'The Icing on the Cake'

A cake, made by members of the office, celebrates the completion of the BFI Master Film Store in the New Year.

What has George Osborne done to the Construction Industry now?

The inter-disciplinary membership of the Edge (think-tank) http://www.edgedebate.com regularly debate current issues of substance, including the failure of our construction industry to fully embrace the opportunities offered by and our responsbilities arising from Climate Change. So agreeing a letter to send to the Chancellor of the Exchequer about his recent disastrous back-sliding was going to be hard work; coordinated by Simon Foxell, the letter was sent to Osborne on 9th Dec and the FT. President of CIBSE Andy Ford then suggested he and other Presidents should sign it and an abbreviated letter was circulated more widely.

The Daily Telegraph published it yesterday (15th Dec) signed by me as Convenor of the Edge and Presidents Andy Ford (CIBSE), Angela Brady (RIBA) and Prof. Roger Plank (IStructE) on http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/8956670/Raising-the-price-of-alcohol-will-not-tackle-the-culture-of-binge-drinking.html - please scroll down to the end of the letters to find it.


Hattie Hartmann later covered it in the AJ in her review of 2011 http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/8623845.article for subscribers and today Building wrote it up on http://www.building.co.uk/5029337.article?origin=bldgweeklynewsletter

The next question is how to build on this in support of the sterling efforts of Government Chief Construction Adviser Paul Morrell at BIS and the Green Construction Board, on which Edge members Lynne Sullivan and Sunand Prasad sit. Why not ask the President of your institution what they are doing to change the views of the Treasury as green construction is an essential part of the economic recovery we all need.

Coming soon to a cinema near you (fingers crossed)

Last Thursday the All Parliamentary Party Climate Change Group in conjunction with the German Embassy screened “The 4th Revolution: Energy Autonomy” by Carl-A. Fletcher. The film presents a vision of a world powered entirely by renewable energy, accessible to everyone irrespective of geographic location or wealth. This is done by introducing the viewer to exemplar projects across the planet alongside listening to prominent players in the energy market.

Fletcher’s movie is thought provoking and leaves us asking why are we not striving for this wholly achievable future in the UK. That was certainly the question on many people’s lips at the closing Q&A session. Most were stunned by the impassioned words of Prof. Dr. Olav Hohmeyer as he presented Germans newly comissioned report for 100% renewable by 2050. If the Germans can do it without pandering to the persuasive nuclear lobby groups, then why shouldn’t we.



For the SRU 100% renewable report please follow the link below

http://www.umweltrat.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/EN/02_Special_Reports/2011_10_Special_Report_Pathways_renewables.html

Are big businesses getting it?

After years of wondering what we have to do to encourage our clients and big business generally to start investing to save carbon, energy and money, I was really heartened by a presentation this week by Nigel Graham of Whitbreads; I was sharing a platform with him at a Construction Products Association http://www.constructionproducts.org.uk/ networking event at BIS. Whitbread no longer make beer but are expanding their hotel chain (Premier Inn), their coffee bars (Costa) and other brands.

Nigel explained that they had been driven to invest by the rising cost of energy, landfill and the Carbon Reduction Commitment. Following footprinting work, they invested £3m in LEDs and were delighted that it paid for itself in 18 months - easy! They then footprinted a hotel bed and discovered that 87% of the carbon was in the materials and 57% of that was in the cotton sheet; so now they are tying to reduce their dependency, especially as the price of cotton has tripled in the last three years.

In the same session Rob Lambe of Willmott Dixon explained how WDC were aiming for zero waste from sites and carbon neutrality by 2012! He very rightly complained that the Treasury Green Book promoted While Life Value but that no one in the public sector does it!

There is no doubt that the Treasury is the biggest block to carbon and energy reduction, surrounded as they are by big capital and the utility companies; we must all take every opportunity to talk about this to politicians, to the press and to our public sector clients and act in a politically relevant way.

The Green Economy

I was pleasantly surprised by the feisty performance put up by Tory Minister Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State at Defra, at the Aldersgate group meeting on Thursday; when challenged as to 'what can we do about George (Osborne)?' she replied that 'he had stumped up not £1bn, not £2bn but £3bn for the Green Investment Bank'. Not that the audience was impressed as the Aldersgate Group has been campaigning long and hard for the GIB's right to borrow, which George continues to deny.

Aldersgate Chairman Peter Young finished the evening with 6 points from the Group's Growth Statement that the Green economy will drive jobs and investment (my abbreviated notes):
1. Ensure Entreprise Zones are driving green growth
2. Set a clear rationale for meeting targets for environmental taxes
3. Ensure the Green Investment Bank can borrow from capital markets
4. Work with business to address green skills gap
5. Streamline the climate change and energy policy landscape to encourage investment in energy efficiency
6. Enhance the role of public procurement and increase support for research and demonstration.

Ideas First - and a talk on our work in Libya 2008-11

Yesterday's news was an important tipping point for the new government in ending the job of war and beginning the perhaps more difficult job of future building. It will also give confidence to the Libyan people to disarm and return to work, and with leadership and security comes stability and growth.

However this is also a dangerous moment for Libya's future. An emerging government with so much to do so quickly may find the pressure of big business at the gates very hard to resist. But resist they must for there is too much at stake in Libya - archaeology, biodiversity, wild landscapes and coastlines, social needs and fragile micro-economies - to let a period of unmanaged growth compromise the promise of a new future for the deserving Libyan people.

Nowhere is there more need to plan carefully for sensitive growth than in the Green Mountain, east of Benghazi, where we spent almost three years working (and at times, living) alongside our Libyan friends and partners, helping to write a plan for the region's future. Our Shahat Garden City project was a worked example of many of our ideas for new economies, renewable energy, valued public spaces and low energy housing, offering both privacy with density. All this took care to demonstrate the value of archaeology, farming, biodiversity and climate as treasured parts of the region's natural but so often forgotten assets.

Without leaders who know the value of the work that has already been done towards Libya's sustainable future, and who have the courage to manage development until approved strategies are in place, the moment may pass with an opportunity missed.

The next phase should be about ideas not contracts.

[Goodenough College, (London, WC1N 2AB) will be hosting an evening talk on our work in Libya 2008-11 on Monday 24 October at 8pm, titled: "Libya's 'Foreign' Cities: how lessons from the ancient world, fascism and the sustainability agenda could inform an appropriate Libyan urbanism after Gadaffi."]

Future Healthcare

Cullinan's Team Community Health attended a keynote speech by the former Secretary of State for Health Alan Milburn at the opening of the Future Health & Care Expo this week.

Milburn is an engaging speaker and he persuasively outlined five major challenges facing the NHS today:

1. Demography: How do we care for an ageing population?


2. Malady: Chronic, not infectious, disease is increasingly prevalent, which requires a movement from a focus on treatment to a focus on preventative action.


3. Citizen Centred: There is a need for more treatment in the community lessening the demand placed on hospitals.


4. Higher Expectations: Patients are more informed than ever with greater demands for quality of treatment and use of technology.


5. Money: Spending will need to decrease. A higher proportion of funding will go towards primary care with less spent on hospitals.

These concerns brought to mind our own Lambeth Community Care Centre which is a pioneering intermediate health facility that bridges the gap between GP surgeries and hospitals at the heart of the Lambeth Community. Perhaps something akin to this typology needs to be revisited by health practitioners to meet future health needs in this country? For more on this and our other healthcare projects see here.