As ever, packed full of the latest news and projects from Sustainable Centres of Excellence (including REM) from around the country:

Opun were pleased to deliver a Building for Life training day at the Jury’s Inn in Nottingham on Thursday 19 November.

Building for Life is a set of 20 questions that all new housing developments should seek to answer to deliver great places to live, and is the national standard for well designed homes and neighbourhoods.

The training was attended by 43 Planning and Design Officers from Local Authorities across the East Midlands.  Following the successful completion of an assessment exercise the delegates will become accredited Building for Life Assessors .

Delegates busy undertaking a mock Building for Life assessment

In conjunction with CABE, Opun have now ensured that almost all of the authorities within the East Midlands have taken up the offer of free training.  Additionally we are pleased to report that  some authorities have already recognised the value of the assessment to their decision-making, and Annual Monitoring Report recording, and have sought to invest further in additional trained assessors for their authorities.

As an acreddited BfL assessor myself, I wish all those who attended training the best of luck in their assessment work that is the next step to full accreditation.  I also look forward to building working relationships with the network of assessors in the East Midlands region and to further developing the support role that Opun is uniquely placed to provide.

For more information on Building for Life visit www.buildingforlife.org or contact James Carpenter, Design Support Services Manager at Opun.

JC

Regeneration East Midlands were pleased to welcome Martin Willey, the President of the Royal Town Planning Institute to its offices on Tuesday 17 November.

Martin took the opportunity to meet with REM staff, and to hold discussions with James Carpenter and Dharmista Patel about their roles as Chartered Town Planners working within the Design Team at Opun.   Martin joined key staff from REM and members of the Board for a roundtable discussion about the role of REM assisting the built environment and planning sector.

The President was particularly keen to hear of Opun’s work on Regional Design Review and the Building for Life programme; applauding the teams efforts to raise design quality and skills in the East Midlands he stated that “its about time that we stopped allowing poor design to be approved and built under the guise of the current recession” .

As the Manager of the Design Support Service at Opun I am keen to carry this message forward, and look forward to holding discussions with local authorities accross the region as to how best Opun can support them in delivering this ambition.

JC

DECC have spotted some errors in the CO2 data published in September for use with NI186. The dataset has now been revised with noticeable effects only on High Peak, Melton and South Holland, causing a small increase in the overall emissions figure for the region.

DECC have issued a brief overview of the revisions and the reasons behind them.The revised dataset is here.

For an overview and easy explainer of the various CO2 statistics available, check our previous blog post.

Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment is to launch a public debate on connecting green space within our urban areas. On November 11th 2009 CABE are due to launch a public debate into shifting funding and skills from grey to green infrastructure within urban centres.

The project is to draw attention to the available green infrastructure but to note that it only has real value when it is connected and networked properly. To do this we need the right people with the right skills managing the landscapes of our towns and cities.

CABE stated “This green infrastructure is a powerful weapon in the fight for stronger communities, healthier lives and a sustainable future.”

The launch is in London from 5.30 – 8pm on 11 November. If you would like to attend, please contact Nicola Gillam on 020 7070 6757 or email ngillam@cabe.org.uk.

Opun saw a successful start to the week by hosting a  busy Building For Life Awareness Raising event on Monday 19th October. The event was held in both Lincoln and Derby and aimed to get people interested and motivated in becoming a Building For Life Assessor.

The East Midlands has been falling behind as a region with hardly any assessors within local authories when compared to the rest of the country. Working with CABE, Opun is striving to change that, targeting two accredited assessors per local authority by Christmas.

The Training day is due to take place on November 19th in Nottingham, venue tbc. If you would like any more information on Building for Life, please visit the website www.buildingforlife.org and if you would like to be involved in becoming an accredited assessor then please contact James Carpenter at Opun, REM on 0115 9792333 or jc@regenerationem.co.uk

UPDATE: The NI186 figures were revised in November 2009 – more details here.

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A new dataset for carbon dioxide emissions by local authority has just been released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

Actually, make that two datasets. It’s fair to say that there is potential for confusion between the two, so here is a quick guide to clear up what to use when.

The statistics given most prominence by DECC are for total emissions by local authority area for 2007 (local figures are only available after a two year gap). These figures cover all emissions on an ‘end-user’ basis; that is, only those associated with energy usage within homes and businesses. The emissions from the region’s power stations are allocated to those using the energy being produced (useful for the region as it is a net exporter of energy).

The figures for total emissions give the most accurate picture available of how the actions of people within the region are contributing to climate change. However, this picture includes some sources over which local government has little control; namely transport emissions from motorways and large emitters who belong to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). To reflect this, DECC have removed these sources for a parallel set of statistics released in line with National Indicator 186 (NI186)  guidelines. NI186 is a requirement for districts to reduce their per capita emissions which is included in the majority of the region’s Local Area Agreements.

So total figures reflect the scope of the overall problem, but for a focus on local and regional policy it’s the NI186 figures that are the key. Intelligence East Midlands is working with new data to present some visualisations for the new Climate East Midlands website currently in development. 2007 is the third year of data made available at the local level, so offers an opportunity to begin to study change over time. I’ll be checking back in on the blog once we’ve looked over the figures more carefully.

OK, that’s enough of the abstract here’s the latest ‘Act On Co2′ ad from DECC; certainly doesn’t pull any punches…

Here is the latest newsletter from EMFF, reporting from the Forum’s events of the summer and early autumn – including discussions around understanding of National Indicator 7 – and giving details of new events coming up and the launch of a regional funding advice network.  Look out for news of emda’s consultation on its draft statistical portrait of the region in 2009; a BIG Lottery Fund advice day in Leicester; and new training for funding advisors along with a full diary of events and training.

Two lovely pages reviewing last month’s Intelligence Network on Evaluation are hot off the press. Take a look below and give it a click if you want to download the document.

We’ve also collected the presentations from the day and some useful links on the new Evaluation page of the IEM website. Also, check our full selection of Topics pages for a great selection of resources on the region’s key topics.

Just returned from morning at this year’s East Midlands Sustainability Expo, at Walkers Stadium Leicester. Spent my time brushing up on the Carbon Reduction Commitment programme that local authorities, fire and police services, universities, government departments and health bodies are beginning in 2011.

Essentially, these organisations are given allowances to emit carbon which they can then buy or sell through a ‘cap and trade’ scheme. The theory being that the total amount of emissions is capped while using a market mechanism to move the emissions around efficiently.

The Local Government Information Unit team were at the helm for the session, having run a pilot scheme over the last couple of years. Northants County Council participated and Darren Perry gave a very positive presentation on their experiences, while highlighting some of the challenges. The availability of timely data on energy use is a key concern as well as the management of local authorities’ relationships with schools.

I took a couple of main points away from the event. CRC is complex, although this is understood by government and the Environment Agency (the scheme’s regulator). This will see a softly-softly approach being taken to regulation while participants get to grips with its intricacies. Secondly, the concept of trading is akin to ‘playing a game’ and is (to my knowledge) not like anything else undertaken in local government. So as well as coming to terms with the technical aspects of CRC, the scheme requires local authorities to learn a new set of skills around trading and how to maximise both the environmental and economic benefits from their allowances.

On a wider note, the Expo felt like a big success this year. Visiting the exhibitors over lunch, the main hall was really bustling both with delegates and members of the public. Stalls ranged from suppliers of solar panels to local food suppliers (Charnwood Chillis in particular were causing a stir).

East Midlands Regional Assembly organised a lot of media activity round the event this year; we’ll be linking to some interesting video interviews with participants shortly…