Norman Foster: Building on the green agenda

A superb talk by Sir Norman Foster at TED in January 2007.

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Energy and water efficient home for just 10% more!

In the wake of WBCSD and UNEP reports into the real (as opposed to assumed) costs of green buildings canadian news channel CTV introduced ecoefficiency as the new norm.

Watch more videos like this at www.quantumshift.tv

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Sustainable Biofuels: A Guest Post by Colin Forrest

Colin Forrest,
Monday 25th June 07
cdforrest[at]tiscali.co.uk

Everyone is rightly banging on about the destruction and havoc caused by mass monocultures of crops for biofuels for transport fuels. This is driven largely by fears of peak oil. Yes there are loads of alternative energy sources, but we are stumped for sufficient alternatives for liquid transport fuels, and that's what is worrying governments: demand reduction, energy efficiency, electrification of rail and trams, biodiesel and ethanol, that's about it. You can make oil out of coal but its costly.

Mainstream big business is desperately trying to find a way of keeping the wheels going round.

"Envoronmentalists should be equally concerned with articulating sustainable solutions which solve global warming, maintain current standards of living, and improve the environments, and biofuels, especially wood, can, in some situations, do all three."

Regarding biodiesel and bioethanol, yes the humanitarian and environmental damage from large monocultures of crops for oil seeds/ethanol is unjustifiable, but, on a smaller scale, as part of balanced sustainable agriculture, its not necessarily bad, and remember that the rest isn't wasted. The proteins, fibre and carbohydrates left over are used as animal food and fuel. Used wisely, these crops could be a part of the solution. Let's not throw the baby out along with the bath water.


Also, let's not forget that sustainably harvested wood is one of the most environmentally benign things you can actually do for the planet, and it is the most commonly used renewable energy on the planet by a long way (although not usually used sustainably at the moment).


Used to generate electricity, with the low grade heat energy "cascaded" and used locally to heat buildings, warm greenhouses etc, and with the CO2 captured and buried, it could save the planet. Seriously.

"It is one of the few technologies which could be carbon negative, i.e. using it could actually reduce atmospheric levels of CO2."

The average woodland in Scotland is taking 6 tons of carbon (net) out of the atmosphere every year, per hectare.

Deciduous trees are generally better for biodiversity, will do better in northern latitudes as the climate warms (lower respiration demands in winter), reflect more heat from the sun back into space (higher albedo) especially if the ground is covered with snow in the winter, and look prettier. Also most deciduous trees can be coppiced". If cut down at ground level, they regrow more rapidly than a newly planted seedling (because they still have a big root system) and CO2 emissions from soil disturbance at harvesting and replanting time are greatly reduced

Really, trees are amazing solar energy collectors, help the environment, don't require mining for minerals, use dodgy heavy metals or industrial processes, have minimal transport and environmental costs to install, and are incredibly cheap to install.

Finally, substituting wood for more energy intensive materials such as steel, brick and concrete achieves even greater carbon savings than using it as a biofuel. Truly a neglected part of the global warming solution.

-----

Thanks to Colin for this piece. If anyone else would like to contribute a guest post,
relating to this or any other climate related topic then feel free to email me on
calvin.jones[at]gmail.com

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Architecture 2030

I`ve been doing quite a bit of reading about building movements, and messaging, one interesting if unsprising commonality of largescale movements is the involvement of wider constituancies. For example outspoken scientist and business leaders in the case of the clean air act. It is these non-traditional activists that really signal a movement has a chance. In the UK I have been interested in how active MedAct has become on climate change, development charity ChristianAid has likewise become involved in climate change. Bellow is an editorial from Architechture 2030, a growing organisation of Architechts who are taking measure to lower the carbon footprints of buildings. I find this kind of thing very encouraging.

Architechture 2030 Update.

"Over the past several months Architecture 2030 has been busier than ever. We set some very challenging goals for ourselves, and with enormous support and commitment, we achieved much of what we set out to accomplish. Our team, accompanied by four very influential speakers, joined forces with some of the most powerful names in the industry to produce a live web-cast that would inform more students, professionals and community leaders than we could reach in a lifetime by traveling and lecturing.

On February 20, 2007, Architecture 2030 hosted the 2010 Imperative Global Emergency Teach-in, which was sponsored by the Home Depot Foundation, American Institute of Architects, US Green Building Council, New York Academy of Sciences and many other generous supporters. The event, web-cast live from New York City for three and a half hours, reached over a quarter of a million participants from 47 countries worldwide. Over 1200 AIA members participated for continuing education credit and hundreds of universities across the globe hosted exciting events with remarkable turnouts.

Now the word is out: Global warming is happening and the educational and design communities have an obligation to join others worldwide in the battle against catastrophic climate change. The 2010 Imperative offers students, faculty and administrators a historic opportunity to lead our nation in this time of crisis, and The 2030 ˚Challenge offers professionals and policymakers a simple, achievable strategy to reduce fossil-fuel consumption and the carbon emissions that are currently a by-product of the built environment."

To recieve regular updates from Architechture 2030 go here.

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