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 A new Centre of Expertise is to be set up to help Whitehall departments achieve their targets for reducing carbon emissions and waste across the government estate.
The Centre of Expertise for Sustainable Procurement (CESP) will support Whitehall departments in reducing carbon emissions and waste.The initiative comes as a response to today’s report by the Sustainable Development Commission, which urges the government to meet sustainability targets and present a role model on the issue. According to the report, the government had made small improvements in its green commitments, such as cutting estates’ carbon emissions by 4% by the end of 2007. However, it should build on current initiatives. Yesterdays 6th annual Sustainable Development in Government (SDiG) report by the independent watchdog and adviser on sustainability called on departments to urgently build on initiatives already taken to ensure targets can be met and to demonstrate that the Government is leading by example on sustainability. The CESP will be set up within the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) alongside the Government's Chief Sustainability Officer, a new post to be appointed to take forward a culture of change across all departments in sustainable operations and procurement. Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell, who took personal charge of work in this area last March, has made sustainability of the government estate one of his four priorities for the civil service. Sir Gus said:"The Civil Service must be fully committed to sustainable working, reflecting the increasing priority placed on environmental responsibility by the public we serve. We must find new and innovative ways of raising the bar for sustainable working, planning and procurement...There is still a long way to go but the establishment of the Centre of Expertise for Sustainable Procurement marks the culmination of significant progress over the last twelve months. This central co-ordination and guidance will help all government departments work to deliver sustainable working practices for the future." Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said: "In the year that has elapsed since the period covered by this report, departments have been working to cut emissions, waste and water use and to increase recycling levels...The measures we're announcing today will help us to do better in the year ahead." The Government accepts in principle all the recommendations made by the SDC, and among the steps that will now be taken are the following: * From April 2008 all departmental heads will have a specific objective to meet Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate (SOGE) targets, against which their performance will be assessed * A major Green Government IT programme will be launched in the summer 2008 * From 2010 all central Government departments will be included in a pioneering emissions trading scheme, the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), which will compel them to improve their energy efficiency. This mandatory emissions trading scheme will cover around 5000 public and private organisations, including government departments, retailers, banks and local authorities, which combined account for 10 per cent of the UK economy's emissions * Action to achieve the work space efficiency standard of 12 square metres per FTE will be published in April 2008 * From this summer all vehicles used by ministers and permanent secretaries (except a small number exempt for operational and security reasons) will have carbon emissions below 120g/km * The use of bottled water for meetings and other official business is to be phased out across the whole government estate by the summer. In its response to the report, the Government accepts the need for better and more accurate data against which the progress of departments can be measured. A major validation exercise to upgrade the quality of data provided to the SDC and the baselines used to assess performance has been undertaken in the past two months.
 The team at Sponge are due to release their 'Buyers Guide to Greener Homes' at next weeks Living Room.
The guide aimed at prospective homeowners will offer the information and advice they need on the features to look for and what questions to ask when buying a home.
The Guide, which has been co-funded by Defra, covers all facets of the home including energy, water, waste, materials, transport, healthy living and local community, helping to raise the level of understanding of home buyers on sustainability issues.
For more information visit the Sponge website.
 Only 9% of works on Government Buildings met their own standards for 2005-06 according to reports in Building Magazine.
The embarrassing findings have been released following a review by a Commons committee. Despite the standards set by BREEAM in 2002, and the requirements that the guidelines be followed, only a relatively small number of projects seem to have undergone the assessment. Only 35% of new build and 18% of major refurbishments have actually undergone a BREEAM assessment. These figures are extremely disappointing for the Government who should be trailblazing, instead of what appears to be a bit of dithering about.
