Search Results for: government

March 7, 2013

Green Construction Board publishes carbon emissions routemap

by Sara Bean • Environment, Knowledge, News, Property

Carbon

The Green Construction Board has called for urgent action to reduce carbon emissions as it published a new plan for the sector to meet national carbon reduction targets. The Low Carbon Routemap for the Built Environment, launched at this week’s Ecobuild sets out what is required from the construction industry to achieve its UK government target of an 80 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2050. The GCB also published its ‘Top Twenty Tips’ for greening the industry with a case study engine showing examples of good practice. More →

March 6, 2013

Buying green products should involve a closer look at the supply chain

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Environment, Facilities management, Workplace design

Last year’s unrest in the Chinese factory that is a principal manufacturer of the iPhone5 shone a light into one of the usually dark corners of modern life. Namely that beneath the sleek facades of the products we buy lies the story of their production, transportation, marketing and eventual demise. Look further back than the factory and it usually starts with a hole in the ground; and, in the case of the iPhone, an open-cast rare earth mine in the Nevada desert which produces the raw materials for the cutting edge technologies that make our lives tick.

March 5, 2013

Green issues still a core business concern for managers

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

Green biz

Green issues have become a core business concern amongst managers responsible for the built environment, says the chair of the Green Building Council Andrew Gould in his introduction to a series of essays which highlight the benefits of a sustainable built environment as a driver for growth. Senior executives from 15 major companies, including Atkins, Balfour Beatty and E.ON, have written the pieces which outline the business case for green buildings and infrastructure. Added Gould: “At the start of 2013, with the short-medium term economic forecast only a little improved, the sustainability agenda is actually in rude health.”

March 1, 2013

Widespread adoption of BIM moves closer

by Sara Bean • Architecture, Knowledge, Legal news, News, Property, Public Sector, Technology, Workplace design

BIM_3D_prototype_-_Modus

The widespread adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in architecture, design and construction has moved closer with the publication by the Construction Industry Council (CIC) yesterday of the BIM Protocol, a legal framework for BIM projects. The use of BIM as a collaborative way of working that utilises digital technologies for more efficient methods of designing, creating and maintaining properties has been described as a game-changing ICT and cultural process for the built environment, with the Government’s intention to require collaborative 3D BIM on all its projects by 2016

March 1, 2013

Working ‘proper hours’ may no longer be possible

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Knowledge, Workplace

Today is the Trades Union Congress’s self-styled ‘Work Your Proper Hours Day’. Last week the TUC announced that it had used Government statistics to calculate that more than 5 million UK employees put in an average of over 7 hours of unpaid overtime a week, adding around £28 billion a year to the economy. Like me, you might be surprised the figures are that low and certainly I think a lot of people would be delighted to only put in an extra 7 hours a week. You might also be dismayed the TUC is advocating workers add less of their time into the economy by clocking off on time today. However, the bigger problem is surely with the language and ideas put forward by the TUC.

February 28, 2013

UK centralised public sector purchasing – still work to do

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Public Sector

The National Audit Office today publishes its report Improving Government Procurement. The mainstream media will doubtless stay focussed on the headline examples of ‘waste’, especially in high-spending and high-profile departments such as the MOD and NHS. But for the public sector and its suppliers there is more to be concerned about in one of the main conclusions of the report; that less than half of public sector spending in the UK is carried out across departments to take advantage of economies of scale. That this is the case has long been a source of frustration for those suppliers signed up to framework agreements who find that things aren’t as clear cut as they believe when it comes to purchasing decisions.

February 26, 2013

Psychrometry is key to holistic energy efficiency

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, Knowledge, News, Property

KS20 Psychrometry

A holistic energy efficiency strategy is needed to ensure a balance between efforts to make buildings more airtight and the need to increase ventilation. This is why an understanding of psychrometry is an increasingly important issue for the built environment. Psychrometry is used to prevent environments being created which are detrimental to health, either through too dry an atmosphere or conditions where damp and mould can flourish says the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) which has issued new guidance.

February 26, 2013

UAE’s infrastructure investment drives rapid construction sector growth

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Property

The full impact of high levels of government spending as well as private sector and foreign investment in infrastructure and development in the Gulf is evident in a new report from analysts RNCOS which claims that the construction sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to grow from its current size of $39.4bn at the end of 2012 by a compound rate of 9.5% a year until 2016. The report breaks the market down into four major areas of development; retail, residential, office and hospitality. The follow on effects for firms offering products and services will, of course, also be substantial.

February 26, 2013

Companies must develop a social purpose to survive

by Sara Bean • Environment, Knowledge, News, Technology, Workplace

Research-and-Futures-231x170

Company reputations could collapse in minutes and more firms will develop an explicit ‘social purpose’ according to a new report from Global corporate responsibility consultancy Corporate Citizenship. “Future Business: the four mega trends that every company needs to prepare for” identifies four mega-trends that it says are likely to shape the nature of business over the coming decade. According to the consultancy, over the last year the proportion of S&P 500 companies that report on sustainability performance has grown from one in five to over half and the over the coming decades, it expects at least as much change again.

February 25, 2013

Are you working or shirking from home?

by Sara Bean • Comment, Legal news, Technology, Workplace

Staff ill health

During recent weather-related travel disruption, I was inundated with various pieces of information on software that spies on home based employees to check that they really are working, not shirking from home. As Acas opens a consultation on a draft Code of Practice regarding the extended right to request flexible working; and figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show the number of people working from home in the UK has risen to over 10 per cent – the advent of these systems begs the question: do employers really trust their staff enough to let them work remotely?

February 25, 2013

Updated: nearly all London boroughs seek exemption from office conversion plan

by Sara Bean • Architecture, News, Property, Public Sector

City-of-London

Earlier, we reported that London’s Mayor Boris Johnson openly believes that London’s key business districts should be exempt from proposals to allow offices to be turned into homes without planning permission. Now a report emerges from CBRE that all but a handful of London’s boroughs are to seek to make themselves exempt from the rules. According to the research, only Barking and Dagenham, Greenwich, Croydon and Kingston are unlikely to seek an exemption. Four other boroughs are discussing plans with the Greater London Authority (GLA) and the remaining 25 are set to apply to make themselves exempt.

February 24, 2013

What gets measured in the workplace, gets managed

by Paul Statham • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace design

Are we finally seeing the first signs of the end of the downturn? Earlier this week the Government announced that UK unemployment had fallen. While I know there have been quibbles about what this all meant, other data from specific market sectors backs up the idea that we may be seeing some tentative causes for hope. One of the most heartening was last week’s survey from Randstad which reported growing levels of optimism among financial services firms about their prospects and the fact that the majority would be increasing headcount this year.