Findings Press’ Post

Why Chicago's Clean Buildings Plan is a Win-Win Chicago has a problem: many residents, especially in Black and Brown neighborhoods, are struggling to pay high gas bills while also facing health risks from burning fuel indoors. That's why the city's new Clean and Affordable Buildings Ordinance deserves support from business leaders. The policy would require new buildings to be all-electric. This forward-thinking step avoids locking in decades more of costly, polluting gas infrastructure. Instead, it positions Chicago to transition to cleaner, healthier energy in a way that benefits everyone.  Consider the advantages: 1. Lower costs: Over time, electric buildings are cheaper to heat and cool. Families could save thousands over the life of their homes. 2. Healthier air: Gas appliances emit dangerous pollutants linked to asthma and other illnesses that hit vulnerable communities hardest. Electrification clears the air. 3. More jobs: The shift to electric buildings will create good-paying local jobs in construction, installation, and maintenance that can't be outsourced. The transition won't be instant - but the ordinance puts Chicago on a path to a more affordable, equitable, and sustainable future. And businesses that get ahead of the curve by embracing electrification will have an advantage as clean energy demand grows. In short, it's a win-win: good for residents, good for the economy, and good for the planet. The City Council should pass the ordinance. And Chicago's business community should champion it as an investment in the city's long-term health and prosperity. #buildingdecarbonization #energyjustice #cleanenergyjobs #climateleadership #sustainablebusiness #chicagoclimateaction #resilientcommunities #ESG https://lnkd.in/gkgYH62u

Affordability, social justice, and environmental stewardship— all three play a huge role in effective affordable housing design. My colleague and Housing and Mixed Use Sector Leader, Otis Odell, weighs in on how to address these challenges quickly and efficiently. Read about it here: https://ow.ly/Ujwt30sCjnL #HEDadvances #positiveimpact #housingdesign #housingforall #affordablehousing

Affordability, social justice, and environmental stewardship— all three play a huge role in effective affordable housing design. My colleague and Housing and Mixed Use Sector Leader, Otis Odell, weighs in on how to address these challenges quickly and efficiently. Read about it here: https://ow.ly/CyaH30sCrpx #HEDadvances #positiveimpact #housingdesign #housingforall #affordablehousing

As the general elections approach, the Landscape Institute has published vital recommendations for the next UK government. The Institute urges the next UK government to tackle the polycrisis the UK is facing through an integrated policy agenda that champions landscape-led and nature-based approaches. EDLA joins the LI in the call for solutions to the climate, nature restoration, public health, and housing challenges through interconnected policies that deliver positive social, environmental, and economic value to our country. Key recommendations include: - Leveraging green infrastructure to enhance climate resilience and ensure environmental net gain in new infrastructure projects. - Prioritising positive outcomes from planning by focusing on whole-life sustainability, landscape character, and design quality. - Linking environmental and planning policy to investment schemes to develop cleaner, greener, energy-efficient urban areas. - Promoting good health outcomes and reducing the burden on the NHS by investing in access to green space for all, particularly in deprived urban areas. - Making landscape planning and design skills essential resources within planning departments. #LandscapeInstitute #UKGovernment #ClimateAction #NatureBasedSolutions #GreenInfrastructure #SustainableDevelopment #UrbanPlanning #EnvironmentalPolicy #PublicHealth #HousingCrisis

Lessons and learning from Sydney, for builders, governments, building code makes and communities ... the heat isn't going away. What will you do and plan for the inevitable future? #buildingenvelope #buildingdesign #idealpresence #bridgethegap #womeninconstruction #womeninbusiness #womenentrepreneurs #logisticsleadership #policymaking #womeninscience #womenintrades #constructionindustry

