More on green health buildings - SHINE

The current issue of the AJ devotes 26 pages to healthcare buildings, including my feature on natural ventilation. One of the frustrations of feature writing is what to do with all the extra research that doesn’t end up finding its way into the magazine due to lack of space.
Here is a case in point: for [...]

Last week we had bamboo bikes, now it’s solar planes…

Footprint goes to Wimbledon

Friday was a thrilling day, courtesy of Excel, manufacturer of Warmcel cellulose insulation. Excel invited six journalists for a day out at Wimbledon, including Centre Court seats to watch Federer play Kohlschreiber. Initially it looked like it would be a quick game with Federer taking the first two sets 6-3 and 6-2. But Kohlschreiber fought back [...]

Are more wind farms the answer?

The Telegraph published an article today outlining the Government’s plan to provide electricity to every British home by 2020 via offshore wind turbines.
To meet this target, 7000 new turbines would be required to provide an extra 25GW of power to the national grid. Currently 8GW is generated from 210 existing  offshore and 2000 on-land turbines. An additional £15 billion, provided [...]

All those confusing carbon targets

It’s hard to keep track of the various carbon targets which are constantly changing and the acronyms of the various government departments dealing with climate change. A discouraging article in today’s Guardian, which cites the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research - a cross-disciplinary group of academics from several UK universities, provides a good short summary of what’s at [...]

The latest Met climate projections

Last week the Met Office released a long awaited update of its climate projections (previous projections 2002) based on probability analysis of low, medium and high carbon emissions scenarios. Data across the UK is refined to a level of a 25 square kilometre grid. That means that any project now can be ‘future-proofed’  in terms [...]

Boris’s electric car plan stalls


London Councils have expressed concern over the Mayor’s £60 million plan to see 100 000 electric cars in London by 2025.

The nitty gritty of refurb

 

The Green Register, in association with RIBA Wessex/SW, is running a new course on refurbishing existing housing which will be offered for the first time in Bristol next week on Wed June 24. If work is slow and you’re near Bristol, you might want to dish out the £175 fee and attend.
Sessions include:
Refit West Project- refitting 1000 [...]

Surprise at BDP

I met Richard Buckingham today who joined BDP from Arup eight months ago to head up sustainability. I was surprised to learn that he is neither an architect nor an engineer. He is a social scientist and believes that if we are going to progress the sustainability agenda, it’s behavior that has to change. ‘We [...]

Bamboo bike? Only if you’ve got £3000 to spare


This bamboo bike makes cycling an even more sustainable method of transport. Produced by California-based Calfee Design,