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Issue 1: March 2009
Welcome to One Planet News
Welcome to the first issue of One Planet News - the newsletter exclusively for endorsed One Planet Developers. We hope that One Planet News will be a valuable addition to the One Planet Communities programme, keeping you up to date with activities from One Planet Communities around the world and news from BioRegional's wider one planet living programme.
We know from developing BedZED that innovation can be risky. If we had been able to talk to other innovative developers I am sure that we would have done some things differently. The chance to share knowledge with One Planet Communities developers across the world is a unique benefit of the programme, and I am sure that One Planet News will become an integral part of that knowledge sharing.
Please let us know what you think - we welcome your comments and suggestions for next time.
Sue Riddlestone
Executive Director, BioRegional
Update from One Brighton
Daniel Viliesid (pictured left) is the Sustainability Integrator at One Brighton. Talking with Nicole Lazarus, he brings us up to date on the latest progress on site:
"The external walls and the clay blocks are all complete. 60% of the wood fibre insulation and 50% of the render is up. 54 of the 172 apartments will be ready for handover this summer. The wood fired boiler is now on site, ready to be installed and commissioned over the next 2 months. The PV panels are installed and ready to be commissioned. The brown roof is there and ready to be seeded with the tailor-made Brighton seed mix. The in-vessel composting equipment known as Big Hanna has been ordered and will be delivered soon".
"Like many housing developments in the UK and around the world, property sales are slow but we still have a lot of visitors to our show flat and are receiving a lot of enquiries through our website; we are hoping the market will recover somewhat during the course of 2009."
Daniel also described for us some of the measures that have been taken at One Brighton to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the construction process. The main strategies were to:
- use energy efficient site cabins
- used electricity on site from guaranteed renewable sources
- use biodiesel to power the site generators.
Read the full story to find out more about these strategies, including the challenges of procuring eco-friendly site cabins, and the lessons learned powering site generators with biodiesel, and to see photos of the development taking shape.
Daniel Viliesid can be contacted at daniel.viliesid@bioregional-quintain.com.
Update from Sibaya
Sibaya is an area north of Durban, on the east coast of South Africa. The 885 hectare site is owned by one of the largest developers in South Africa, Tongaat Hulett Developments (THDev).
Mbongi Dhlomo, Development Executive at THDev says, "While green building may be in its infancy in SA, Tongaat Hulett aims to be one of the leading developers creating truly sustainable developments in the region. Tongaat Hulett's R13.7bn mixed-use residential, leisure and commercial property development at Sibaya will be built using one planet living principles, as we see them to be a most holistic approach to sustainable development, highlighting that sustainability is as much about lifestyles as it is about building. We are confident that we will achieve the desired results."
Sarah Alsen, Director of BioRegional South Africa, updates us on progress at Sibaya: "The original SAP written for Sibaya is being updated to form the overarching one planet living strategy for the entire 850 hectare site of 6000 residential units, 6 hotels and commercial space by 2027. A shorter specification document for node 1 is being drawn up to attach to individual sales agreements. Both documents will be released in March/April."
Finally, in the last month BioRegional South Africa has been set up as an independent Trust. Sarah Alsen can be contacted at sarah.alsen@bioregional.com.
Sonoma appears on Worldchanging.com
Sonoma Mountain Village recently gained favourable coverage in a recent article published on worldchanging.com - a global network of independent journalists, designers and thinkers and one the most influential green websites.
Read the Sonoma article on worldchanging.com.
OPAL - New OPC developer club online facilities
Opal is an online tool that facilitates "action learning" through helping communities of practitioners to share expertise, pose difficult questions and come up with helpful answers.
The Developer Club area on OPAL is visible only to staff from endorsed One Planet Developers. There is a library of SAPs and Guidance Notes for each principle and the beginnings of a rich resource on subjects such as marketing homes, outreach tools, member experiences of low impact construction materials.
There is a simple 3 page OPAL User Guide - download the PDF file here.
OPAL is pretty user friendly, but if you prefer to go through the join up process with help from someone who is already familiar with it, please arrange for a session with either Nicole or Tom at BioRegional.
Visit OPAL: http://opal.bioregional.com
Building homes from recycled cars
Not content with developing North America's first endorsed One Planet Community, Codding Enterprises have adopted BioRegional's pioneering approach by setting up social enterprises and companies to solve problems where solutions don't currently exist.
A prime example is Codding Steel Frame Solutions, which was formed in response to the question: "how can we design buildings out of local recycled materials and ensure that they themselves are in turn recyclable?"
Formed in 2007, Codding Steel Frame Solutions now has 25 employees. The 50,000 square foot manufacturing facility is completely solar powered and located at Sonoma Mountain Village. It manufactures engineered cold-formed steel framing for all types of residential and commercial construction. As an illustration of its effectiveness, it takes about 6 old SUVs out of the junkyard and recycles them into a 2,000 square foot home, saving 40 mature trees in the process.
The framing is not only made from recycled material, it also is completely recyclable. In 100 years, it can be taken apart and reused to create another building, or to create more recycled steel.
The model is so successful, that it is now offered as an on-site instant factory to builders all over the planet through Genesis Worldwide (see article on the right).
SOMO wins top award |
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GEELA is the California's highest and most prestigious environmental honour. The award program recognises individuals, organizations and businesses that have demonstrated exceptional leadership for voluntary achievements in conserving California's resources, protecting and enhancing the environment, and building public-private partnerships. Sonoma Mountain Village won the sole award for Comprehensive Land Use Planning and is one of only 21 other recipients. |
Pooran visits Masdar |
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It was only 2 years ago that Khaled Awad, Masdar's Director of Property Development visited BedZED with the idea of constructing the world's greenest city. In the short intervening period, a One Planet Living plan for the city had been created, a masterplan agreed and a target set for completion of the first buildings by 2009. By the time of Pooran's trip Masdar had already installed 10MW (!) of photovoltaic panels which were supplying the grid - so more than enough to provide the first buildings with power. The podium for the first buildings was being constructed using 60% PFA cement replacement. There was complete segregation of waste on site and no waste currently going off site except food waste. Recycled aggregate was being used in the road sub-base. Trials were also underway with the building fabric for the first two buildings, including use of fibro-cement incorporating local sand on one and the use of solar insulating ETFE cushions on the other. |
B&Q One Planet Home |
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BioRegional will now work with B&Q to develop a concept for an exemplar One Planet Living store and will trial this on a new Croydon store. |
Building capacity in China |
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If successful, the project will allow BioRegional to employ three full time staff at our China office and to work with our partners to develop low carbon policies for building energy use in China. |
One Planet Communities online |
First up we have a brand new website under construction for One Planet Communities at www.oneplanetcommunities.org Our impressive range of video footage is building up fast on YouTube A photo library from One Planet Communities around the world has been started on Flickr Finally, we have a One Planet Communities Facebook page. All of these resources have been created by Greg Searle of BioRegional North America, who also runs his own Twitter blog so massive thanks to Greg. If you have any feedback on any of these resources, please contact greg.searle@bioregional.com or phil.shemmings@bioregional.com. |
Codding and Genesis Worldwide |
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Codding Enterprises have announced a $1.5m Cdn investment in Genesis Worldwide, a leading provider of green building technology, including software applications, industrial technologies, and engineered processes and materials. Genesis has headquarters in Ontario, Canada and has licensees in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East. The investment means that Codding Enterprises owns nearly 20% of Genesis Worldwide. Brad Baker, President and Chief Executive Officer of Codding Investments, has been appointed as Chairman of the Genesis Board, while Richard Pope, CEO of Codding Steel Frame Solutions has also been appointed to the Board. The exciting move gives Codding the ability to set up a steel framing factory for a developer to operate anywhere on earth in 6-9 months. |