Last week Apple released their supplier responsibility audit report, see the excellent CSRWire article: itransparency: Is Apple Catching Up? by Elaine Cohen (also good reads are Will Apple Finally Embrace Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability and on Apples own the supplier responsibility web pages)

Like many users, whilst loving the Apple technology, design and ease of use, as a sustainability advocate, I have always felt uneasy about environmental and social aspects of the Apple organisation. However, with Apple having now set out their stall and commitment to improve, they will be watched closely by CSR observers and others who will undoubtedly use Apple devices and platforms to make any failings and achievements public, and transparent.

Constructing itransparency

I can’t help wondering:

How and when transparency within the built environment will have an impact.

If we were to undertake a ‘deep’ social responsibility audit throughout the sectors supply chain, just what would we find lurking under rocks?

We are starting to have the tools available to understand, for example, ConstructCO2 can measure the carbon and social impact of transport and delivery miles on a construction project, SourceMap can monitor material carbons, from raw material and transportation,  (see construction sourcemap for CITRIS building, Berkley USA), and Living Building Challenge is challenging responsible construction and increasingly we hear of construction organisations looking at or adopting ISO 26000, …. and so on …

So, it may or may not be 2012, but only is it just a matter of time before the sector, like Apple, is forced or nudged towards ‘iTransparency’.

Related reading:  Mapping Transparency – Why it pays to be open 

If you wish to engage in conservations on CSR in construction follow and join me on twitter @fairsnape, subscribe to or share this blog post, or get in touch.

The public consultation process for Green Deal closed last Wednesday with DECC reporting over 600 responses. It will be interesting how DECC make sense of all. A quick read through those made public via twitter (listed below) indicate:

• A general agreement for the Green Deal process and benefits for industry.
• Need for more clarity on funding mechanics and links to other initiatives
• Concerns for SME’s
• Concerns for generating demand
• Little mention of timescale (although there is a call for delayed introduction for commercial sector)
• More than one of the response listed below call for the introduction of a Green Deal Project Manager, to site along site the Provider, Funders and Installers.
• SME’s in particular should prepare for Green Deal if they dont want to miss the boat.

Next step in the Green Deal run-up is the issue of PAS 2030, expected during January.

These responses indicate that Green Deal will happen, most likely in October, the orginal commencement date but that DECC have a lot of refining to do, in a very short time. In the meanwhile SME’s should start preparing for Green Deal.

Recommendations for preparation include:

1. Understand your clients intentions – this will be your Green Deal workflow.
2. Understand PAS2030 and skill levels required, without which you cannot deliver Green Deal any work.
3. Look at your own organisation – is it a good example of being green, sustainable?
4. Be visible – engage with events, get involved with green deal conversations across social media eg twitter, shout out about your preparation and achievements

…….

Links to public responses: (if you know of any more please add in comments)

• The @RIBA response to the #GreenDeal consultation: http://bit.ly/xBkkTV
• CIOB Green Deal response now live at http://ow.ly/8yM6I  “CIOB looks for Carrot and Stick in Green Deal
• Green Deal Needs a Radical Boost to Succeed, warns Federation of Master Builders http://wp.me/p1gC6-wq
• New report on Green Deal + ECO from UKACE “Dead Cert” summary http://t.co/YCjLnci9
• CBI joins chorus of concern over #GreenDeal plans http://flpbd.it/W2hH
• Caution urged over Green Deal proposals – http://t.co/hGFEPaZp – submitted by @KingspanRenew via http://t.co/r5HEalpp
• Square Pegs and Round Holes – Why the Govt’s #greendeal can’t fail http://t.co/98BgUcrY  #energy #climate change
• Knauf Insulation #greendeal response is on the website http://bit.ly/AoCTg8
• Industry body calls for delay to Green Deal for non-domestic market http://bit.ly/weUkQW
• Construction Products Association : ‘Closed shop’ fear for Green Deal’ http://bit.ly/yskx0H
• Baxi responds to Green Deal consultation http://bit.ly/w9Q4Ga
• CBI and Green Alliance call for government to step up efforts to promote Green Deal http://bit.ly/xyjXyT

For more information please do not hesitate to get in touch, join me in green deal conversations on twitter, and if you like this blog article please subscribe or share using the buttons below …

These are the same frustrations I hear from green deal related workshops I am engaged in, on one hand their is promise of work, the biggest home and property improvement programme since the 2nd world war, and on the other hand far too much confusion. The result is that many contractors and installers who do the scope of measures to be covered by Green Deal are just not engaging, playing the green deal or not green deal waiting game.

Danger, is of course that when green deal does go live there will not be many accredited (PAS 2030 etc) contractors and installers available

FMB Press Release reads:

The Government’s Green Deal initiative to makes our homes more energy efficient is in danger of failing at the first hurdle unless it provides a range of additional incentives to encourage householders to take it up, warns the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) in its response to the Government’s Green Deal consultation, which closes on Wednesday (18th January 2012).

