zerochampion

New Year new job

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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.

Balls to Balls

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Martin, who has a natty new look, has flagged up Ed Balls' intention for every new school to be zero carbon by 2016. Er, joined up thinking anyone? This statement comes out on the same day that The UK Green Building Council say it's possible, I repeat, possible ,that zero carbon non-domestic buildings can be achieved by 2020. That's four years later. It appears that Balls and his pals over at education may not be talking to the team over at the Department of Communities. Or else he's after a cheap headline.

More zero carbon follies

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The proposal to build an eco estate at Hanham Hall, a disused hospital site in Bristol, has been kicking around for a while. It was one of the sites identified under the government’s Carbon Challenge, an initiative that has been somewhat trodden underfoot in all the excitement about Code Level 6 and the ten eco towns. Anyway, last Friday the government, in the persona of none other than the ubiquitous Yvette Cooper, announced that a winner has been selected to develop the Hanham Hall site. And the winner was…..

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Barratt Homes!

And the next Code is

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So we end 2007 with yet another report and yet another major piece of future legislation for the industry to grapple with. This one's for non-domestic buildings and the report has been worked on for government by the UK Green Building Council. Although the code is some way off the UKGBC is talking 2020 as the date when zero carbon buildings can be achieved. It would be easy to dismiss as another document with heady ambitions leading to botched delivery but I see the report somewhat differently.

A sceptic speaks

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It's always interesting to hear from a sceptic on the consensus that has built around climate change and what needs to be done to tackle it. One such voice is broadcaster David Cox, who was interviewed in the Westminster Hour last night on Radio 4. His line is that our current drive to cut emissions is doomed - he voiced a similar opinion in the Guardian back in 2006.

Bali thoughts

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Hard to know what to think and feel after the Bali agreement that was struck early this weekend. I viewed the surreal soap opera on the TV wondering whether this was really the best way for us to strike such a critical deal, or as it has now been unfortunately and ironically dubbed "a roadmap". And I couldn't help but agreeing with a leader in yesterday's Telegraph (in spite of its hint of denial, confirmed by some typically loopy commenters) that such a process is far from effective or instructive, that such a deal should be negotiated in different circumstances and with the critical role of scientists as well as politicians.

Why go Code Level 5 or 6?

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So asks Pooran Desai from BioRegional Quintain in another excellent article in today's Building Design. He works out the paybacks and savings on going to levels 5 or 6 of the Code for Sustainable Homes and they don't amount to a hill of beans. Level 4 "is where we should probably be as an industry for the foreseeable future" he say. And then concentrate on renewable energy policy and on transport, where major gains can be made on emissions rather than spending wads of cash on upgrading to the upper echelons of the code.

Sustainability and PFI

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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.

One less blogger in town

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Following the hasty departure of Judith Armitt as Thames Gateway chief executive earlier this week I see that the blog that she intermitently had kept up is now officially "closed" as of yesterday. That means you can't even access the comments that were on the site previously, which seems a little heavy handed to me. Blogging is surely about being a little freer with opinion and information, rather than the straightjacket of civil service. Perhaps she will vent her spleen about the bureaucratic nightmare of local and central government in a new independent one free from the constraints of an official departmental website.

Hybrid debate

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Interesting sponsored debate backed by Lexus on the future for hybrid cars on a site called the hybrid debate. It seems to have been up for a couple of months now and has some high profile writer on it including Bob Geldof, but unfortunately does not appear to have sparked too much online discussion or postings as yet.