Tag Archives: Outerarc

Mar 29 2011

Energy Certificates – more sticks and less carrots

It’s as if a commercial building owner has time on his hands – and cash swilling around.

More legislation looks to be on its way – you can never have enough? This week The UK Green Building Council is advising Government on the latest idea. Not satisfied with Energy Performance Certificates (EPC’s) or Display Energy Certificates (DEC’s) we now need something else – a LES. A Landlords Energy Statement.

EPC’s are for buildings being marketed (in simple terms). DEC’s are for Public Buildings. Each has that funny little graphic showing you how good or bad the building is. Like you get on fridges in John Lewis.

I’m not sure that anyone is taking any notice of these, but perhaps I am being cynical. My experience of EPC is that they are a necessary evil – they make little difference to a deal.

So LES will be born and will be a DEC for all non-public buildings.

More Legislation will be needed. And another obligation on Landlords.

The issue here is that a Landlord has little or no control over his tenants use of energy. Tenants have little or no control over the Landlords building…

Apparently these little certificates will encourage landlords and tenants to cut energy use. My question to you – have you noticed the DEC’s in any public building you have been in? If, by chance you did, did it make any difference to your visit? Did you switch a light off, use a little flush? Thought not. Nor me.

If you want to motivate people it takes cash. Fuel poverty is likely to be the biggest changer of attitudes than any display certificate.

We need to constantly remind people that their behaviour needs to change. Like the Outerarc system. Not a bit of colourful paper on the wall. And we certainly don’t need any more legislation – well thought out or otherwise.

Jan 18 2010

Nottingham – yes we can!

Readers of my blog will (hopefully) realise that I am passionate about my home City of Nottingham. I really do want the best for the City. Much of my work is based here so it matters about how the City looks in physical and social terms.

Nottingham - friendliest city in the world, probably


We haven’t always had a good press – especially on the crime front, but the figures show a reduction in the figures. There is still much room for improvement – but we are going in the right direction.

I was watching the brilliant TED last night and came across a talk by Kiran Bir Sethi which is really inspirational. If you have 10 minutes to spare – watch it here.

What is fascinating about the talk is the simplicity of the approach – engaging kids at an early stage.

Kiran talks about the kids going on a journey, which has three key components:

Aware – see the change
Enable – be changed
Empower – lead the change

The children were immersed in some real life experiments – which they then formed their own clear opinions on. They had such conviction about what they had learned that they went out onto the streets to ‘change the world’.

The lessons in the talk are just brilliant – and something we should think about!

I am involved in the early stages of a project with Outerarc where we hope to introduce a competition in schools with the Sheriff of Nottingham and Lord Mayor of Nottingham to reduce energy use in schools (not the PE sort of energy!). After our initial meeting we were thinking that the collaboration we will encourage for the project can be easily extended into other areas.

If we can get the kids engaged in the aspects of what makes a city great we might have a chance of making it an even better place. But then you come across the thorny issue of what makes a City great. Some ideas:

The Physical environment – great buildings and places.
People – in all their guises
Day and Night activities – including great food!
A Centre – the Market Square
Diversity – in everything
Art – including the Contemporary
Education – our celebrated Universities and Colleges

There’s then my mini-campaign to tell everyone that Nottingham is (probably) the friendliest place in the world.

We should have some new advocates – the children of Nottingham!

Dec 21 2009

Asset Management & Christmas Day!

When people ask me what I do, it is sometimes difficult to pigeon hole my work – but at the centre of my working life is an asset management team – which has been built up over the last ten years of so.

The Point West Bridgford - managed by us


We have recently been doing a review of the business and the work we do.

We now manage over £250m worth of property for 145 clients. We are collecting nearly £20m in rents and another £4m in service charges. We look after nearly 2,000 tenants.

Although we have a great computer system at the heart of this work is a really good team of property managers. The work is challenging – especially in the current climate. In recent years the focus has changed – we now have many more Statutory Requirements to worry about. Health and Safety is a big part of what we do. It’s not necessarily what we enjoy!