 Sponge sends a regular email for their 'network of young professionals with sharing an interest in sustainable development and the build environment'
They recently held a debate at the House of Lords about the Governments fluid plans on the environment. As has been reported many times on these very pages, the government continues to dither in its attempts to interpret its requirements for zero carbon housing The main point of debate that was concluded was the "house believes that off-site renewables have an essential role in delivering the Government’s zero carbon building targets”. The comments below best illustrate the need and desire of the representatives of the industry. Jon Lovell, head of Sustainability at Drivers Jonas, commented afterwards: “If we are to have any chance of genuinely delivering low and zero-carbon buildings over the next decade, Government and the building industry need to work together closely, but that collaboration must be founded on a sensible and consistent approach by Government which does not disenfranchise those who will be central to the realisation of the zero-carbon vision.“In recent months Government has been backwards and forwards with its definition of zero-carbon building, which serves only to evoke frustration and confusion within the industry. Even now, despite Treasury’s recent ruling on what will qualify for stamp duty exemption within the residential sector and the subsequent changes that have been made to the Code for Sustainable Homes, there are signs that we haven’t yet reached a final conclusion on this issue.
 BDP have recently completed their study on how Westminster Palace could cut down on their C02 emissions.
The content of their report is available on the Guardians website. Suggestions in the report include a 35m wind turbine in neighbouring Victoria Gardens, 50 3m hydro turbines in the Thames. Consideration is also been given to using water found in an aquifer 120m below ground to cool the debating chamber and provide drinking water. The Palace of Westminster uses enough electricity to power 6,500 households. It has pledged to lower carbon reductions by 16% by 2020, but the report suggests carbon savings of 29% could be achievable by 2020 if its proposals are taken up. The cost to complete this project will be in the region of £20m. Imagine all the hot air in the chamber which is just going to waste...
Dalby Forest Visitor Centre, near Pickering, has won this year's Prime Minister's Better Public Building Award.Opened in April, the visitor centr, part of a major regeneration project in Dalby Forest and the North York Moors National Park,uses almost solely local natural materials to fit seamlessly into its surroundings.
Designed by Bristol practice White Design, the centre was commissioned by the Forestry Commission.It was praised by judges for its commitment to sustainability. The building contains a biomass boiler powered by woodchips from the local forest, and draws much of its power from solar panels and wind turbines. It is clad in larch, and the roof is made of recycled tyres and inner tubes, in a true homage to sustainability the building’s reception desk is made of recycled mobile phones, Wellington boots and yoghurt pots. The award is part of the British Construction Industry Awards and is sponsored jointly by CABE and the Office of Government Commerce (OGC). Other Winners included Camp Bastion Military Base in Helmand, Afghanistan, which won the Judges' Special Award, the Emirates Stadium in North London which walked away with the Major Project Award, The Roundhouse in North London won the Conservation Award and The Eden Project was named the best British building of the past 20 years.
Construction and property professionals are overestimating green construction costs by 300%, a new survey has found.
The study by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), "Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Business Realities and Opportunities," is the first phase of the organization's three-year initiative to pinpoint the environmental footprint of buildings and promote building zero net energy use. Lafarge and United Technologies Corp. are co-chairing the project.
Respondents to the global survey guessed that implementing green building practices boosted costs by 17 percent when in reality, the premium is closer to roughly 5 percent. Respondents pegged building-related greenhouse gas emissions at 19 percent of the world total, half of the actual 40 percent.
That figure is expected to grow, particularly in developing nations such as China and India. The Department of Energy, for instance, predicts electricity consumption in India could grow by nearly 700 percent through 2030.
"The world is undergoing rapid transformation, with strong demographic and economic growth driving a move towards urbanization on an unprecedented scale," said Bruno Lafont, Lafarge's chairman and CEO. "We as industry leaders have a responsibility to ensure that this growth is achieved in a sustainable manner."
The study found that only 5 percent of energy used for interior lighting actually produces light while the remaining 95 percent of energy is wasted. The building envelope is critical to energy efficiency while green building techniques could increase the life of a building.
 Reports in BSJ this morning reveal that small businesses will soon be able to install renewable energy to their premises with a minimum of red tape.
At present planning permission is required to install a wind turbine or solar panels on a building. This can take anything from eight weeks. Given how Local Authorities are so stretched these days it is a real lottery how long an application can take. Entec, the Environment and Engineering Consultancy has been asked by Hazel Blears to review how renewable energy can be installed as 'permitted development'. This will enable a business to proceed with their proposal as long as their is no impact on the local environment or other building owners.
