could be a module directly focused on global warming and other modules dealing with other issues, which would form part of an overall rating. I think it would be quite a powerful tool."

British Land plans to go carbon neutral

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Another major client announces its environmental intentions. Developer British Land wants to go carbon neutral by 2008/2009. It's a three-pronged strategy: manage and reduce direct emissions; reduce the carbon content of energy supply; and offset. It doesn't state what proportion will make up each of the three strategies. The firm also released statistics on energy for the firm's portfolio showing that overall energy use dropped by 4% and water use by 16%. And it reckons its two new developments in central London - 201 Bishopsgate and Broadgate Tower - are forecast to be 29%  better in performance than required standards and are on course to achieve a BREEAM excellent rating. The firm released a Corporate Responsibility report yesterday and held a live webcast which you can see a recording of.

International news

• Composite is the future - For elephants wanting to cross bridges at least. FiberCore Europe has created what it claims is the world’s largest carbon composite bridge. Designed for the Dutch municipality of Dronten using resin supplied by DSM Resins, the bridge is 24.5m long and 5m wide, weighing as little as 12 metric tonnes which is 30 times lighter than a similar concrete bridge.

  FiberCore and DSM believe that the bridge will demonstrate how composites can be produced and used in any conceivable shape. It can be employed in all conceivable load bearing structures -- for instance in road roofing, piers, bridge widening or balconies and is sustainable, apparently. The developers claim that the composites don’t have the same ecological drawbacks as using concrete and steel.

• Cutting Delhi congestion - Mott MacDonald will act as consultant on the revolutionary design of two bus rapid transit corridors in Delphi.

Gore's planning problems

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Eco-evangalist Al Gore spoke to the BBC's Newsnight programme last night. He was in the UK launching a programme called The Climate Project to pass on the message he's been spreading on climate change, most notably in the film An Inconveniant Truth. He revealed to reporter Roger Harrabin that his attempts to install renewable technologies to his own house were being hampered by local planning rules. Gore has received stick in recent week for his own carbon footprint, which he said were based on inaccurate figures. "We are in the midst of rennovations (on our house) but we are running up against law that prevent the installation of photovoltaic cells. We are trying to change those laws," he said.

Tidal stream energy plant to power 5,000 homes

The first commercial scale tidal stream energy plant capable of producing enough energy to power up to  5,000 homes will be developed by Lunar Energy and E.ON UK, the company that runs Powergen. Utilising Rotech Tidal Turbine units, the power project, based in the sea off the west coast, can create up to 8 MWs. Once completed it will be the first of its kind anywhere in the world.