Brian Berry, Director of External Affairs at the FMB said:
“With rising energy bills there is an urgent need to improve the energy efficiency of our housing stock as it is far less energy efficient than that of our European neighbours’. However, householders will need to be convinced of the value of retrofitting their home particularly when the price is having a new charge attached to their electricity bill. The quickest and easiest way to create consumer demand would be to reduce VAT on Green Deal improvements or reduce Stamp Duty.”

Berry continued:
“Another concern is how local building companies will be able to access the Green Deal given that few, if any, will become recognized Green Deal Providers because of the onerous conditions attached to providing the finance packages. This is a lost opportunity as it is the local builder who is best placed to advise householders about energy efficient improvements when they are carrying out other home improvements or repairs.

Berry added:
“The Government has rightly tacked the need to eliminate rogue traders by insisting on the need to have Green Deal accredited installers. Local builders already have many of the key skills in place to carry out energy efficiency improvements but now they need an operational accreditation framework that enables them to demonstrate their skills and knowledge at the standard required. The Government’s delay in approving recognised competency schemes is not helpful and swift action is needed if the building industry is going to be ready for the launch in October. We know that the Green Deal has the potential to create some 65,000 new construction jobs which is why it is so important that we have the training courses ready at the earliest possible opportunity.”

Berry concluded:
“We want the Green Deal to be a success but it won’t be unless the Government considers seriously the need to introduce fiscal incentives for homeowners, creates a level playing field to enable local building companies to access the market, and ensures that training courses are quickly approved to accredit local builders.”

DECC research suggests Green Deal will flop from Business Green

Green deal suffers setback as loft insulations set to plummet from the Guardian

and on George Monbiot’s Blog: The green deal is a useless, middle-class subsidy

It is great that we debate the issues around green deal, in particular mechanics of funding and energy performance of building, and I must agree with Monbiot

“Even if we agree on nothing else, can we agree that a policy is not green if it discriminates against the poor?”

Based on this Greenest Government Ever track record to date who knows?

However, as I mentioned on my last blog  “Where Greendeal will succeed …” debate is good and there are some certainties emerging, like for example the Green Deal Code of Practice, and,  PAS 2030, at the moment a poorly crafted document but one that should put some control on cowboy builders, protect clients and improve the image of installation.

The arguments to date focus on domestic Green Deal, I await with interest for the same debates to kick off within the commercial and private sectors…

Heat: Degrees of Comfort, Options for heating home in a low carbon economy. 

There is no possibility that the UK can meet its 2050 target for CO₂ emissions without a fundamental change to the way our homes are heated, according to a report published today (12 January) by the Royal Academy of Engineering. Even with the most modern gas boilers and state-of-the art insulation, we cannot continue to heat so many homes by natural gas and still achieve an 80% cut in emissions as laid down in the Climate Change Act 2008.

Plumbers unprepared for move to energy-efficient homes, report warns (from the Guardian 12/01/12)

In addition to the technical options and considerations, throughout the report there are a number of important and timely comments around the skills issue for installation, AND, for behavioural operation, as the following extracts show:

… skills shortages will be a serious barrier to decarbonising heating unless addressed effectively

… behavioural aspects are very important. Studies in the UK and overseas tend
to reveal a variation of typically 3:1 between the upper and lower tails of the
energy use (between the 5% and 95% cases in the distribution) in technically
similar dwellings occupied by people from demographically similar
backgrounds. To make radical changes, it will therefore be essential to engage the occupiers.

… the lack of inter-discplinary work:

(A Cautionary Tale Case study): The initial problem they faced was finding a single contractor who would take responsibility for the whole installation including the GSHP, ground coils, underloor heating and the integration of the new system with their existing heating and DHW installations. Eventually, despite having contacted the Low Carbon Partnership and the Energy Savings Trust, they had to place separate contracts with a heat pump installer, a groundwork contractor, a plumber and an electrician for different parts of the work.

The work went ahead and a 16kW heat pump, 150m of slinkies, a thermostore tank, solar collectors, two underfloor heating coils and room thermostats were installed.

When the system was operational the householder was shocked to find the electricity bill increased from £30 per month to £250. After 18 months of high electricity consumption and many visits by the different companies involved, it emerged that the heat pump had been wrongly connected so it was providing heat to the underfloor heating at the temperature required by the storage cylinder for DHW and, although the room thermostats were controlling the pumps on the underfloor heating manifold, they had not been interlocked with the heat pump which, in consequence, was running continuously at its maximum return temperature.

… often there was no single contractor responsible for the installation, which might involve a ground works contractor, a plumber, a heat pump installer and an electrician. As a result of there being no ‘design authority’ for the whole system, there was no single point of responsibility or any liability for the eventual performance of the installation

… there is clearly a need for many more engineers and technicians who understand the systems engineering that has to go into a heat pump installation and who can integrate the various energy systems in a customer’s house. The present provision in higher education and further education is well below what will be required. This could be a significant brake on the deployment of low-energy systems

“Our building performance studies show unmanageable complication is the enemy of good performance. So why are we making things more complicated in the name of sustainability?” – Bill Bordass,  The Usable Buildings Trust

and in conclusion:

17.4  Skills
The levels of applications engineering required to integrate a heat pump in a property along with local energy sources and other intelligent loads, such as chargers for electric cars, is much higher than is generally available in the trades that traditionally provide heating and related services to domestic consumers. A new type of energy use professional will be needed. Recruiting these will compete with the demands of new nuclear power, offshore wind and other energy industries that are already flagging-up staff shortages.