 Are Solar Panel installers the new double glazing salesmen??
I have just read Phil Clarke's interesting little story about the man from 3 Valleys who undertook research on the length of time six form girls at a boarding school spend in the shower. Staying away from the numerous innuendos, the girls would spend anything up to an hour and twenty minutes in the shower - incredible. This brings me back to my original comment about the new double glazing salesmen. On regular occasions we receive scrap paper through the door from these companies promoting the benefit of harnessing the power of solar energy in the home... The offers include large subsidies which as we know do not exist, as well major savings on your fuel bill. No mention of the install costs and the annual maintenance. When we rang them up to talk about someone coming round and giving us a no-obligation quote, we were immediately told that we could be one of the lucky ones. Given our location, we were told that we could be eligible to a 'managers discount'.
Even greater luck was on us as they had one of their engineers in the area the next day. Wow. Just before we went out to buy our winning lottery ticket, we were called back by 'the manager' who sounded younger than the first child who answered the phone, confirming how lucky we were and little else. The next day we sat at home waiting with all our lucky charms. The time came and went, and our luck faltered as our man never arrived. Now we get calls every hour apologising. We are still keen to install solar home energy, but without all the sales spiel would help..
The government's newly published housing green paper unveils plans to invest £8 billion in affordable housing, with an overall plan to deliver three million new homes by 2020. Some two million will be built by 2016 and Yvette Cooper said these would be distributed throughout the country.
Land for 1.6 million new homes has already been identified in current regional plans and Ms Cooper said the remaining 1.4 million would not infringe into the greenbelt despite widespread rumours to the contrary.
The government will consider new proposals to prevent property developers sitting on land where planning has been approved and there would also be financial incentives for councils to reclaim empty properties, estimates of numbers of empty houses in the UK vary, but could be as high as 700,000.
The green paper contains "historic proposals" for the much publicised five new eco towns, supposedly the first new towns for 40 years, legislating through building regulations to make all new housing 'zero carbon' by 2016. The cost of going zero carbon in 2016 could add 30% to the average construction cost of a home. This equates to a £25,000 increase in the cost of a dwelling.
Ms Cooper also pledged to prioritise social and affordable housing, telling MPs "we believe a decent home should be for the many and not for the few". By 2010-11, 70,000 affordable homes will be built a year, 45,000 of which will be social housing, she said.
Replying to critics who pointed out that the paper did not rule out building on floodplains, despite parts of Britain currently being underwater after torrential rain led rivers to burst their banks, Cooper said that developments proposed in flood-risk areas would be subject to an assessment by the Environment Agency. She said “It is not realistic to stop building on floodplains. You can't say that there will be no building in somewhere like York, which is built on a floodplain.”
The comments come in light of the stance taken by the RICS in it's opposition the governments pitiful attempts in implementing the HIP's. If the RICS did not stand up and fight the peoples corner on thsi one then who would? The conflict arises as the RICS tries to tow the Green agenda at the same time as trying to prevent a potential embarrassment by the Government Quite amusing that being opposed to the government is considered as being conservatist - (we at WIP HQ are not too sure what protectionist actually means - any ideas?)
The comments were levied by Mr King at the launch of the RICS's report entitled Surveying Sustainability.
The government has exempted the first eco-home from stamp duty after it met its strict guidelines for sustainable housing. Housing minister Yvette Cooper viewed the UK's first zero-carbon home yesterday and awarded it a stamp duty exemption certificate.
The two-bedroom home has been built by Kingspan Offsite, using energy-efficient building methods and makes full use of renewable and sustainable energy technologies. Its fabric is insulting and air-tight and uses daylight to cut down on lighting costs during the day, solar panels to create energy and is installed with water-efficiency devices.
The home, the first to meet the government's code for sustainable homes, is part of the BRE Offsite 2007 exhibition in Watford. Visiting the site, Ms Cooper called for a "complete revolution" in the design and construction of houses to cut carbon emissions. "A quarter of carbon emissions come from our homes. That's why zero-carbon homes are so important," she said.
