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Tag Archives: Buildings
Exploring the Role of Cities and Buildings in the Green Economy
July 2012: A short paper produced by the US Green Building Council (USGBC), and launced at the recent Rio+20 sustainable development conference, which captures conversations taken across the US on current barriers to improving the energy efficiency of buildings. The conclusions have many parallels to problems faced here in London and the UK, including issues such as low awareness of the potential of energy savings, financial barriers and regulatory hurdles. The paper can be downloaded here (scroll half way down linked page).
Designing Buildings for Future Climate – Conference
June 2012: An interesting one-day conference to be held at the Building Centre on Tuesday 12 June focusing on how future buildings will have to adapt as a result of climate change. The projects were supported through the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) Design for Future Climate: Adapting Buildings competition which funded 50 projects to assess climate change risks and develop adaptation strategies across a variety of building types including housing, schools, offices and university buildings.
A number of London projects were included in the project and will be highlighted during the day including: Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) Phase 2b, London Bridge Station Redevelopment, Andrew Ewing Primary School (Hounslow), the London School Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the University of Greenwich, and 100 City Road.
Attendance is free – further details of the event including agenda can be viewed here.
RE:FIT – Lessons from London
June 2012: Guardian news piece detailing the Mayor’s public sector building retrofit scheme, RE:FIT. Read the article here. Further information on RE:FIT here.
London Low Carbon Buildings: video case studies
May 2012: Regeneration and construction experts Wilmott Dixon have posted videos on Youtube of two developments that they have been working on in London with a specific brief to reduce energy and carbon emissions. These are:
Retrofit Case Study of a London Victorian Property – a good example of the type of activity that will need to go ahead under the Green Deal in London, with extensive use of IWI (internal wall insulation) resulting in a reduction of 50% in the energy baseline of the dwelling.
Building the zero carbon ‘in use’ Crouch Hill Community Park, Islington – An update on the Crouch Hill Community Park project, developed with Islington Borough Council, which is to be the UK’s first zero carbon ‘in use’ school with a community energy centre that will also provide heat to an adjacent housing estate.
Posted in News
Tagged Buildings, Energy Efficiency, Green Deal, insulation, Islington, Schools, Solid Wall Insulation
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Procurement of new RE:FIT Framework
March 2012: GLA start the procurement of a new RE:FIT framework, their programme working to support energy efficiency retrofits in public sector buildings.
The approval document sets out that “RE:FIT provides a commercial model for public bodies to implement energy efficiency and building integrated improvements to their buildings, reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions. The reduction in energy bills and the carbon footprint of buildings is achieved by appointing an EnergyService Company (ESCo) to undertake energy efficiency measures in buildings. The ESCo guarantees a set level of energy savings, this offers a financial saving over the period of the arrangement. The risk associated with the delivery of energy savings is passed onto the ESCo rather than the owner ofthe building.”
A new procurement framework is also being created as the approval form notes that the ” energy services market has also developed significantly since the current Framework was createdwith significant new players entering the market and therefore it is recommended that a new Framework is created by January 2013.”
Full details here. Further information on RE:FIT is also available on the GLA’s website.
‘Unstoppable! The rise and rise of Britain’s green buildings’
18 March 2012: The Independent highlights the increasing focus on sustainability and energy issues in the development of new buildings across the UK. The article lists 10 exemplar buildings, 6 of which are in London. Read the full story here. Further information on each of sites mentioned can be accessed via links below:
London’s Buildings need to adapt
March 2012: Research just released by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) highlights the challenges that many buildings will face in the future as a result of a changing climate. Increasing energy use is widely predicted responding to summer temperatures up to two degrees higher by 2030 and up to two degrees cooler in the winter. In particular, the report highlights that it is London ’s schools, offices and hospitals that will incur the largest increase in electricity demand as more power is used to maintain a ‘comfortable environment’. Read the RICS news release here and download the report – the Non-domestic Real Estate Climate Change Model here.
The report states [p10] that this ” research has been made possible only with the release of 64,803 Display Energy Certificate (DEC) records, secured with the help of the Urban Land Institute, which facilitated several Freedom of Information requests to obtain these data.” Unfortunately this data doesn’t appear to have been made publicly available by the Urban Land Institute – however – a simple map of DECs has been created so that individual buildings ratings can be viewed – see www.less-en.org.
Similar data was however also obtained recently by the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) and has been posted online for download at www.cse.org.uk. The spreadsheets contains data on energy use, floorspace, emissions and efficiency ratings for 40,000 buildings of over 1,000m2 in England and Wales that are visited by the public. See an earlier post for additional details.
Embodied Carbon Footprints Survey for the GLA
February 2012: The Greater London Authority (GLA) has commissioned Best Foot Forward to develop a Guide to encourage the wider and more consistent measurement and reporting of embodied (scope 3) carbon from the construction sector. A survey to help inform the study can be undertaken here.
The issue of quantifying indirect – or scope 3 emissions – are discussed in the GLA Climate Change and Mitigation Energy Strategy (CCMES) – released in late 2011. The Strategy sets out that:
“Scope 1 emissions refer to CO2 emissions from the combustionof energy sources within London. Scope 2 emissions refer to CO2 emissions associated with London’s consumption of purchased electricity, irrespective of whether this electricity isgenerated inside or outside of Greater London’s geographic boundaries. CO2 emissions are therefore accounted for at the point of energy use. This avoids double counting of emissions, and savings achieved on them. Scope 3 emissions are not included. Scope 3 emissions refer to all other indirect emissions not covered by scope 2. Examples of scope 3 emissions include those associated with London’s consumption of goods and services, its production of waste, and travel to and from the capital.”
There have been a number of estimates of London’s indirect CO2 emissions. In 2009, a Bioregional and London Sustainable Development Commission report, Capital Consumption, estimated London’s combined Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions to be 90 million tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2) per year based on 2004 data. This compares to 47 MtCO2 per year in 2004 for London’s scope 1 and 2 emissions.
The new study will help inform a specific action in the CCMES which is to expand the number of suppliers included in future measurements of the GLA group’s scope 3 emissions (Action 16.1).
Thermal Imaging of London’s skyline
7 February 2012: Daily Mail article on how “‘New thermal images show huge amounts of energy being wasted by UK firms” with pictures taken of “The skylines of London, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham as part of the Business Energy Insight scheme that will help firms with their energy bills.”
It’s not really clear how much these pictures actually reveal in terms of energy wastage – however above is the picture of London in case of interest!
Mayoral Funding to Low Carbon Initiatives
September 2011: Details of the Mayor’s recent funding support to London South Bank University’s (LSBU) Centre for Low Carbon Technology which will “enable emerging low carbon technologies to be researched, trialled and demonstrated in a full scale urban environment” and also the Better Buildings Partnership.
Wimbledon Low Carbon Workplace
August 2011: Architects have commenced planning consultation with Merton to create 25,000 sqft of contemporary office in Wimbledon, delivered as part the Low Carbon Workplace partnership. The partnership acquires buildings and updates them to provide modern, financially competitive and energy efficient offices and also works with occupiers, providing support to minimise their carbon emissions and to achieve the Carbon Trust’s Low Carbon Workplace Standard.
Better Metering Toolkit
August 2011: The Better Building Partnership (BBP), a collaborative project led by London’s leading commercial property owners and supported by the Mayor of London, has produced a guide designed to support both owners and occupiers in understanding the benefits of installing advanced metering systems in buildings, including the current options available. This and other studies undertaken by the Better Buildings Partnership available to download here.