Greening the Built Environment
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GREENING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Maf Smith~ John Whitelegg and Nick Williams ~~mD[u~~~LU from Routledge The Earth deserves to be recognised as our common home. As every culture knows, to destroy one's own home is folly indeed Ernst Ulrich von Weizsacker First published by Earthscan in the UK and USA in 1998 For a full list of publications please contact: Earthscan 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Earthscan is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Maf Smith, John Whitelegg and Nick Williams, 1998 Published by Taylor & Francis. Published in association with WWF-UK All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notices Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility. Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 13: 978-1-85383-403-5 (pbk) 978-1-85383-404-2 (hbk) Typesetting by JS Typesetting, Wellingborough, Northants Cover design by Andrew Corbett WWF-UK is a Registered Charity. No 201707. In the US and Canada, WWF (World Wide Fund For Nature) is known as World Wildlife Fund. C o n t e n t s Figures, Tables and Boxes , v Acronyms and Abbreviations vii 1 What Are We Doing Here? 1 2 The Built Environment and Sustainable Development 13 Sustainable Development , 14 Is Our Built Environment Sustainable? 17 Implementing Sustainable Development . 18 Ecological Footprints 20 Manchester 2020 * '23 Non-sustainability and the Built Environment 26 ׳ Local Agenda 21 31 Factor 4 32 3 Energy Intensity in the Built Environment 34 Current Energy Use Patterns 35 Reducing Our Energy Use 41 Energy Efficiency 46 A Fresh View on Energy 47 Local Provision of Energy 49 In Conclusion: Away From Dependency, Towards Autonomy 54 4 Materials Intensity in the Built Environment 58 Life Cycle Awareness 59 The Building Industry in Our Society 62 Thinking of Materials 63 Reducing Environmental Impact 71 Reducing Obsolescence 72 ׳ Increasing Reuse and Recycling 75 Doing More With Less . 76 Using Local Materials and Skills 79 In Search of a New Vernacular 81 5 Transport and Land Use Planning 84 Land Use, Urban Density and Mobility 86 Land Use Planning to Reduce the Need for Travel 93 Facility Planning 94 . Which Facilities Matter and Why? 96 Health Care Planning 98 Gr e e n in g th e b u il t En v ir o n m e n t The Demand for Housing 100 Land Take for Private Transport 101 Parking 106 ׳ • Policy Evaluation 112 Traffic Demand Management 115 Conclusion: Is There a Perfect Land Use Structure? 116 6 Health and die Buit Environment 118 Conceptualizations of Health and Health Care 119 Changes in Public Health Since the Industrial Revolution 120 Health and the Built Environment 122 City Scale 124 ־־ Contemporary Urban Health Buildings 131 ־־־ Contemporary Urban Health Achieving a Healthy Built Environment 136 7 Sustainability and Social Equity 138 Sustainability and Social Systems 140 The Green City and Social Equity 149 Life in the Green City 156 8 Community, Sustainability and the Buit Environment 159 The Decay of Community 160 Values, Social Life and the Built Environment 164 The Desire for Community 169 Sustainable Communities 171 Sustainable Communities and the Built Environment 174 9 A Mew Economy and die Buit Environment 179 Promoting Local Economies 183 Local Economies, Retailing, Land Use and Construction . 185 Telling the Ecological Truth 189 The Environmental Costs of Our Economy 191 The Social Costs of Our Economy 192 Linking Environmental and Social Concerns 194 Discounting the Future 194 Ecological Tax Reform 197 New Economics and Energy Use 199 New Economics, Transport and Land Use 201 In Conclusion: An Economics for Our Built Environment 206 10 Hie Way Forward 209 A Sustainable Built Environment 212 The Cost of Inaction 227 References 229 Index 243 iv Figures,tables a n d boxes F ig u r e s 1.1 Scope of the Built Environment 4 1.2 The Built Environment: A General Model 5 3.1 Global Average Surface Air Temperature, 1950-95 36 3.2 Sustainable Europe Energy Assumptions 40 3.3 Building an Environment Apart from the Natural Order 43 3.4 Anglia Polytechnic University Library 44 3.5 Hockerton Housing Project 54 4.1 Life Cycle Analysis of a Door 61 4.2 Production of Cement Within the EU 65 4.3 Environmental Space Targets Globally and Within the EU 66 4.4 Tons of Waste per Ton of Metal 67 4.5 Impact of Eco-Type 1 as a Percentage of Control 70 4.6 Contribution of Various Materials to the Energy Requirements of the UK Construction Sector 71 5.1 Relationship Between Settlement Size and Distance Travelled, 1975-76 and 