The government wants all new homes to be carbon neutral by 2016, although those within the building industry question whether this will be possible. Gordon Brown wants to build eco-towns across the UK, providing up to 20,000 environmentally-friendly homes.
Tesco has released its latest corporate responsibility review which outlines the key aims of becoming a "leader in the low carbon economy". These include adopting a number of measures to become climate-friendly. They have landmark plans, such as building renewables on-site, launching a £100 million climate technologies fund, and carbon labelling goods in store.
Tesco’s new climate friendly policies fall neatly in line with recently announced plans by the UK government to include supermarkets in the emissions trading scheme and encourage a carbon labelling scheme into place, which may one day be mandatory.
Tesco has pledged to cut energy usage per square foot by 50% by the beginning of next year compared to 2000 levels, to cut emissions in half by 2020, triple its recycling, and improve in-store climate communications for customers.
It backs up these pledges by putting money into new environmentally friendly refits for their stores, costing an estimated total of £500 million, as well as into research.
A separate investment of £100 million will go into developing low carbon technologies and £5 million into Tesco’s new Institute for Sustainable Consumption that has been set up with the help of Oxford University. The institute will be working out how consumer information initiatives such as carbon labelling and recycling information are going to work.
Tesco has suggested it will roll out a carbon-labelling scheme in a few years time. Meanwhile the UK government recently announced plans to develop a carbon labelling methodology within 18 months in conjunction with the major supermarkets and the Carbon Trust.
Planning permission for new buildings to replace Heathrow Terminals 1 and 2 has been granted by the London Borough of Hillingdon and Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.
Although subject to completion of a legal agreement, the decision clears the way for construction of Heathrow East, which could be completed in time for the 2012 London Olympics. The new buildings, which will not increase the capacity of the airport, form part of operator BAA's £6.2bn 10-year investment programme to upgrade Heathrow.
Foster & Partners designs will set a new standard in environmentally sensitive airport buildings by cutting carbon dioxide emissions by around 40% compared to the buildings it will replace. This will be achieved by using a design that requires less energy; generates decentralised energy through on-site combined cooling, heating and power; and uses on-site renewable energy such as biomass gasification and photovoltaic solar panels.
Heathrow East will be the first major development in London to use biomass gasification. This process generates a renewable gas from waste wood and sustainable forests that can then be used to fuel a combined heat and power plant serving the terminal.
Tony Douglas, chief executive of BAA Heathrow, said: "I’m delighted that we’ve got the green light for Heathrow East. This is great news for passengers. By June 2012, most of our passengers will be travelling through terminal facilities that aren’t even open today and we will have either re-built or redeveloped all our other terminals. Heathrow will be like a new airport for London."
Continuing on a theme we covered last week regarding the report published by the National Audit Office that showed the majority of government departments and agencies are failing to meet targets to make their new buildings and major refurbishments sustainable. It is becoming clear that as a result, a large proportion of the £3billion which departments and agencies spend each year on this activity is going to waste.
The report found that, of the projects that did carry out an assessment, the majority failed to meet the required target of ‘excellence’ for new builds and ‘very good’ for refurbishments. Only 38 per cent (14 of 37) of new builds scored ‘excellent’ and 44 per cent (27 of 61) of refurbishment projects scored ‘very good’. For all 2005-06 projects, only nine per cent (41 of 441) achieved the required standards. An article in Carbonfree.co.uk quotes Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO,as saying: “Government departments and agencies spend in the region of £3 billion each year on new builds and major refurbishments. If sustainability is well handled, and addressed at the very beginning of construction projects, it can and should provide better value for money in the long term.” In case you were wondering, a sustainable building is one that reduces energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions; minimises the use of resources such as water; reduce the release of pollutants; maximise the use of reclaimed and recycled materials; and promotes sustainable travel choices such as public transport and cycling.
 Building Magazine carries a report this morning on the findings of the National Audit Office following their review of government's management of their own stock of buildings.
The report has following findings:
- Setting sustainable standards for the construction and refurbishment of buildings that were not being met
- Failing to carry out environmental assessments and failing to achieve the required standards.
