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Sunday 10 December 2004
| Coming up next time (10 January): | |
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News |
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Case study - an architect’s office |
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Pick of the papers - recent research reports |
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Regulars - books reviews, jobs and competitions |
Thanks to:
All the people who took part in the Feature article
Not quite according to plan
While flicking through magazines, journals and press releases last month, in preparation for this issue of Get Sust!, I spotted two articles that grated on my nerves. They described new construction projects that purport to be sustainable - yet one is built on a greenfield site with no infrastructure and where 1200 staff will need to be transported to and from the building each day, while the other is fully air-conditioned and has a basement that incorporate parking for over 1000 cars (although, at least it was on a brownfield site).
I can’t name and shame these buildings (I don’t want to be sued), but suffice to say one is an award-winning office in the north-east of England, and the other is a futuristic offering from Los Angeles.
This set me wondering: ‘How can we cut through this “greenwash”?’ So I asked a dozen of the UK’s leading players in the sustainable construction sector to come up with theanswer. The results are given in the feature article below.
So, apologies to those of you who were expecting a full round-up of news, research reports and case studies - there just wasn’t room to fit them all in. Back to normal in January.
Look out for Get Sust! no. 9 on 10 January. In the meantime, keep the news and comments flowing in. Send items and requests for information to editor@get-sust.com.
| © Melanie Thompson 2004 |  |
The truth about ‘green’ buildings
You could be forgiven for thinking that 2004 has been a great year for sustainable construction. We’ve seen several high-profile projects in the UK and the USA laying claim to sustainable credentials this year, but there is a strong whiff of ‘greenwash’ in the air. It’s not always easy to suss the spin from the truth so, with the aim of helping you all to ‘Get Sust’, we asked a dozen UK experts what makes a sustainable building.‘
It is not easy to recognise sustainability from a building’s appearance,’ says Professor Terry Wyatt, Partner at Hoare Lea Consulting Engineers and immediate Past President of CIBSE. ‘Sustainability is about the technical, environmental, economic and social aspects of energy, water, wastes and materials. Far and away the most important concern is energy or, more properly, carbon emissions.
‘In a truly sustainable building, hidden features would ensure that the building has negligible heat losses from conduction or air leakage of its envelope... The very small heating needs would be met by a combination of solar-thermal and either ground-source heat pump or fully-condensing boiler, which would also provide hot water supplies via a storage vessel. Lighting would be daylight augmented with a (fully controlled) high-efficiency combination of electronic compact fluorescent and LCD lamps.
Keeping up appearances
‘What is lacking from this sort of building,’ admits Wyatt. ‘Is the means to counteract the Wow! factor of some recent faux-sustainable iconic buildings, and this is where it is vitally important that we designers urgently apply, or obtain from other industries, some concentrated design effort.’
Professor David Elliott, of the Open University’s Energy and Environment Research Unit also focuses on energy:
‘Only 3 percent of those surveyed in a recent National Opinion Poll on climate change said that domestic energy use was part of the problem - they mostly thought it was someone else's fault. And yet energy use in and by buildings is responsible for about 50 percent of the UK's climate changing emissions. So my first criteria for any green energy project is: will potential consumers see it as relevant? If not, it will be ignored. This implies that the building’s environmental benefits should be clear - to put the issue on the consumers’ agenda.
‘Secondly, will it last? Complex new energy supply technologies may need too much maintenance. Simple design changes, for example to avoid heat losses, are far better - and are usually cheaper.’
Trish Andrews, of the Centre for Alternative Technology also mentions appearances:
‘A common misconception is that because a building looks ‘green’ on the surface, it must be... When we think of ‘green’ buildings we should be thinking holistically about a project. For a building to be green it should be deemed so through the whole of its parts - the environmental impact of all the materials used, but also the design decisions made and the processes themselves involved in the whole approach to the project.
Craig Anders, Design Director for INTEGER Intelligent and Green Ltd, and Partner at Cole Thompson Associates says:
‘We are occasionally asked if we could ‘green’ someone else’s standard traditional building, to give it a bit more sustainability credibility, that is - a form of ‘greenwash’. We have to explain that it’s not just a case of bolting on a few accessories, but requires an holistic vision going back to first principles of orientation, building shape, window sizes, construction techniques, waste minimisation, effective use of materials, embodied energy and many more factors.
‘A truly ‘green’ building would not necessarily be immediately obvious, because many of the features which give it the ‘green’ credentials would most likely not be visible. For example, pre-fabricated foundations, timber frame, use of thermal mass, insulation levels, re-cycled grey water or rainwater and various others are all hidden away.’
