Final Assignment: Changing Attitudes

Final Assignment:


As I do not have a background in Architecture or any real property related discipline, I wanted to look at how people's attitude, actions and behaviour can influence the sustainability of the building.


Here is my exec summary, which is a sum up of the Assignment.

Green Office Culture: Changing Attitudes is a best practice guide that can be used for any office building, but for arguments sake it will be for 60 Miller Street in North Sydney. The guide will stimulate change in regards to sustainable behaviours, actions and attitudes for office workers.

It is based off the highly successful Singaporean Project Eco-Office and Harvard’s Green Office initiative, both of which used motivational posters, wide-reaching information services and the creation of a ‘green culture’ to influence worker behavior in office buildings.

Through a number of case studies and research, it is clear that human behavior can have a significant impact on the overall sustainability of a building. Therefore Changing Attitudes will target office worker behavior and attitudes to initiate change and make offices greener and more sustainable.

Changing Attitudes will be a best practice guide for office behavior, in conjunction with a consultant who will analyse the current office set up and advise on future changes and provide a number of benchmarks. 

It doesn’t matter how ‘Green’, efficient or sustainable a building is, the biggest concern is who occupies the building and what they are doing inside.

Reflection

I think I merely scratched the surface of this topic. If I had more time and more words I could have gone into HUGE detail about people's behaviour and how to change it. As such, I feel I didn't do myself justice on the assignment.

however, I have a greater belief that if people can band together and believe in something then it can be changed.

Post-Session Week 12

Pondering some questions by Malay 

1. What are the energy/emission related impacts of your actions and lifestyle currently? What do they mean to you?

 I live in a terrace house with 3 other guys in Paddington, so I know that my footprint is relatively small. 


Biggest impacts would be:


1. Driving my car on the weekends and to and from Uni
2. Recycling waste
3. Energy usage (we all have multiple laptops, mobile phones etc at home)
4. Flying (only fly a couple of times a year)
5. I get most of my food from Aldi, and god knows how far that has travelled

1. Which areas are of particular concern to you? Why?

As I said, my car is probably my biggest impact. I use it a lot on weekends and driving to and from various sporting events. It is probably most concerning because there is not a lot I can do to stop using it. Sydney's public transport system is very inadequate and there are some places I just need a car to get too. The biggest concern is how much I rely on it.

1. What have you already done in response to these energy/emission impacts and your concerns?

I can't say I have done anything to change my reliance on my car. I have improved in that I don't use it during the week, which is a big improvement and I do a lot of bike riding and catch public transport to work.


However, while one day I might consider selling and using other options of transport, in all honesty I can't do that unless public transport improves and ride sharing becomes more popular and cheaper. 

1. What are you currently working on or would like to do in the future in response to the remaining issues? What is preventing you? How will you overcome them?

Personally I can't do that much for my car woes. But I am going to work for Lend Lease next year. I really respect their desire to add sustainability into their developments. I hope, through a successful career at Lend Lease, that I can improve a number of facets of energy and emission in new buildings that will go up around Australia. 

1. What other positive impacts do you see yourself making beyond your immediate personal lifestyle? How? 
2.   
3. I feel the above answer answers this question. Hopefully working for Lend Lease, who are very big on sustainability and will continue to ramp up their work in this area, will ensure that I can contribute in other, greater ways than just myself.

Pre-Session Week 12

Pre-Session Week 12

"Are We Ready for Zero Carbon Buildings?" 

From this article here https://sourceable.net/zero-carbon-buildings-but-are-we-ready/# 
  
In the article, Dr Prasad says that are two main barriers to achieving these zero carbon buildings, economics and attitude.

They are pretty weak barriers, if you ask me. It is disappointing to think that Governments and organisations can't get their priorities sorted to make these affordable changes that will have enormous long term benefits. Prasad says that nearly $17 trillion could be saved if an effort was made for low carbon cities by 2050!!!!!! THAT"S ENORMOUS! Come on Governments, do something.

Sometimes I feel that making those sort of changes comes down to the "they're not doing it, so why should we do it". The feeling that someone making a change is so insignificant that it is not worth doing.


Hopefully that attitude changes.

Added Thoughts: Biomimicry 2.0 Zimbabwe

The Termite Building (Biomimicry in Action) 

Wow, well I stumbled upon this and it is pretty amazing.

Biomimicry uses nature as its motivation, as its perfect example of keeping cool, warming up and surviving.

This has been done with a building in Harare, Zimbabwe.  There have been issues around Zimbabwe in terms of inflation, leadership and poverty. However, this building is a shining beacon of beauty (not so much aesthetically, as you will see, but beautiful in other ways).









