Tag Archives: Green issues

May 24 2010

The Cameron & Clegg show

So, after just a couple of weeks in (shared) power, the Con-Dem-Nation packages have emerged.

TweedleCam & TweedleClegg

And from a property perspective, there are some interesting statements in the Freedom, fairness and responsibility document…

Some of the statements:

We will explore a range of measures to bring empty homes into use.

We will promote shared ownership schemes and help social tenants and others to own or part-own their home.

We will promote ‘Home on the Farm’ schemes that encourage farmers to convert existing buildings into affordable housing.

We will create new trusts that will make it simpler for communities to provide homes for local people.

We will require continuous improvements to the energy efficiency of new housing.

We will provide incentives for local authorities to deliver sustainable development, including for new homes and businesses.

We will review the effectiveness of the raising of the stamp duty threshold for first-time buyers.

They have also said that they will create a ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development in the Planning system”. I am not sure exactly what this means – does this mean we can have a mud hut in place of our Grade I listed buildings…

And as Sue Churchill at Church Lukas pointed out to me last week, they are going to launch a national tree planting campaign, which should solve all of our problems!

There is quite a lot on the Green Agenda, which is laudable, but we really need to sort out the facts form the urban myths, before we set off on more targets. We cannot keep issuing edicts and aspirations without a very clear level playing field. We need the myths busted so that we are really clear on:

1. what is really happening to the planet.
2. what we can realistically do about it – and this is not just us alone in the UK!
3. what technologies work and which ones don’t – including the payback periods.

May 22 2010

Green values – not much further forward?

At the end of March I went to a breakfast meeting at Nottingham Trent University – the subject matter was whether green buildings had a higher value than buildings that are not green. I blogged about it here.

The sort of green I do understand as a valuer

I also blogged a couple of weeks ago about the role of a valuer, simply reporting on the market. As I have said before we don’t make the market – we do have to interpret it.

This week I was at Gleeds in Nottingham – another breakfast seminar examining the impact of green leases on value but also a take on the legal aspects. Valuers came in for a bit of a beating! The suggestion was that valuers need to understand green issues more to be able to educate occupiers. I couldn’t let this go as this is slightly unfair. I suggest again that as a valuer we are only interpreting the market – we don’t make it!

The real education needs to be at the occupier level. There are some green evangelists out there – and we have some as tenants. But the vast majority of occupiers in my view place ‘green issues’ or ‘sustainability’ fairly low on their shopping list. My experience is that it is still location and price first – by some distance!

But some fair points were made. We still don’t really have a clear understanding on what a green building is. There are different measurement tools including BREEAM and EPC certificates. But ‘green’ means different things to different people. There is too much EcoBling and much of the technology is still quite immature.

We need much better and clearer information – in the meantime there is no real evidence that a green building is worth more than a non-green building! In fact there is some hearsay evidence that the opposite might be true – at the moment…

Mar 14 2010

Been there – got the t-shirt

Doesn’t a year fly by? Actually five years..

It really is that pink....


I’m off today to my 6th MIPIM conference in Cannes. But unlike some brave folks I will be flying (green people please note that the plane was going anyway).

You might have guessed from previous blog posts that my firm sponsor Invest in Nottingham – along with others from the private sector. We also go because we meet clients out there – old and new.

MIPIM has become an established place for the world property market to go. There are 18,000 participants crammed into the town of Nice, of whom 3,575 are know investors. 1,213 developers are registered this year. 79 Countries are represented – most of whom will have a stand in the ‘bunker’ – which has 20,000 sq m of exhibitions!

The major themes this year are said to be renewed investor confidence, the return of ambitious building projects and strategies for sustainable development in major cities.

My diary is pretty much full – presentations about Nottingham Southside feature heavily – where my Partner Matt Hannah will be speaking. I have the privilege of speaking about the work of the Sheriff’s Commission on Tuesday night – and we have an exclusive preview of the new Robin Hood film! I will also be at the dinner with Krasnodar and Nottingham City Council – where we expect a special announcement. In between all of that there are meetings planned with the leaders of Nottingham City Council and Derby City Council, breakfasts with a number of my private sector contacts and lunches with a similar crowd.