What not to wear
Anders adds: ‘The appearance of shading devices, solar and PV panels, passive stack ventilators and south-facing conservatory spaces would indicate that there is a ‘green’ agenda for the building, providing that these elements are used correctly. When shading devices are seen on north-facing windows there is a strong possibility that these are token ‘style accessories’, whose purpose is not understood, and the building is most likely not as green as the designers and client would have you believe.’
So, our experts say that - at the moment - a truly green building will not necessarily stand out from the crowd. But by 2006, when the EU’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) is implemented, we should all be in a much better position to suss out the spin - or will we? Not necessarily, says David Strong, Managing Director of BRE Environment:
‘The introduction of building energy labelling, as a consequence of the EPBD, should make it much more difficult for developers and architects to make exaggerated claims regarding the energy performance of new buildings, but only if the government adopts a single national calculation method for non-domestic buildings. This would provide prospective purchasers or tenants with an energy Asset Rating produced in a repeatable and reliable manner using a common methodology.
‘However, if the government permits a variety of proprietary tools to be used to generate the Asset Rating, there will be little consistency in the rating result and enforcement of building regulations will remain weak, with the energy performance certificate being of questionable value.’
Until then, we need to rely on established tools and techniques to help us to cut through the greenwash.
‘Addressing sustainability in its broadest sense means including social, economic and environmental issues... from the outset,’ advises David Turrent of ECD Architects, and the RIBA’s Sustainability Working Group. ‘Adopt a rigorous approach to resource efficiency and setting targets (for example, 50 percent improvement on current standards) for energy use, water consumption and waste re cycling. Think also about the embodied energy of materials used in construction (using the Green Guide to Specification, perhaps) and local sourcing of materials. Aim to minimise CO2 emissions (10-20kg/m2/pa) and achieve an Excellent rating with either BREEAM or EcoHomes.’
We can also look to government and non-governmental sources for inspiration - both domestic and non-domestic.
Michael Watkins, Head of Estate Strategy and Services Division at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says:
‘Sustainability...is also about people being comfortable in the built environment. In refurbishing its Nobel House HQ office, Defra has focused on ensuring that all aspects of the work are done with sustainability in mind. Our goal is to make the working environment sustainable - for the planet and for the building’s occupants. As it is a flagship project we also want to demonstrate that similar projects can be built and maintained.
The project will be completed by the end of 2005, and key features include: re-use of existing timber where possible and new timber from sustainable sources; recycling of demolition waste wherever possible; natural ventilation of offices and ammonia chilling for unventilated conference rooms; carpets with a high content of recycled material; installation of a combined heat and power plant; full sustainability evaluation of materials; energy and water efficient fittings and sheep's wool insulation in partitions.’
Dr Ian Selby, Research and Policy Director at British Council for Offices (BCO) is keen to stress that sustainability is a central concern of the office sector, and the BCO is actively promoting best practice and funding research into sustainable issues. While for the housing sector, Clive Clowes, Assistant Director for Investment at The Housing Corporation says:
‘The Housing Corporation, which funds the government’s provision of affordable housing in England, building 67,000 new homes in 2004/05, promotes sustainable communities - sustainable in the broadest sense (mix of tenures, people, housing types etc) - as well as the environmental sense. We do not issue our own ‘green’ classification, but we do insist that all new developments achieve a Good EcoHomes rating, as part of our overarching Scheme Development Standards. Overall, a scheme scores more highly if the ecological value of the land or area is enhanced as a result of the development.
So much for major projects: shouldn’t we first look to our own homes? Andrew Warren, Director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy has some sound advice:
‘Want to avoid greenwash in buildings?
| • | Check out how many air-changes per hour take place. The fewer the better; into low single figures, because the more the air rushes through, the more you are heating up the outside. |
| • | Do concentrate most of all on minimising the amount of fuel required for heating, and for hot water. Those are the two aspects of any home which tick up the units most - well over 75% in the average home. |
| • | How ancient is the boiler? Is it serviced regularly? Just because the loft was insulated years ago, it doesn't mean it still is - the material may well have shifted around, and be far too thin (250 mm is the recommendation). |
| • | All appliances should be A++ rated. (Look for the ‘Energy Efficiency’ triangle.) |
| • | Are the walls insulated? |
| • | And - if you are a real nerd - check out what insulation there is below the downstairs floor boards - your home can lose 15% of its heat through the floor!’ |
And finally, perhaps now is the time for a little more straight-talking? Professor Susan Roaf of Oxford Brookes University has published several books on sustainability, including Closing the loop: Benchmarks for sustainable buildings.
‘This is an issue that I am passionate about,’ says Professor Roaf. ‘In Closing the Loop we have tried to provide a range of indicators (sort of sustainability yardsticks) thatprovide a crude indication of how green or grey a building is. The idea is to give people an idea of where a building stands on such a scale, instead of a ‘shopping list’ of features.