- Over 2005 and 2006, only 9% of projects achieved the required standard.
- Failing to meet its own carbon reduction target.
The report suggests a lack of management and understanding of the correlation between sustainability and whole life cycle costs, and this is despite previous warnings Whilst it is hard to accept and understand the government has failed again....
 Did you know that a third of all carbon emissions for the UK apparently come form our Public Buildings?
Furthermore the likely capital spend on public buildings will rise from a mere £43bn this year to an estimated £60bn in 2012. (Lets not even think about the fact that this is greater than a number of the smaller countries GDP) They believe that adequate measures should be put in place to ensure that Public Buildings are not only built to a high standard, but they are also continually monitored during their lifetime. Whilst once again we believe that this is sound advice, it just goes to demonstrate the lack of cohesive strategy from the government when it comes to tackling the climate change issues.
Following on from some of the nonsense that politicians are in the habit of coming out with, Mark Brinkley has put the green wellie into the latest proposal from the Welsh Assembly. We recently reported how the President of London, Ken Livingstone is set to challenge the Governments proposed carbon reduction scheme by suggesting London will achieve its goals much earlier. Well the Welsh have now stepped up to the plate and are suggesting that all new homes in Wales will be zero carbon rated by 2011. Whilst on the one hand you must applaud their ambition, as the article points out, we do not even know what or how a zero carbon rated house will even look like, let alone build hundreds of the things in 4 years time. This proposal will require local amendments to the Building Regulations. Is this ever going to really happen? Aren't we all supposed to be working together on this one? This week could turn out to be quite exciting, what with the delivery of the self appointed(?) Prime Minister's budget. Can't wait to see what is included in that. Mind you, we could also be a little bit disappointed as it seems that Yvette Cooper will not be publishing her white paper on planning after all. Building magazine suggests that there may be something worth hiding until after the local elections.
Is every political party turning green? Every day we see the challenge facing each party to release a green story. Following the recent introduction of the traffic light system in supermarkets for identifying the quality of foods we believe that a similar visible test should be set up for the various parties. Not to be outdone, The BBC reports that David Milliband has proposed a set of (Brown) legally binding measures to ensure the government adheres to a reduction of carbon emissions equivalent to 60% less than 1990, by 2050. Whilst these measures are seen to be a step in the right direction, the proposals have been criticised by the Liberal Democrats, for being a little bit too yellow perhaps. Meanwhile, the Green Party is conspicuous not only for their policies but the truest colour of green. They are challenging the Government to increase the value of grants available under the The Low Carbon Buildings Programme. The Green Party would supplement the current fund of £80 million in the three year LCBP with at least a further £300 million over 5 years. Whilst we wait for the next round of greenish stories, we will let you decide on the colour for the British Nationalist Party.
We recently discussed how Green Ken has pushed to the forefront a Green Mandate for London's buildings, to reduce the capital's emissions to 60% below 1990 levels by 2025. That is a full 25 years before the Government's recommended timescale. Green is definitely the new black, with everyone expressing their concern . An article in this month's RICS Commercial Property Journal features a comment from Matthew Warner, Head of Central London Development at Lambert Smith Hampton. Mr Warner makes the valid point that consumer demands will have a part to play as they require greener commercial office space. The green band wagon is currently being dragged by the constantly changing Government Legislation, most notably the application of Part L of the Building Regulations, and Ken's mandate. As companies become more aware of the green issues, and face up to their social responsibilities, so they will start to push the green band wagon, demanding sustainable buildings with a small carbon footprint. Mr Warner goes on to suggest that the demand for green buildings may well lead to an impact on the value of a building, potentially creating a negative effect on the buildings that do not achieve a good green score. If there is a negative impact on some older buildings, Mr Warner believes that building owners may consider that knocking down older stock will be more cost effective then complying with Part L of the Building Regulations. This will undoubtedly provide another challenge as there is a strong reluctance in other areas of the industry to knock down perfectly good buildings.
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A new Centre of Expertise is to be set up to help Whitehall departments achieve their targets for reducing carbon emissions and waste across the government estate. 