So apparently, termites in Zimbabwe build gigantic mounds inside of which they farm a fungus that is their primary food source. The fungus must be kept at exactly 28 degrees while the temperatures outside range from 2 degrees to 35 degrees during the day and night. The termites achieve this by constantly opening and closing a series of heating and cooling vents throughout the mound over the course of the day. With a system of carefully adjusted convection currents, air is sucked in at the lower part of the mound, down into enclosures with muddy walls, and up through a channel to the peak of the termite mound. The industrious termites constantly dig new vents and plug up old ones in order to regulate the temperature.

The building used natures own mechanisms to have no heating or cooling system, but instead relies on a series of vents.

Wow. Nature at work.

Added Thoughts: Biomimicry

Biomimicry




Biomimicry is this very cool concept that 'mimics' nature and its approach to structure and movement to create buildings, transport systems and other things that mimic nature.

It has ramifications for building design and sustainable practice.

We did an really interesting assignment for another sustainability course and we described how biomimicry would work for traffic (in the future, obviously). It would use driver-less cars and would flow like a school of fish, a concept called SWARM.

This is what it is, with so many options!

"Biomimicry is the exploration of the physical forms and intricate networks that are found in natural systems and individual organisms (The Biomimicry Institute, 2014). Biomimicry understands and appreciates that through billions of years, nature has adapted and discovered ways to adapt and become resilient to drastic changes in the physical environment. By utilizing the research that nature has already done, we can move forward with better, sustainable designs"

Planes mimic birds. Submarines mimic whales, dolphins. 

A building in Harare, Zimbabwe has used biomimicry for a completely green building. 

That's for the next blog!

Added Thoughts: 1 Bligh Street, Sydney

1 Bligh Street 

Sydney has some spectacular buildings, but I've been struck by 1 Bligh St.

My friend works in Clayton and Utz who have a number of offices there and I was taken inside to have a look.

Wow.

The air flow, circulation and the open space. Just blew me away.

If more buildings could be designed like that, things would be better! 

Added Thoughts: Smart Cities 2.0 Songdo

Added Thoughts: Songdo and Smart Cities 


The Smartest City at the moment, and one where smart technology has been put into nearly every possible building, is Songdo.

Songdo has been labelled as the World's Smartest City and the City of the Future.

So what have the South Koreans done and why? 

Songdo is a city that has been built from scratch on reclaimed land, some 65km away from Seoul. 

It is a private real estate development, and when finished will have 80,000 apartments, 50,000,000 sqm of office space and 10,000,000sqm of retail space. 

It will house around 50,000 as residents, with a further 50,000 commuting to work. 

The project was intended to show the world the technological prowess of Korea and create a sustainable city. It has cost nearly $35 billion and is due to be completed in 2017. 

Tellingly, 40% of the city is slated to be 'parkland', which ties into the sustainability aspect of Songdo. 

As far as Smart Cities go, it is exceptional. 

Songdo has been inundated with sensors, which monitor temperature, energy use and traffic flow. 

These sensors allow you to understand when your bus is due, and provide current updates on the surrounds. 

Other innovations (that are nearly all world firsts for cities) include; 

• charging stations for electric cars 

• water recycling systems that uses recycled water to flush toilets 

• waste disposal system that automatically sorts waste according to its danger to the environment 

• internal monitoring systems within buildings that provide information on any maintenance or issues 

Personally, I think it is a great idea with fantastic innovation. Putting these innovations into place in other established cities is another challenge in itself. 

Added Thoughts: Smart Cities

More Thoughts 



I've been fascinated by Smart City technology for a while. I think that it has the potential to have a huge impact on our city lives, in regards to greater efficiency and less energy used within buildings and cities overall.

In my research for this course I've found some great articles and written some blog posts about Smart Cities, I hope they are informative and interesting! They cover everything from Smart City technology for parking, for ride sharing and for traffic congestion. I feel that in the next 10 years Smart City technology will become part and parcel of the Built Environment.



 


"A 'smart city' is an urban region that is highly advanced in terms of overall infrastructure, sustainable real estate, communications and market viability. It is a city where information technology is the principal infrastructure and the basis for providing essential services to residents. The IT infrastructure allows feedback to be given automatically, creating a highly connected, intelligent city"

While that is a broad term (which is expected in this field), what should we expect from a Smart City?

Here are some of the broader expectations (and some of my expectations) for a Smart City:

1. Smart Parking, with systems in place to alert people of free parking 
2. Integrated transport systems: A public transport systems that provides information in real time, and is adaptable to every need. 
3. Traffic Management: Traffic response systems that manage traffic flow and congestion 
4. Lighting: Smart lighting that adjusts the light depending on its surrounds 
5. Waste Management: Efficient waste collection 
6. Maintenance: More streamlined systems in place to alert the necessary bodies of damage to areas of the city, buildings or even people 
7. Collection of Information: Information that is tied in together, to enable users to access with greater ease and in greater depth 

 I think that the above characteristics are merely scratching the surface of what a Smart City is and what it can be.