Skills shortage will potentially be a serious barrier to decarbonising heating unless addressed effectively.

How? My thoughts …

Re-Igniting the sustainability debate in construction, particularly in areas of the industry not as yet engaged with sustainable construction.

Forcing an open and general debate about eco and energy performance of our buildings. (Some of which have been completed recently in the last decade, when we have all been building and upgrading sustainably,  or not?)

Creating the need for a total review of education and training in the industry. Are we really only now debating just what is a green skill and how we train for building green.

Revisiting collaborative working relationships in the built environment. Will we see new look consortia comprising of funders, clients, builders, energy providers, renewable energy companies and more. Who will lead?

Redefining the client – the building owner, the green deal provider, or the funder of the eco improvements.

Cutting through Green Wash in construction.  Could PAS 2030 be seen as a green build standard in the UK providing some form of green accreditation for all eco work, whether Green Deal or not.

So, to those who think that green deal does not apply to them, I would urge you to find out more – its possible the green deal concepts will reach into most areas of the built environment.

To find out more, I invite you to join me in the green deal debates on twitter, subscribe to this blog or just get in touch for more information on preparing for green deal

Listening again recently started me thinking of how ‘sustainability’ could be ‘breaking through to the other side’ … to a time / place where sustainability and CSR is the norm rather than something we strive for.

This, however, begs a number of tricky questions and answers

Just what does sustainability and social responsibility really look like? When or how will we know we have arrived? What exactly do we have to ‘break through’? What is the tipping point?

What we should find really exciting is that we dont really know, we dont know where the boundary or tipping point is. Where, what or indeed how far we need to push.  Are we nearly there or light years away?  This makes sustainability an adventure and exploration.

And of course many argue, quite rightly, that sustainability is a journey not a destination or a state of business.

A tipping point may well come when organisations move across a rubicon, from trying to do good whilst making a profit, to making a profit from doing good.  (I am reminded here again of Yvon Chouinard at Patagonia “every time we do the right thing for the environment we make a profit”)

Have we made sustainability and CSR too intellectual? I fear so. Is it now far too embedded in checklists, processes and systems. We have lost connection with the natural world, with planet earth, the very reason we need sustainability, resilience and CSR?

Perhaps the tipping point to breaking through to the other side is re-igniting this connection, where we dont need a tag, or a label, but doing the right thing as an organisation or individual is the norm and ‘feels’ right, rather than something we do because we are encouraged, nudged or told to do.

Through fairsnape, organisations are supported in understanding their Route to Zero, where zero is a target, the route the more important, and supported in breaking through barriers.

If you are interested in learning more, I invite you to join me in the sustainability and CSR conversations on twitter, to subscribe to this blog or to get in touch at fairsnape for more information

And a thought for the built environment in 2012… what do you see as the sustainability boundaries that we need to break through and move beyond?

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 14,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

It struck a real chord with an expression that had been forming over the last few weeks, that “if we dont get sustainability, social media and CSR right then young people will not want to work in construction. But they will want to work for other sectors” A compelling reasons why all this starts in the boardroom both as an organisaiton continuity or survival issue and forward thinking, growth and innovation matter.

And it is very much a social media matter, Gen X and Y will use social media to broadcast negative thoughts and obersvations, as well as positives. (The slide comes from a recent constructing social media presentation)

Corporate social responsibility ranks “quite highly” for Generation Y workers …

“The challenge is that Gen Ys hold organisations to their CSR policy. If they join and they feel that the organisation is not living up to the policy, they will become disengaged, leave the organisation and, even worse, will use social media to broadcast their negative thoughts.”

There are a number of other factors that make a company an employer of choice for Gen Y, such as: meaningful, engaging work and the opportunity to build skills; access to the latest technology; working with friends and co-workers in the same age group; a collaborative work environment and management style, and an organisational capacity for fun.

So what turns them off?

• Stodgy, traditional companies – “they will join and stay for the money for a while, but then will leave looking for greener pastures.”
• Managers who are not interested in them as people, or their career progression.
• No clear line of sight between what they are doing and the big picture.
• “When the cost of doing anything [long hours] outweighs the benefits [work-life balance].”

Live tweets and blogs will be provided via be2camp by myself and Su Butcher

The links you need to know are set out below along with the latest agendas.

Register interest in viewing on line here: 

Stream and Live Blog will here (be2camp) on the day

Live Stream to LMU Big Screen here

Hashtag is #GVis2011 (if you want to just follow tweets and engage they you could use tweetchat additionally you can RSS the hashtag feed here

Agenda:

13.00 – 17.00 Retrofit Reality

18.00 – 19.30 Sustainability Question Time

and then Tweetup (venue to be determined)

More Details:

Retrofit Reality:

Sustainability Question Time: