Net Positive | Green Vision

Tag: Net Positive

Ever wondered how the built environment can contribute to our health & happiness?

Imagine buildings that foster net-positive health and happiness. Buildings that can actually make us healthier and feel better from working or living in them. This evening seminar, aligned with our Living Building Challenge afternoon session, will focus on the emerging importance of health and happiness within the built environment.

We are seeing built environment sustainability mature, at design, construction and facilities management stages, moving away from an approach that focuses solely on technology, energy and water performance to embrace health, happiness and even mindfulness.

This not to be missed event will feature the following speakers:

Introduction to Net Positive Health and Happiness Thinking

Martin Brown, Chair Green Vision and LBC UK, fairsnape

Mindfulness – Training in Tranquility and Cultivating Creativity

Dr Elliot Cohen, Senior Lecturer in Psychology,

Leeds Beckett University

An introduction to the Well Building Standard

Victoria Lockhart, Arup Associates, Wellbeing and Sustainability Specialist, LEED AP ID+C, BREEAM AP, WELL AP

Wednesday 13th May 2015

17:30 to 19:30

Squire Patton Boggs (UK) LLP, 2 Park Lane, Leeds

Earth Day 2015 – Beyond Sustainability

April 10, 2015 / Liz Schofield / 0 Comments

Martin Brown is the Leeds Beckett Green Vision Ambassador, a Living Building Challenge Ambassador and through Fairsnape an innovative, leading consultant and advocate for built environment sustainability.

We are seeing the emergence of new sustainability thinking, one that is challenging our understanding of sustainability, one that uses expressions such as net positive, regenerative and restorative sustainability.

Patagonia company founder Yvonne Chounaird thinks we should not even use the term sustainability until we give the same or more back to nature than we take.

At this free public EarthDay presentation Martin will provide an overview of EarthDay, from its origins back in the 70’s to its present day global celebration of the Earth, along with a backdrop for a new sustainability, focusing on how buildings and the built environment can deliver a restorative sustainability, starting to heal the future and to correct some of the sector’s past environmental damage.

We are limited to 70 places on this event so secure you place now at this FREE event by email to ckeevents@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

Net Positive Water – CANCELLED

February 24, 2015 / Liz Schofield / 0 Comments

PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES WE HAVE HAD TO CANCEL THE EVENT BELOW. WE HOPE TO REARRANGE THE PRESENTATIONS FOR A LATER DATE, PLS KEEP CHECKING BACK HERE FOR DETAILS

(Excerpts of this text have been sourced from “Is Water the Next Carbon?” post by Andrew Winston and Will Sarni, Harvard Business Review)

We all take water for granted. Even though water is critical for human life, ecosystems and as a major process or product input for industry, it’s a resource that very few of us think actively about managing.

Water, often referred to as the “new Carbon” is arguably the next major sustainability hurdle the built environment faces. Recent reports have highlighted some key issues;

Water demand is increasing while water quality is decreasing
Impacts of Climate change will affect water availability
Price does not reflect the real value of water
We need to collectively develop new ways to manage water.

Now then is a perfect time to consider better, perhaps even radical, approaches to the design, management & conservation of this vital resource.

How could we, as emerging standards are suggesting, move towards net-positive or closed loop water systems where all water in a building is “captured, treated, used/reused and released clean within the boundaries of the building”. Buildings as water cleansing facilites rather than buildings as water polluting facilities?

On Wednesday 11th March Green Vision will be hosting the second is their Construction and Assemby spring series focussing on a number of current approaches to help us better understand the water challenge and to improve our thinking around water design, management & conservation.

Our speakers for this event will be Louise Walker, Innovation Manager at water@leeds who will be talking about how we can better incorporate water into our thinking for new buildings & retrofit to help improve water quality, reduce flooding, provide water resources & create better places to live. This sounds ambitious but it is all part of the concept of ‘Water Sensitivity’ and has been embraced through initiatives such as Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) in Australia. Currently, water management in the UK is compartmentalised & surface water management in particular is not prioritised. How can we improve the situation and will the Water Petal of the Living Building Challenge help?

Our second speaker for this event will be Martin Brown, Green Vision and Living Building Challenge Ambassador who will be joining us live from the Bullitt Centre in Seattle for a short audio update with insights into to his visit to the “Greenest Building in the World” including their water management strategies. “The goal of the Bullitt Centre is to drive change in the property and built environment marketplace faster and further by showing what’s possible today. The era of harm reduction, half steps and lesser evils is behind us… we need to be bold in ways that were once unimaginable”