Our day is normally rounded off with a fine kebab – great food after a day of canapes.

It is a fairly frantic week – I usually get through a box of business cards and collect a similar number!

So, time to board the plane to the Cote D’Azur – and sort the t-shirt. If I am honest I am not sure I will bring it back…

Mar 10 2010

Urban farming – the way forward?

Seeing Countryfile last weekend reminded me of a scheme I had seen a few years ago for my ideal home-from-home, New York.

The WAC scheme for New York


A New York architectural firm, Work Architecture Company, produced some brilliant ideas for an urban farm and apartment building as part of an ideas competition for a block in the city. The site was visible from all sides, and the architects decided to bring the farm back to the city, though in this case stretch it vertically. The designers – Dan Wood and Amale Andraos were interested in urban farming and ways to cut food miles.

It was Mark Twain who said, “Buy land, they’re not making it anymore”. You can see the attraction of vertical farming. Especially in New York – where they are very used to high-rise. We are less inclined to go here in Nottingham!

As much as Central Park in New York is considered a green lung for the overcrowded city, imagine the benefit these vertical lungs could provide? But they also provide much more – local produce for the local area. This is real green living. Cutting down the miles food travels is an important part of getting the CO2 emissions down. Of course the location of the plants adjacent the living city means that the air is cleaner.

I love the thought that it can also be a piece of art – and provide shelter below, for cafes and the like – no doubt serving food grown above!

Sadly it didn’t get built – but what a great idea. Playing golf between the 10th and 12th floors would be stunning! It would bring a whole new meaning to the expression “fore”!

There is a great video showing a French take on the idea – la tour vivante, the living tower. Imagine working in an office overlooking the forest of trees. Or having your apartment with a similar view? The only thing would be they would need to quieten those wind turbines!

Some of this architecture and ideas would be fantastic here. The only issue, I suspect, will be cost?

Mar 9 2010

Teaching Sustainability?

A couple of years ago I gave some advice to Castle College in Nottingham about a potential new teaching Centre.

Smartlife Centre Hamburg

The idea was to add to an existing teaching set of courses. The College had (and still have) popular courses in building – bricklaying, plastering, plumbing etc.

As the College were becoming involved in new builds at Highfields Science Park and the main Centre in Chilwell we started to think about how the College could learn from these real life projects. The College always make sure that any building contracts have an ability for their own students to see progress formally during the build.

We also started to see in increase in the use of new technology for carbon reduction. We were being encouraged to look at Photo-Voltaic cells, Ground Source Heat Pumps, high levels of insulation, double and triple glazing, rainwater harvesting, biomass boilers and the like. But what was evident was that although these new technologies were being specified by Architects, the operatives fitting them were often struggling. Or you had to employ specialist sub-contactors (some of whom travelled miles thus negating some of the green credentials?).

We went to see two Smartlife centres -one in Malmo, the other in Hamburg. These centres were way ahead of the UK – and were brilliant showcases for some of the technology.

I was delighted to see that a Centre in the UK has been opened. It has been built by Wolseley – the worlds largest heating and plumbing supplier. It is known as the Sustainable Building Centre. It is a showcase for around 170 products – with information on a total of 7,000 – all under one roof.

Like the Genesis Project in Taunton, the centre uses the technology in it’s own construction. But there is a subtle difference. I visited Taunton and we saw quite specialised construction – including rammed earth and straw bales. This hasn’t found its way in to the Wolseley centre – it isn’t scalable enough to be distributed.

So, although the centre is pushing new technology – it is with a very close eye on commerciality. And for this reason, I think it an excellent project. Sometimes, I think we fall too easily for the green technology on the basis that it sounds sexy. The reality is that some of it is not really commercially viable – payback times can sometimes go beyond the life of the building!

In a recent report to Government the easiest and cheapest way of achieving a substantial CO2 reduction was highlighted as turning down room thermostats by 1 deg C. This is estimated to reduce, in the UK, emissions by 5.5 million tonnes of CO2 annually!

Sadly, the LSC funding for College schemes like the Sustainable Building Project pretty much dried up before we were able to get a centre built in Nottingham. Maybe one day someone will realise we need this sort of centre – for future builders!