Post-Session Week 11

Net Zero and Living Building Challenge Financial Study: A cost comparison report for buildings in the district of Columbia

In reference to the financial analysis from the above article!

I had a scan through the executive summary and was then naturally intrigued by the financial analysis. I feel like most of society still feels as though all this sustainability stuff is too expensive - a chronic misconception. Table D was particularly interesting showing the simple pay back on a $3 million plus, multi family building constructed with as a net zero building with energy conservation measures to be just 3 years with a return on investment of 33% (given tax credits/deductions in the District of Columbia).


I also liked the example of the building owner who wants to create a net zero building, but to do so with just PV would need 17 times the roof space. This leads to the ideas of treating energy consumption as a district wide issue - the Living Community Challenge.

It's suggested that to power a DC building (to net zero energy) 35% is going to need to come from a combination of advances in PV technology and scale jumping - i.e. extending the energy provision and consumption beyond a singular building and into the wider community.


It's a long way off and we have a lot to strive for but it's great to think this is where we're headed.

Pre-Session: Week 11

How much of China's emissions is the rest of the world responsible for?

So Mr Hope, in his article, explores China and its role in world emissions.


What a great article, I really enjoyed the discussion about China and its emissions.

In reflection, I wrote an account of when I went to Shanghai and how I was brutally affronted with the air pollution of the cities. Here is an excerpt:




I felt constricted and confined whenever I walked down the streets to grab some food or to even look around. Skyscrapers loomed upwards everywhere I looked, not that I had much of a chance to stop and stare because I would be shuffled along in the great moving mass of people.

And the air pollution. It was terrible. Smog and pollutants hung heavy in the air and only a week after my arrival I felt slightly sick and not 100% healthy.


So for me, Shanghai was jam-packed, tall and heavily polluted. 





With the rapid population growth has come rapid industrialisation. I found the most amazing statistic regarding China's construction rate. In 2005 there were nearly 7,000 buildings of 11 stories or more, which had been constructed in just 15 years.


So mainly due to necessity, China has built upwards into a very high density city. This has allowed an exceptionally large populace to live in the city and it has made Shanghai a thriving commercial hub for China.


However, my biggest concern when I was in Shanghai and what is the biggest issue facing the city is their air pollution. The fumes from the millions and millions of cars, plus the dust and debris from all the construction has made the city highly toxic. An interesting article on the subject can be found here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10586296/Shanghai-considers-arming-residents-with-anti-pollution-masks.html

and here:

http://qz.com/155101/todays-air-pollution-level-in-shanghai-is-insane/

Post Session - Week 10

Post-Session Week 10

Building a low-carbon house - more stars or Life Cycle Design by Alex Bruce 








MORE REFLECTION


So I had another read of this article after my post on Moodle, and decided to write some more on it.

The article puts forward some great points and some very alarming ones. Reading that the average households' impact / occupant / year is 39 times greater than what is theoretically "sustainable" is pretty scary stuff. It's interesting to see from the graph that, on average, a house can achieve a ten star performance rating just by reducing its thermal demands. Admittedly this is the focus of NatHERS but it's clear that we should be focusing on much, much more. Even the fact that all you need is 6 star rating to build, i.e. a 10% below average reduction in carbon emissions, doesn't really really seem like enough.

Australia is one of the few countries where you can actually buy one and two star rated appliances, like fridges. So all those companies that make those fridges send them down under. This is something we need to stop - kill the demand and kill the production.

LCD is definitely something that all new home owners should be considering when building their first home. But how do we educate milions on this? Does require legislation? It's nice to believe that everyone should be concerned about this, but the sad reality is they're not.

Pre Session - Week 10

Week 10 Pre Session Reflection 


Articles Referenced:

Candace Pearson titled "Source Energy Is Federally Endorsed Metric for Net-Zero Buildings", and Malin, Nadav. 2010. The Problem with Net-Zero buildings.

Reflection: 

I didn't really get into the specifics within this article, but the general gist is that Net Zero buildings are buildings that are neutral in their energy production, i.e. they break even in saving energy and producing it. 

What a great idea? Right? Without getting into the specifics (which I don't really understand), they are expensive, and not every building can possibly do it. Malin discusses how it may be better to focus on producing less energy for entire neighbourhoods, rather than singular buildings. 

And I totally agree. Why focus time and resources on making one single building in a city a net zero one where you could make an entire neighbourhood more efficient, not making it a zero-energy neighbourhood but more efficient. 

Interesting topic, and interesting discussion.