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New guidance to increase natural settings into urban spaces

New guidance to increase natural settings into urban spaces

by • Cities, Environment, News

The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has published its ‘Principles for delivering urban Nature-based Solutions’ (NBS), to help developers and owners increase the incorporation of NBS within the construction and operation of built assets. The report claims that the development and function of the built environment has significant impacts upon both climate and biodiversity, locally and globally, and the pressure for our industry to be part of the solution is accelerating. The recommendations of the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) have led to a growing requirement to measure and mitigate the physical risks to built assets from climate change, such as flooding and overheating. (more…)

Businesses prioritise tech and outsourcing to overcome front of house challenge

Businesses prioritise tech and outsourcing to overcome front of house challenge

by • Business, News, Technology

front of houseSwiss Post Solutions (SPS), has released new research that claims how the pandemic has impacted front of house strategies for UK businesses. Half (50 percent) of UK companies plan to introduce interactive technologies to help overcome new ‘front of house’ (FOH) challenges that have been imposed by COVID19. A further 41 percent of businesses plan to outsource FOH services altogether. (more…)

Global real estate CEOs plan for industry transformation

Global real estate CEOs plan for industry transformation

by • News, Property

real estateThe real estate industry needs to transform to serve the needs of people and cities in the next decade, according to a new report released by the World Economic Forum. COVID-19 has revealed vulnerabilities throughout the real estate industry, ranging from indoor air quality problems to excess supply and accelerated underlying demand drivers, which need to be addressed for buildings and cities to be healthier, prosperous and more sustainable. (more…)

Relationships with colleagues are harder to build while remote working

Relationships with colleagues are harder to build while remote working

by • Flexible working, News, Working culture

relationshipsNew research by employee engagement and culture app, Totem, claims that 54 percent of workers feel it has been harder to build relationships with colleagues while working from home. The results demonstrate the difficulty many have faced over the past year, with 58 percent also saying that remote working has made joining a new company harder. (more…)

Nearly a third of employees don’t receive training in a hybrid workplace

Nearly a third of employees don’t receive training in a hybrid workplace

by • News, Working culture

employeesLane4, has announced the findings of its nationwide survey which suggests how organisations need to better support their employees as some begin to return to their on-site workplaces, while others remain remote. (more…)

Buildings with a digital twin have a lot to tell us

Buildings with a digital twin have a lot to tell us

by • Features, Technology, Workplace design

digital twinThe expression “if these walls could talk” is taking on an entirely new meaning with the emerging opportunity to create digital twins for buildings. Across the entire lifecycle of structures such as office buildings, hospitals, airports and hotels, creating a digital twin can significantly reduce costs, improve efficiencies, speed construction delivery, as well as enhance performance and the user experience. (more…)

New framework launches to help offices meet sustainability goals

New framework launches to help offices meet sustainability goals

by • Environment, News, Workplace design

Design for PerformanceNew office developments and major refurbishments in the UK will be able to formally register under the Design for Performance framework. The framework claims to help developers ensure that projects deliver against their design intent and overcome the well-evidenced performance gap between design and operation. This is achieved by requiring project teams to target an operational NABERS Energy rating during the project design and verify it once the building is occupied. (more…)

Lockdown mental fatigue is rapidly reversed by social contact, study claims

Lockdown mental fatigue is rapidly reversed by social contact, study claims

by • Features, Flexible working, Wellbeing

Many of us are looking forward to a summer of relative freedom, with road-mapped milestones that will grant us more opportunities to see our friends and family. But we’ll be carrying the effects of months of isolation into those meetings, including a sense that our social skills will need dusting off, and our wits will need sharpening. The mental effects of lockdown have been profound. Social isolation has been shown to cause people’s mental health to deteriorate even if they have no history of previous psychological problems. Alongside this drop in mood, loneliness has been linked with a host of cognitive problems, including fatigue, stress and problems with concentration. (more…)

Finding a new sense of purpose in the way we all do business

Finding a new sense of purpose in the way we all do business

by • Comment, Environment, Property, Wellbeing

Mental health and purposeIt is now a truism that society expects more of business than merely maximising shareholder value. Milton Friedman’s conviction that unswerving commitment to this single goal would ensure that business and society would prosper has come to be seen as blinkered, unfit for the twenty-first century and enabling of corporate greed. Instead of shareholder value maximisation, an idea that The Economist called ‘the biggest idea in business’ in 2016, businesses are now encouraged to recognise their responsibilities to an array of ‘stakeholders’, from employees, suppliers and customers, to the planet itself and other communities (real or imagined). So, it has never been more important for businesses to do good, have a clear sense of purpose and be seen as doing so. (more…)

‘Healthy buildings’ enjoy a surge in demand worldwide

‘Healthy buildings’ enjoy a surge in demand worldwide

by • Environment, News, Property, Wellbeing

healthy buildings SiemensA new survey of many of the world’s leading real estate investors finds that 92 percent of respondents expect demand for healthy buildings to grow in the next three years. The report claims that this is a compelling signal of the direction the real estate sector is heading. This finding, among others, is captured in a report titled A New Investor Consensus: The Rising Demand for Healthy Buildings (registration) which claims to be a comprehensive health and wellness study of global real estate investment managers and stakeholders representing aggregate AUM of $5.75 trillion and portfolio investments in real estate totalling approximately US$1.03 trillion. (more…)

Industry comes together to collaborate on Whole Life Carbon Roadmap project

Industry comes together to collaborate on Whole Life Carbon Roadmap project

by • Business, Environment, News

roadmapThe UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has announced four new task groups and a Steering Group which will support the development of the Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Roadmap for the Built Environment. (more…)

Working mothers healthcare hit hard by the pandemic

Working mothers healthcare hit hard by the pandemic

by • News, Wellbeing, Working lives

pandemicThe UK government has had to make many changes to its healthcare system in the last year to stop the spread of coronavirus, including asking people to stay home when possible, prioritising higher-risk patients and putting many routine appointments on pause throughout the pandemic. (more…)

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