1992-94 88 5.2 Gasoline Use per Capita versus Urban Density 1980 90 7.1 International Income Inequality Trends 147 9.1 The Dynamic Mechanisms Linking Road Provision, Urban Sprawl and Economic Problems 203 Note: the authors would like to thank Martin Rowson and Anne King of The Building Service Research and Information Association (BSRIA) for permission to reproduce Figure 3.3 and Nick White of the Hockerton Housing Project for permission to reproduce Figure 3.5.They would also like to thank Emma Heathcote for illustrating Figure 4,1. TABLES 2.1 The Metabolism of Greater London 21 2.2 Comparison of Consumption Levels 22 2.3 C 0 2 Emissions from Passenger Car Traffic at Heathrow Airport 29 2.4 Heathrow Airport’s C 0 2 Inventory 30 2.5 NOx Emissions at Heathrow Airport "Present5 and 2016 * 30 4.1 Relative Impact of Eco-Type 1 and Control 70 5.1 Average Number of Journeys and Kilometres Travelled per Person per Year in Great Britain 85 Gr e e n in g th e b u il t environment 5.2 Model Split of Journeys (%) According to Type of Settlement, 1991-93 86 53 Transport Characteristics of Almere and Milton Keynes . 93 5.4 Percentage Breakdown of Distances Travelled by Journey Purpose 96 5.5 Mode of Travel to Retail Centres (Weekday) 98 5.6 Comparisons of Different Modes of Passenger Travel 103 Land Take for the Birmingham Northern Relief Road 104 ־ 5.7 ־ 5.8 Land Requirement for Sections of the BNRR 104 5.9 Land Take of the Roads Programme in ‘Trunk Roads, England into the 1990s’ 105 5.10 Average Number of Car Parking Spaces by Shop Type and Location 107 5.11 Hypermarkets and Superstores by Country/Regional Grouping, and Selling Space and Land Take for Car Parking 107 5.12 House Types in Great Britain in 1991 and Land Take for Car Parking 110 6.1 Share of Total Domestic Expenditure on Health 120 6.2 Airborne PoHutants from Transport, UK 1992 127 63 Road Accident Injuries 128 6.4 Volatile Organic Compounds Found in Buildings 134 9.1 Winners and Losers from Ecological Tax Reform 198 9.2 Total Costs and Taxation Income for Lorries in West Germany, 1987 204 9 3 Total Costs and Taxation Income for Cars inWest Germany, 1987 205 10.1 Sustainability Targets in Bedfordshire^ Structure Plan 1995 219 BOXES 2.1 Twelve Prominent European Environmental Problems 15 2.2 Recycling in Calcutta 22 23 Main Targets for Manchester 2020 24 vi A cro nym s a n d A bbreviations BNRR ■ Birmingham Northern Relief Road BSE bovine spongiform encephalopathy CEC Commission of the European Communities CFC chlorofluorocarbon CHP combined heat and power CPRE Council for the Protection of Rural England dB(A) A-weighted sound level in decibels DIY do-it-yourself DoE Department of the Environment (to 1997; now Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR)) (UK) DSM demand side management EIA Environmental Impact Assessment ׳ (EJ exajoule (1 x 1018 joules EPA Environmental Protection Agency ETR ecological tax reform EU European Union GJ gigajoule (1 x 109 joules) hectare ׳ ha IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IRA Irish Republican Army ISEW Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (UK) kWh kilowatt hour LCA life cycle analysis LETS Local Exchange Trading Systems LTO landing and take-off MAI Multilateral Agreement on Investment NAFTA North American Free Trade Area NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration (US) NEC National Exhibition Centre (Birmingham, UK) OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development PM10 particulate matter (<10 microns) PNR private non-residential (parking) RCEP • Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution RMI Rocky Mountain Institute SEA Strategic Environmental Appraisal SMUD Sacremento Municipal Utility District T5 Terminal 5 (London Heathrow Airport) TDM traffic demand management TERN Trans European Road Network Gr e e n in g th e B u ilt environment UPVC unplasticized polyvinyl chloride VAT value added tax (UK) v o c volatile organic compound w watt WHO World Health Organization WRI World Resources Institute yr year ZEV zero emission vehicle W hat A re W e d o in g H ere? 6'tree is leaf and leaf is tree - house is city and city is house — a tree is a tree but is also a huge leaf - a leaf is a leaf but it is also a tiny tree - a city is not a city unless it is also a huge house - a house is a house only if it is also a tiny city3 Aldo van Eyck At Manchester University, England, the University authorities built a new block of student residences known as Whitworth Park, which amongst resident students, members of the University and local people, rapidly became known as 4The Toblerones’.