When I started out in this game (27 years ago!) we really were ‘rent collectors’. But that is only part of the job now. It is all about protecting and enhancing value. That is not always easy – but it runs to the heart of everything we do. The calculation of value is a complex matrix of different elements – but the way in which property is managed can have an impact.

Latterly the ‘green agenda’ has come to the fore. We are working closely with Outerarc in Nottingham to see if we can change peoples behaviour in our buildings by reducing their carbon footprint. This will certainly be more important in the future as fuel resources become scarce.

And as everyone gets ready for Christmas – spare a thought for the property managers – the next quarters rents are all due on December 25th!

Oct 27 2009

Green Rubbish?

I previously blogged about the change in behaviour we probably need to make to save the planet.

But I spoke to someone today who told me I needed to read a new book – called Six Degrees – by Mark Lynas. I googled him and guess what – we are all doomed!

In essence this is what he says:

In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a landmark report projecting average global surface temperatures to rise between 1.4 degrees and 5.8 degrees Celsius (roughly 2 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of this century. Based on this forecast Mark outlines what to expect from a warming world, degree by degree. At 1 degree Celsius, most coral reefs and many mountain glaciers will be lost. A 3-degree rise would spell the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, disappearance of Greenland’s ice sheet, and the creation of deserts across the Midwestern United States and southern Africa. A 6-degree increase would eliminate most life on Earth, including much of humanity.

Zero Carbon House Malmo Sweden

This sounds like very bad news. Especially at Gas Mark 6.

And then some great news – in bucketfuls.

Firstly, it seems that Dogs and Cats are contributing to global warming. According to New Zealand-based authors Robert and Brenda Vale the amount of land needed to grow food for pets ranging from budgerigars to cats and dogs is the issue. They say an average Collie eats 164kg of meat and 95kg of cereals a year, giving it a high impact on the planet

A medium-sized dog has the same impact as a Toyota Land Cruiser driven 6,000 miles a year, while a cat is equivalent to a Volkswagen Golf.

Wow.

And then the news got even more ‘interesting’.

Lord Stern told The Telegraph that “meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”

So the answer is that all pets need to go and we need to eat salad?

I think I will stick to trying to build greener buildings and getting folks to turn the lights off. These sort of reports really do nothing for the ‘green’ cause.

Oct 3 2009

Carbon Reduction – changing behaviour

Most people who know me would suggest that I am not the most ‘green’ person on the planet– primarily attributable to the car I drive. I make no apology about this – I like fast cars and I can’t afford a Tesla!

But the label I attract is a little unfair as I do try to do my bit. Honest

I have some issues about the statistical ‘evidence’ we are given. If you Google ‘green issues’ and try to establish where Co2 emissions come from you get very different answers.

It does seem to be fairly well established that Buildings account for half of all carbon emissions. Whereas only 2% comes from planes. So flying is ok then? And my car is much smaller than a plane…

Lies lies and statistics? But buildings and their energy consumption come high up the tree on most of the surveys.

But there is another reason to look at carbon footprint. Reducing the carbon output of a building normally has a direct correlation with costs. One of my clients pays over £1m per year on his electricity / gas. What was interesting was that he can negotiate the best rates (being a large user) but much of the use is out of his hands. People leave lights on!

What is needed is a change of behaviour.

One of my friends, Ben Randal, is running a company in Nottingham who are concentrating on just that. It is a start up company based at BioCity.

Outerarc have developed some clever software which allows measurement in real time of energy usage and then displays the information graphically. The really clever bit though is that the system then can make recommendations – and ‘nudge’ users into changing behaviour.

Outerarc display - Castle College

Outerarc display - Castle College

There is a great video on Ben’s website – click on Carbon Cup TV

No.1 NSP and The Highfields Automotive and Engineering Training Centre

No.1 NSP and The Highfields Automotive and Engineering Training Centre

Real time measurement is already in place at two buildings I manage – No1 NSP and Castle College’s Highfields Automotive and Engineering Training Centre – where the Toyota Academy is based.

It is early days but the systems are generating a lot of interest – and hopefully we can demonstrate cost savings and a carbon reduction.

Not sure I need Ben to put his system in my car just yet!