On Wednesday, our summit spoke about housing provision within our carbon budget, and I cited Indy Johar’s alarming statistic that we have carbon capacity to build 14,000/year against the government’s planned 350,000. This paper adds more detail to the situation, making the case that it is not a case of zero-build but that a blend of action is required, explored through three scenarios; business as usual, supply side greening, strong sustainability. Significantly, the third assumes ‘no vacant homes’ meaning the rapid retrofit of all homes including those in unknown ownership which is hugely problematic as outlined by Tania Jennings on Wednesday. The paper, however, doesn’t say how conversion of existing buildings into homes could help mitigate the over-extension of the carbon budget, either through permitted development or other incentives. The presumption in favour of reuse of existing buildings must become the statutory and ethical norm. As a scientific paper, it is also silent on questions of culture and heritage, all too often relegated in urgent questions of housing need and rights to secure housing. We must not forget the human dimension of these discussions, including (but not limited to) housing for all and the embodied memory of the city as so eloquently said at our summit by Clare Caudery in relation to her own experiences, and Mary Keating and Joe Holyoak as part of the #savesmallbrook campaign. Abstract from the paper here with link to full paper below: “Secure housing is core to the Sustainable Development Goals and a fundamental human right. However, potential conflicts between housing and sustainability objectives remain under-researched. We explore the impact of current English government housing policy, and alternative housing strategies, on national carbon and biodiversity goals. Using material flow and land use change/biodiversity models, we estimate from 2022 to 2050 under current policy housing alone would consume 104% of England's cumulative carbon budget (2.6/2.5Gt [50% chance of < 1.5 °C]); 12% from the construction and operation of newbuilds and 92% from the existing stock. Housing expansion also potentially conflicts with England's biodiversity targets. However, meeting greater housing need without rapid housing expansion is theoretically possible.“

Affordability, social justice, and environmental stewardship— all three play a huge role in effective affordable housing design. My colleague and Housing and Mixed Use Sector Leader, Otis Odell, weighs in on how to address these challenges quickly and efficiently. Read about it here: https://ow.ly/MLLi30sCxAs #HEDadvances #positiveimpact #housingdesign #housingforall #affordablehousing

When aging water systems collide with urban development goals Ellie Gabel, Revolutionized, USA When a city’s water infrastructure is working well it’s largely taken for granted by the broader population; clean water arrives safely and reliably; dirty water is removed without fuss. However, as cities grow and water systems age, our water infrastructure is coming under increasing pressure. There are many options available to managers in meeting this pressure. However, as Ellie Gabel explains here, renewing aging water systems can clash with other goals of urban development. Here she explains how the application of new technology, inclusive decision-making and sound financial management can address many of the challenges of our aging water systems and, in the process, generate trillions of dollars for the economy. https://lnkd.in/gfSq-nAf

Thanks to Robin Nicholson for alerting me to this report on new housing in Cambridge. https://lnkd.in/ei9w_JS5 Lots of positives to take even though probably the best recent scheme in Cambridge, TOWN.'s Marmalade Lane, doesn't feature as a case study. However the case study projects, planned in an earlier era and delivered by builders resistant to change in this area, throw up a resounding FAIL for sustainability. Some of these problems can be solved by the forthcoming #FutureHomesStandard but only if #MHCLG get ahead of the technology curve and require fully electrified Smart homes. The big one though is more fundamental. Planners who think that 'pushing on measuring embodied and life-time carbon' is an adequate response to climate breakdown need to get real. Concrete, bricks and steel are major global drivers of 'Hothouse Earth'. It's one of the least understood impacts of housing development on the planet (together with the ecological footprint of the extraction of materials). Housebuilders effectively kicked the issue into the long grass under the last Government through the Housebuilder controlled Future Homes Hub that the previous Government was substantially funding. The report rightly says: "The model of standard housebuilders is unsustainable – it’s profligate of materials" This is one issue Government is going to abdicate. ☹️ The prevailing political mantra in this area is growth at all costs. Not Green Growth. Our carbon budgets are unlikely to survive 300,000 new homes a year. The greenhouse gases from the materials and construction alone will use around 9% of our carbon budget to 2050. Ironically this was revealed in an academic study including researchers from Cambridge University. https://lnkd.in/ea7ieha7 Solutions are available and sensible. Increasing numbers of councils have Carbon Offset Funds in their local plans. Including UpFront Carbon from materials in these, at sensible carbon prices, would both stimulate innovation amongst housebuilders and material suppliers and create revenue to help decarbonise the existing housing stock (the biggest built environment climate impact).