‘But it has become more and more obvious that one of the main barriers to better buildings is not bricks and mortar at all, but the issue of whether or not we have a free and open press that is willing to promote the truly sustainable buildings. We really must now be more honest about the performance of our buildings so we can learn what does and does not work and use that knowledge to make better buildings.’
‘Green’ buildings should be excellent pieces of architecture that also happen to be sustainable; adding a green agenda to a dull design will only give green buildings a bad name,’ says Craig Anders.
Learn more:
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• | Professor Terry Wyatt, Partner Hoare Lea Consulting Engineers; Past President Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE). http://www.cibse.org. |
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• | Professor David Elliott, Energy and Environment Research Unit, The Open University. http://eeru.open.ac.uk. |
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• | Trish Andrews, Centre for Alternative Technology
(CAT), Machynlleth. http://www.cat.org.uk. |
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• | Craig Anders, INTEGER Intelligent & Green
Design Director, Partner, Cole Thompson Associates. http://www.colethompson.co.uk. |
| • | David Strong, Managing Director BRE Environment. http://www.bre.co.uk. | |
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• | Michael Watkins, Head of Estate Strategy and Services Division, Defra. http://www.defra.gov.uk. |
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• | Dr Ian Selby, Research & Policy Director, British Council for Offices. http://www.bco.org.uk. |
| • | Clive Clowes, Assistant Director of Investment, the Housing Corporation. http://www.housingcorp.gov.uk. | |
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• | Andrew Warren, Director, Association for the Conservation of Energy. http://www.ukace.org. |
| • | Susan Roaf, Department of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University. http://www.brookes.ac.uk. |
| © Melanie Thompson 2004 | |
Students stand firm on sustainability
According to a report in this week’s Guardian, there is trouble brewing at the University of East Anglia, home of the world-renowned Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Apparently, the University is hoping to build a £10million multistorey car park. Mike Hulme, executive director of the Tyndall Centre is quoted as saying that, instead of planning a car park, the UEA should be setting an example by developing a university-level sustainable transport plan.
Meanwhile across the pond, students at Stanford University, California, are outraged at plans to build housing for 600 graduate students which is not energy efficient and which will cast shadows over existing buildings.
Protesters say that the design will spoil neighbouring buildings by casting deep shadows over adjacent undergraduate dormitories and making nearby paths dark for much of the winter. They organised a protest against the proposals that included educational demonstrations, tours and discussions, and backed up their claims with a 14-page report based on simulations of the effects of the new buildings.
Learn more:
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• | Source: Eco sounding in The Guardian (Society) page 12, 8 December 2004. |
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• | Source: ‘Outcry casting shadow
on plans for new dorms’, by Lisa M. Krieger, San Jose Mercury News, 30 November 2004. |
| © Melanie Thompson 2004 | |
UK targets beyond reach
This week Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) admitted that current policies are not tough enough to meet the government’s own targets for reducing carbon emissions. However, the UK will meet its Kyoto obligations.
To meet the tougher target of a 20 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2010 we need new ideas, and so the government will revise the UK Climate Change Programme in the first half of 2005. A 12-week consultation period has now begun to gather these ideas, with responses required by 2 March.
Learn more:
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• | Details of the consultation are available from Lisa Stratford, National Climate Change Policy Division, Defra. E-mail: ccpr@defra.gsi.gov.uk. |
| © Melanie Thompson 2004 | |
Are you a swiker?
If you are, then the Architecture Research Unit of the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development at Oxford Brookes University would like to heard from you!
Wikipedias are ‘open-source’ encyclopaedias on the internet that are actually built by the people using them. Dr Rajat Gupta and Professor Susan Roaf from Brookes are working with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), India and Institut Català d’Energia (ICAEN), Spain to develop the first multilingual on-line encyclopaedia on sustainable buildings, which they are calling the Swikipedia (sustainability wikipedia). Their two-year SHADA project, funded by the European Commission, will build the Swikipedia, which will contain tools on building performance evaluation, case studies, e-forums and links to other online resources.
Why not become a Swiker yourself by adding to the site? Every entry is credited, and you will be helping to spread knowledge of best practice.
Learn more:
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• | See http://www.sustainable-buildings.org
or contact Rajat Gupta. E-mail: rgupta@brookes.ac.uk. |
| © Melanie Thompson 2004 | |
Award for concrete researcher
Last week, Huiying Zhu (known as Ying) of Sheffield University’s Centre for Cement and Concrete was awarded the 2004 Concrete Society National Student prize for his work as part of a major study on the use of waste glass as an aggregate and pozzolan in concrete manufacture.
