Search Results for: carbon

September 26, 2013

New microsite shares sustainability knowledge with the built environment

by Sara Bean • Company news, Environment, Property

One of the biggest design and construction firms in the UK, BAM Construct UK, has launched a sustainability microsite to share its green building knowledge. The website is broken into six key performance indicators: sustainable design; carbon; resource efficiency; sourcing responsibly; community; and health and wellbeing. BAM Director of Sustainability Nitesh Magdani said: “The sustainability team at BAM includes a range of professionals from site managers and environmentalists to architects. We advise our teams on issues including sustainable design; waste and environmental management; community engagement; LEED and BREEAM certification; Post Occupancy Evaluations; and air quality issues.” More →

September 19, 2013

Plans for a new high rise office development in City of London unveiled

by Sara Bean • Architecture, News, Property

DBOX for Henderson Global Investors and MAKE

Plans for a new high rise office development in the City of London have been unveiled by Henderson Global Investors. Designed by Make architectural practice, the high buildings at 40 Leadenhall Street, EC3 will vary in height between 7 and 34 office storeys, with two additional basement levels, a roof level plant, and café and restaurant uses at ground floor level. The total size of the building is 910,000 sq ft, split between 890,000 sq ft office and c. 20,000 sq ft retail. A grade II listed building at 19-21 Billiter Street, built in 1865, will be restored and integrated in the proposed scheme, which it is estimated will create 390 construction jobs, with around 7,000 people expected to work in the completed building. More →

September 18, 2013

Winners announced for outstanding leadership in sustainable buildings awards

by Sara Bean • Environment, News, Property

City Green Court building in Prague

British Land, Spanish city Vitoria-Gasteiz and the City Green Court building in Prague, Czech Republic, have clinched the top spots in the inaugural World Green Building Council Leadership Awards – Europe Region. The awards, which were announced to coincide with World Green Building Week 2013 – honour leadership and best practice in green building policy, construction projects and corporate initiatives. British Land won the category for Business Leadership in Sustainability; Vitoria-Gasteiz picked up the award for Leadership in City Policy for Green Building award; and office building City Green Court, topped the Leadership in Building Design and Performance category for its sustainability features. More →

September 13, 2013

UK’s leading political parties criticised for a lack of environmental leadership

by Sara Bean • Environment, News

Britain’s leading political parties are failing to provide visible and consistent green leadership, threatening two decades of steady environmental policy progress in the UK, warns an influential group of charities today. In The Green Standard 2013, seven leading charities, including WWF, the Green Alliance, Greenpeace and Campaign for Better Transport, assess the green performance of coalition ministers and Labour shadow ministers since the last general election, reviewing the parties on four key areas: the economy, communities, nature and international leadership. The report concludes that none of the parties has a coherent environmental programme and there is no consistent public leadership on the environment from any of the party leaders. More →

September 9, 2013

Construction sector awarded £60m for development of more energy efficient buildings

by Sara Bean • Environment, News, Property

£60 million to help the UK construction industry design and develop more energy efficient buildings is to be awarded by the Government’s Technology Strategy Board. The projects, which address the challenges of both new and existing buildings, are expected to leverage in an additional £60 million of industry investment and £30 million extra funding from across government and other agencies. The board has already invested £83 million of funding through the Low Impact Buildings Innovation Platform, (LIBIP). It aims to help the UK construction industry deliver buildings with a much lower environmental impact by investing jointly with industry and other funders in projects to bring innovative solutions to a growing market for more environmentally friendly buildings. More →

August 21, 2013

Finalists announced for first global City Climate Leadership Awards

by Sara Bean • Architecture, Environment, News, Property

Siemens and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group have announced the 29 cities shortlisted for the inaugural City Climate Leadership Awards. C40 is a network of cities from around the world committed to implementing meaningful and sustainable climate-related actions and the new awards aim to recognise C40 City members that can demonstrate climate action leadership. The winners will be announced at an event at the environmental London landmark building the Crystal [pictured], home to Siemens’ sustainable cities initiative, on September 4, 2013. This will be followed by a conference on September 5, gathering mayors, city planners, and urban sustainability experts to address some of the most pressing climate change and sustainability challenges of the day. More →

August 13, 2013

Unilever extends BT partnership to further more sustainable ways of working

by Sara Bean • Company news, Environment, Flexible working, Technology

Unilever, one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies, which includes Wall’s Ice Cream, Dove beauty products, Lipton and Knorr brands has announced a three year extension to its IT outsourcing contract with BT. It’s part of the firm’s Sustainable Living Plan to grow its business, while reducing its environmental footprint and increasing its social impact. BT, which first won its first contract with the Anglo-Dutch company in November 2002, delivers a fully integrated network providing voice, data, video and mobility services to the company’s 173,000 employees across nearly 100 countries. This includes the delivery of collaborative services such as audio-conferencing and video-conferencing, which is helping Unilever introduce more sustainable ways of working. More →

August 8, 2013

The war against environmental cynicism puts an onus on suppliers to be honest

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Environment, Furniture

Greenwash is one of those terms that has gone from needing an explanation to being in common usage in the space of a few years. The reason for that is quite simply that it is the perfect description of a particular form of marketing bullshit that we all recognise. However, while a degree of scepticism about what you hear from marketers is always healthy, but I fear the point has been reached where some people find it easy to dismiss real environmental claims as greenwash. The war against cynicism can partly be helped if more manufacturers and suppliers could get better at demonstrating the validity of their claims.

July 30, 2013

Government gets around to tightening energy efficiency standards for buildings

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

The Government has confirmed it’s to strengthen energy efficiency standards for new homes and non-domestic buildings. The toughened up measures announced today in Parliament covering Part L of the Building Regulations will mean a six per cent cut in carbon emissions for new build homes, and a nine per cent cut for non-domestic buildings. According to the government, the small increase in construction costs will be “heavily outweighed” by subsequent energy savings. There have been criticisms however, over the length of time it’s taken for the changes to be announced as a consultation on the proposed changes closed over a year ago. More →

July 29, 2013

Hospitality giant receives second LEED certificate for sustainable HQ

by Sara Bean • Company news, Environment, Furniture, Lighting, News

Wyndham Worldwide, one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, which counts the Travelodge and Ramada chains amongst its brands has received a second silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program for its New Jersey-based headquarters. One of the green initiatives was the introduction of a sustainable purchasing policy that encourages the purchase of ongoing items such as lamps, electronic goods and furniture, to be environmentally friendly, conserve natural resources, minimize waste and reduce toxicity. More →

July 24, 2013

News Corp move marks largest Central London office letting agreement in 8 years

by Sara Bean • Company news, Facilities management, News, Property

In the largest letting in Central London to be agreed in the last eight years, News Corp is to move its entire operation to all 17 floors of the Place, next door to the Shard at London Bridge Quarter. The Place, like The Shard, is designed by Renzo Piano and comprises 430,000 sq ft of high quality offices, much of which utilises natural light. The move will see staff of News UK, Dow Jones and HarperCollins housed together for the first time once relocation to the new site begins in the summer of 2014.

July 17, 2013

What Graeme Obree, the Flying Scotsman, can teach us about workplace innovation

by Andrew Brown • Comment, Technology

Innovation is one of the over-used words in the UK built environment. In fact, it is used so much that its true meaning is being left behind by marketing teams and spin doctors. The real definition is about a new method, idea, product, i.e. some form of technological innovation. Think about the last time you read of a claim for an innovative product, method or management concept. How new was it really? Often ‘innovation’ is more to do with the Emperor’s clothes than an effective new method or a radical product that changes a manufacturing process or reduces carbon, or just makes life and work more efficient. More →