route to reduce Scottish carbons

Having posted on the Welsh drive to zero carbon yesterday, only fair to note the The Scottish Government last month launched its consultation on pushing for 80% reduction by 2050 … signaling Scotland’s serious intent to lead the global effort to combat climate change.
This is significant as it is based on the now recongised carbon [...]

sustainability - barriers or opportunities?

As expected a number of mixed and potentially confusing announcements made at Eco Build question progress towards zero carbon construction, question the defintion of carbon zero while setting more targets for (non domestic) zero carbon construction by 2020.
Founder of the UK Green Building Council, Dr David Strong is right to question the focus on [...]

Sponge green guide to buying a home

Bit late on this one as it has been picked up by Mel at Elemental and Phil at Zero Champion, but worth relaying across to isite readers is the Sponge guide to green home buying - a check list you can print off and take with you.
Nice
Reminds me of the 10 Principle guide to slow [...]

zero carbon route map to Wales

Jane Davidson the Welsh AM for Environment, Sustainability & Housing,  launched the new Renewable Energy Route Map for the Welsh Assembly Government last week – out for consultation until May.
It details lots of wind farms and lots of public engagement. Of note is the speed of the intentions across all energy themes, including the [...]

efficien-cities

Its clean and its efficient and its possible  - its efficiencity - whilst the government dither on policy Greenpeace have produced an attractive and informative animation to show just what is possible in our towns and cities.  It is a animated and illustrated portal to many of the initiatives and emerging technologies in the built [...]

Women into work events NW

I have been asked to communicate the events being held through Elevate and Women Into Work over the next month or so.
The training is free and is available to all female staff within the built environment sector - including accounts, reception , administration, trades, office and professional.
Training on offer includes:
Communications
Managing Safely
Mentoring?
Positive Action
Get more [...]

isite round up

I was looking at the blog stats for isite last night - so here is a round up of isite activity over the last month or so.
Where are you all?
Recently I added a nice little gadget - ClustrMaps - showing the location of isite viewers - you can find it at the bottom of the [...]

Eco … build, homes, villages and towns - pah… greenwash?

James Meikle’s article in yesterdays guardian paints a picture of growing concerns and gaps in the thinking behind the current push towards ‘eco‘ villages and towns.
As a flagship for the huge number of homes to be built and eco towns to be created, Northstowe, if the Guardian report is correct has problems:
As the town takes [...]

LEED to take on the world?

Whilst the BRE and Prince Foundation square up on Code Level 6, watch out for the creeping LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) the US version of BREEAM.
In an article in the latest Plenty journal, Robert Watson (often hailed as the father of LEED ), talks about his determination to turn LEED into a [...]

what these blogs are for …

An excellent, must read post from Mark Brinkley  - Is the prince igniting a civil war?  - guest blogging on Phils Zero Champion blog  - sets the scene for a roundhead v cavaliers schism on zero carbon homes, code level 6 and all that …..