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New York Times building video (part 1)

Events and Ken

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A quick scan of the homepage of mayor of London's website tells its own story. The left hand column flags up policy, namely the launch of his budget to green the capital. The rest of the page is dominated with his battle with the media, from Channel 4 who screened a critical Dispatches documentary on Monday night (that has a whole column) to the Evening Standard and the BBC. Oh, and there's two pictures of the man himself staring at you just in case you weren't quite sure who the mayor is.

Existing housing stock, you shall go to the ball

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Exciting talk from pioneering housing association director, Richard Baines, from Black Country HA at the National Housing Federation Environmental Sustainability Conference earlier today. He talked of wonderful improvements in green housing technology for exising homes including: nanoinsulation which achieves excellent figures at a tenth of the width - great for underfloor and tight roof spots; new wind turbines from Northern Ireland which might help keep the blades turning even when fixed to house gables; and gas-effect fires with small back boilers to allow water and space heating all in one.

The R word and sustainability

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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?

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.

Weekend Review

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Most of the time, season-based journalism merely induces eye-rolling but this year it's hard not to feel uncomfortable reading (for example) Titchmarsh's annual 'cold spell can prove magical, column when Friday was the warmest January night ever recorded and there's seemed to have been a warm sou'wester (in London at least) blowing for a fortnight. Perhaps I am being sensitive.

The Weekly Green Gauge

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Just say POE

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If there's anything we can learn from the "Princess Diana is Still Dead" court case (I presume it's a court case although it could quite easily be a strange dream someone had after eating too many Cheezy Wotsits) it is surely that hopes and reality - both ours and Diana's - are often sharply at variance. "Being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be," she once said with some understatement.

Radiohead live

Post occupation evaluation, the defence

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Trust an engineer to perform a close reading of a House of Commons committee hearing. Iain Fraser, environmental engineer, from Chapman Bathurst has responded to my recent report that only 9% of Government buildings meet eco-standards saying that the thinks it most unlikely that the BRE will consent to a BREEAM-lite since it is so well-established and "as they see it fit for purpose." It was the suggestion of the committee head, Edward Leigh MP who had noted that smaller projects were more likely to lack BREEAM rating.

Life's not always a breeze

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The planners have put the boot in again on a rural wind turbine; this time at the village of Hockerton site of the UK’s first earth sheltered, self-sufficient ecological housing development. Residents of Hockerton in Nottinghamshire have had their hopes for England’s first community-owned wind turbine severely dampened by the local planning authority’s concerns about views from a neighbouring village.