Search Results for: climate change

May 31, 2017

Every building on the planet must be net zero carbon by 2050 claims World Green Building Council ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Architecture, Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

The building sector, which is responsible for global emissions roughly equivalent to those of the whole of China, must operate at “net zero carbon” by 2050 if global warming is to remain under two degrees Celsius, the limit enshrined in the Paris Agreement. According to a new report from the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC), there are currently 500 net zero commercial buildings and 2,000 net zero homes around the globe (well under 1 per cent of all buildings worldwide), requiring a monumental and coordinated effort by businesses, governments and nongovernmental organisations to bring the building sector within striking distance of Paris Agreement targets. The report defines ‘net zero buildings’ as highly energy-efficient buildings which generate or supply the energy they need to operate from renewable sources to achieve net zero carbon emissions, and lays out specific actions that the private sector, governments and NGOs can take to ensure all new buildings operate at net zero carbon by 2030 and that all existing buildings are renovated to operate at net zero carbon by 2050.

May 8, 2017

Scotland needs to develop new skills as era of automation threatens half of jobs ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Workplace

Urgent reform is needed to deal with the rise of automation, which threatens half of Scottish jobs, a leading think-tank has warned. The stark warning comes in a new report from IPPR Scotland, supported by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation. Scotland’s Skills 2030 outlines the need to reskill Scotland’s workforce for the world of work in 2030. The study claims that 46 percent of jobs in Scotland – or 1.2 million – are at high risk of automation up to 2030 and beyond. It suggests that Scotland’s skills system needs to “retrofit” the workforce with the skills to be ready for technological change – 2.5 million adults in Scotland today (or 78 percent) will still be of working in 2030, report adds.

April 24, 2017

Commercial property lenders should drive sustainability through financial innovation ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, News, Property

The commercial real estate finance sector is witnessing a dramatic shift in attitudes towards the issue of sustainability, according to a new report from the Better Buildings Partnership. It claims that major commercial property lenders are already exploring new opportunities that go well beyond traditional risk management through sustainability initiatives that ‘drive new business, strengthen customer relationships and improve the data they hold on the buildings in which they have underwritten’. The report, Beyond Risk Management: How sustainability is driving innovation in commercial real estate finance, is sponsored by CREFC Europe, GeoPhy, ING Bank and Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, and claims to reveal pioneering examples of how lenders are incorporating sustainability into their core business activities.

March 16, 2017

White paper sets out challenges of Brexit for UK’s built environment sector ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

BSRIA has published a new white paper to explore how issues related to Brexit will impact the UK’s built environment sector. The report highlights the ways in which the industry that supports the built environment has a major impact on the overall UK economy and plays a positive role in supporting the government’s climate change and emissions reduction objectives. According to the white paper, the sector is particularly sensitive to the uncertainties surrounding Brexit because it is technology intensive, requires a highly-skilled workforce, and is very dependent on international trade.

February 15, 2017

Millennials now less likely to give up job security, but still want flexible work ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Millennials are less likely to leave the security of their jobs this year as the events of 2016; terror attacks in Europe, Brexit, and a contentious US presidential election appear to have rattled their confidence. This is according to Deloitte’s sixth annual Millennial Survey of nearly 8,000 millennials from 30 countries, which found that the “loyalty gap” between those who saw themselves leaving their companies within two years and those who anticipated staying beyond five years has moved from 17 percentage points last year to seven points. The desire for security is also apparent in the finding that, while millennials perceive across-the-board advantages of working as freelancers or consultants, nearly two-thirds said they prefer full-time employment. Those in highly flexible organizations appear to be much more loyal to their employers and are two-and-a-half times more likely to believe that flexible working practices have a positive impact on financial performance than those in more restrictive organizations. Three-quarters of those offered flexible working opportunities say they trust colleagues to respect it, and 78 percent feel trusted by their line managers.

January 12, 2017

New report highlights potential of technology to wipe out jobs and businesses ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News

Unregulated technological progress is one of the greatest threats to global prosperity, peace and stability, claims a new report from the World Economic Forum. The WEF’s Global Risks Report, published before 3,000 business leaders and politicians gather for its annual conference in Davos, claims that regulation is trailing far behind technological innovation and that without action, it could lead to the destruction of untold jobs and businesses and catalyse major social upheaval. Economic inequality, societal polarisation and intensifying environmental dangers are the top three trends that will shape global developments over the next 10 years, the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2017 claims. The report says that collaborative action by world leaders will be urgently needed to avert further hardship and volatility in the coming decade.

January 12, 2017

UK Green Building Council announces launch of first Innovation Lab ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News

The UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC) has announced the launch of its first Innovation Lab, which it claims offers ‘a radical new approach to innovation in the built environment’. The Lead Partners for the programme are: Canary Wharf Group, Land Securities and Marks & Spencer. The Innovation Lab aims to identify and address what it calls the systemic challenges facing businesses within the sector, and co-create innovative and highly sustainable solutions.

Head of Leadership and Innovation at UK-GBC, Cat Hirst, said: “Research and Development levels across our industry are painfully low; the UK currently only spends £43m on construction R&D. The risks to a single company of investing in developing a solution for such a high-cost industry is often seen as prohibitive. But we desperately need to find ways of working together to achieve radical change if we are to challenge business as usual and transition to a sustainable way of working.