The studies, funded by WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme), found that ground glass pozzolana is suitable for use as a pozzolanic cement replacement material and that concrete products containing waste glass complied with appropriate British Standards. This means that the construction industry can have greater confidence in recycled glass as a material that can be used in concrete.
The studies also showed that the harmful alkali-silica reaction (ASR) can be eliminated by ASR suppressants and smaller glass particle sizes.
Learn more:
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• | The final reports of the ConGlassCrete I and II studies are available to download from the WRAP website at http://www.wrap.org.uk. |
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• | See also ‘Studies on mechanical properties of concrete containing waste glass aggregate’ by Seung Bun Park, Bong Chun Lee and Jeong Hwan Kim, Cement and Concrete Research, Volume 34, Issue 12 , December 2004, pp. 2181-2189. Available on-line at http://www.sciencedirect.com. |
| © Melanie Thompson 2004 | |
Aggregates case studies on-line
WRAP, the Waste and Resources Action Programme, has relaunched AggRegain, an information service on the use of recycled and secondary aggregates. The new website features a large number of case studies that demonstrate the cost and environmental benefits of using recycled materials.
Learn more:
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• | Visit http://www.aggregain.org.uk. |
| © Melanie Thompson 2004 | |
Hurry for super books sale
The Architectural Press is offering 20 percent off all books, providing you order before 15 December. All you have to do is quote the code: ACV6 when you place your order.
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• | Please note: This fantastic offer is available for all published books advertised on http://books.elsevier.com except multi-volume major reference works. |
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Solar radiation conference report
This month sees the on-line publication of a special issue of the journal Energy, which reports on the conference ‘Measurement and Modelling of Solar Radiation and Daylight - Challenges for the 21st Century’ held in Edinburgh in September 2003.
This issue includes several papers on techniques for predicting solar radiation for renewable energy projects.
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• | ‘Measurement and Modelling of Solar Radiation and Daylight - Challenges for the 21st Century’, Edited by T. Muneer, T. Grassie, S. Munawwar, Volume 30, Issue 9, pp 1499-1697 (July 2005) is available on-line at http://www.sciencedirect.com. |
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Energy Rating of Residential Buildings
A practical guide for energy rating and efficiency
edited by M Santamouris, published by Earthscan
This book is the result of an EC-funded project called EUROCLASS, which reviewed energy ratings across Europe. The book gives detailed information about the theory and practice of energy rating for residential buildings. It also describes new experimental techniques for evaluating energy performance using data from energy bills and monitoring. The book includes audit forms and a CD-ROM to support these techniques.
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• | ‘Energy Rating of Residential Buildings; A Practical Guide for Energy Rating and Efficiency’ edited by M Santamouris, 154 pages hardback, priced £65. Published by Earthscan, ISBN 1-902916-49-2. Visit http://www.earthscan.co.uk, or order a copy via http://www.amazon.co.uk. |
| © Melanie Thompson 2004 | |
Construction technology - how are we going to build the architecture of tomorrow?
This two day conference, organised by the Building Centre Trust, will examine developments in construction technology and how they should shape the teaching of construction professionals for the future.
Chaired by Chris Cross, secretary of the Standing Conference of Heads of Schools of Architecture (SCHOSA), the conference is particularly relevant to schools of architecture, engineering and building, those involved in technical research, policy makers and recruitment. It takes place at Sage Music Centre in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear on 6 and 7 January 2005.
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• | Price £190 + VAT (includes
the conference dinner and a tour of the Sage Gateshead). Contact Lisa-Raine Hunt. E-mail: lrhunt@buildingcentre.co.uk or visit http://www.buildingcentretrust.org. |
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Educators for sustainability
Dr Adrian Pitts, Senior Lecturer on Energy, Environment and Sustainability at Sheffield University’s School of Architecture is organising the second annual ‘educators for sustainable architecture’ conference, which will be held on 12 January 2005.
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• | For more details contact Dr Adrian Pitts. E-mail: a.c.pitts@sheffield.ac.uk. |
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Looking ahead - Ecobuild: designing and building a sustainable future
Ecobuild is a two-day, high-level conference focusing exclusively on the challenges faced by the building and design community to deliver a greener future for Britain’s towns and cities. Drawing on case studies from around the world, Ecobuild will examine best building design principles in green build, new energy technologies and methods of assessing building performance. There will also be an exhibition, seminars and workshops.
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• | Ecobuild is on 24 and 25 May 2005 at the QEII Conference Centre, Westminster, London. For details, contact Jayne Van Hoen. E-mail: jayne@cityscapeonline.com or visit http://www.ecobuild.co.uk. |
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