“At UK-GBC we’re seeking to catalyse this change by using our unique position to convene our member organisations to work together to address the issues our industry faces. We want to ensure there is the time, space, and structure for open innovation to occur for the built environment.

“The Innovation Lab is not just about finding one solution to one problem, it’s about fostering a more open and collaborative approach to problem solving as an industry. We need to build the capacity of our industry to innovate and find the right approach to being creative and collaborative within a commercial setting.”

The Innovation Lab began last month with a workshop to identify the ‘breakthrough challenge’ which will form the focus of a 9-month programme of work. In order to arrive at the challenge, the UK Green Building Council is working with the Lead Partners and thought leaders from the wider UK-GBC membership to explore future trends for the built environment as well as key environmental and social challenges, and pain points for business. The initial workshop highlighted key industry challenges around climate change resilience, resource use, shifting demographics, technological advancement and health and wellbeing.

Over the coming weeks, the breakthrough challenge will be refined in consultation with the Lead Partners. The next workshop will be on 1 February, where Innovation Lab participants will begin to respond to this challenge by mapping existing innovations and, where a gap is identified, generating new innovative solutions to solve the challenge.

January 2, 2017

Britain must future proof itself ahead of a decade of disruption, claims report ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

Brexit negotiations will ‘fire the starting gun’ on a decade of change for the UK, claims a new report from think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). The study, Future Proof: Britain in the 2020s, sets out the key challenges it claims will shape the UK in the period up to 2030 and the ‘choices that must be made now if these changes are to lead to a fairer and more equal society’. Among the issues covered in the report are the challenges directly related to Brexit, alongside factors such as an ageing population, other demographic changes, the risk to jobs posed by automation, the shift of the globalised economy towards Asia and the enduring problems associated with wage inequalities and the environment.

November 14, 2016

The UK’s infrastructure is improving but too slowly for most organisations ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Property, Technology

Almost half of firms (44 percent) believe the UK’s infrastructure has improved over the past five years, but only a quarter (27 percent) think it will pick up in the next five years, and two thirds (64 percent) suspect it will hamper the country’s international competitiveness in the coming decades, according to the 2016 CBI/AECOM Infrastructure Survey. Delivery of key projects already in the pipeline emerged as the top priority among the 728 firms surveyed. Delivery of £38 billion of investment in the rail network through Control Period 5 (99 percent of respondents), and £15 billion of investment in the UK’s motorways and A-roads through the Road Investment Strategy (97 percent of respondents) rank highly, as does delivery of a new runway in the South East (85 percent) & HS2 (80 percent). Many firms have specific concerns about teh country’s digital infrastructure including the ability tow work on teh go on trains and elsewhere.

September 29, 2016

Worldwide progress in creating sustainable building regulations is slow ⁰

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

The level of transparency in the reporting of the environmental performance of commercial real estate is growing across the world, but the pace of new sustainable building regulations remains slow. That is the key finding of JLL’s Real Estate Environmental Sustainability Index, which measures the availability of a range of environmental transparency tools in 37 countries. Whilst 17 countries have improved their overall scores since the last survey two years ago, 13 have remained static and three have declined. Half of all country index improvements have been driven by the introduction of voluntary minimum energy efficiency standards for existing buildings. This year France topped the Index for the first time, thanks to the consistent roll-out of mandates to transition to a low carbon economy. Japan has moved up from the transparent group to join France, Australia and the UK in the highly transparent group.

September 14, 2016

Study shows how a green city in the desert still has much to teach the world ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, Environment, Facilities management, Knowledge

A much publicised but occasionally troubled green city in the United Arab Emirates without light switches or water taps has much to teach people around the world about saving energy and precious resources, claims a new study from researchers at Birmingham University. With its low-rise and energy efficient buildings, smart metering, excellent public transport and extensive use of renewable energy, the 2,000 citizens of Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, are living in a place which is a ‘green’ example to city planners around the globe, claims the report. There are no light switches or water taps in Masdar City. Movement sensors control lighting and water in order to cut electricity and water consumption by 51 percent and 55 percent respectively. Masdar is a mixed use development that is the world’s first city designed to be ‘zero carbon’ and ‘zero waste’. Masdar City is a large-scale mixed use development which lies 17 kilometres south-east of the city of Abu Dhabi.

September 9, 2016

Office property sector leads global real estate market in sustainability ⁰

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

The global real estate market is showing signs of improvement across all areas of environmental, social and governance performance (ESG) including a 1.2 percent reduction in energy consumption, 2 percent reduction in GHG emissions and close to 1 percent reduction in water use. It is also placing greater focus on occupant health and well-being. This is according to the latest data compiled by GRESB, a benchmarking organisation for real estate companies and funds which evaluates sustainability practices in the global real estate sector. In the results for the 2016 GRESB Real Estate, Developer and Debt assessments, which analyses the sustainability performance of more than 1,100 real estate portfolios of both private equity and listed companies, Australian entities outperformed all other regions with an average score of 74, which is 14 points above the global average; and office companies and funds outperformed other property types with an average score of 66.