Tag Archives: LEED

Students Demand Green Facilities

Posted on 18 March 2011 by John Herbert, BEAM Professional

If pressure from government, NGO’s, and your competitors is not enough, you can add students to the list pushing for change…. here is the link to report [link] where the local students in USA are standing up to be counted, … Continue reading →

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More More More Is Not Always Better

Posted on 25 January 2011 by John Herbert, BEAM Professional

There seems to be a growing trend that needs to be corrected.  For sustainable building and rating systems advocates including Hong Kong BEAM and US LEED often encourage more, more, more.   It might be more site greenery, or in the … Continue reading →

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Premature green building labelling

Posted on 4 October 2010 by John Herbert, BEAM Professional

It’s been more than fifteen years since the concept of a green label for buildings was introduced to the world (BREEAM) so you might be surprised to learn that the definition of what makes a green building is still an … Continue reading →

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LEED is not a standard

Posted on 2 September 2010 by John Herbert, BEAM Professional

In a piece posted by Reuters [link/GreenBiz.com] the author fails to understand that USGBC’s LEED is a NOT a standard. Item number 9 in the piece says, I quote: 9. Meet LEED standards. Build, renovate, and operate your facilities according … Continue reading →

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Water charge increase threatened – China

Posted on 19 December 2009 by John Herbert, BEAM Professional

China is once again suffering with problems in the Water sector, although plentiful in some areas, other areas suffer drought conditions.  Here in Hong Kong it’s relativity cold now, barely 10 deg C outside, as our thoughts turn to hot … Continue reading →

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Green Building Labelling is flawed?

Posted on 3 September 2009 by John Herbert, BEAM Professional

More trouble for green building? The NY Times article Some Buildings Not Living Up to Green Label [1] reports on the hot button issue of the moment in green building sector. Essentially, the issue is that not all green buildings … Continue reading →

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greener data centres vs buildings

Posted on 10 August 2009 by John Herbert, BEAM Professional

I can’t be the only person that has noticed, we have tools such as LEED (http://www.USGBC.org) and BEAM (http://www.HK-BEAM.org.hk) which treat new build (LEED NB, CS) projects and existing buildings (LEED O&M) differently. You might argue, without doubt, that new … Continue reading →

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Energy Efficiency is Not Rocket Science

Posted on 21 June 2009 by John Herbert, BEAM Professional

Hong Kong is a great location, indeed I am fortunate to meet a great number of smart, intelligent people that travel through Hong Kong, this week alone I met a Government Minister, a project developer, and financiers from the energy … Continue reading →

Posted in building tuning, clean production, energy audit, energy consultant, energy efficiency, John Herbert, LEED, sustainable building | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Green Building Innovation

Posted on 7 May 2009 by John Herbert, BEAM Professional

In the sustainable building sector fortune telling is easy, however future-proofing is not.  Over time what could be considered “state of the art” today is destined to become tomorrow’s rating tool baseline case. Translating that into project work, it means … Continue reading →

Posted in energy, green building, HKBEAM, John Herbert, LEED, sustainable building | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

upgrading to LEED v3 or 2009?

Posted on 1 May 2009 by John Herbert, BEAM Professional

The confusing launch of USGBC’s LEED v3 or it is LEED 2009?  has launched. As the graphic and schedule below shows that LEED v3 / LEED 2009 becomes compulsory for new green building projects after 27 JUNE 2009. March 27: … Continue reading →

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Sustainability more than just talk?

Posted on 27 March 2009 by John Herbert, BEAM Professional

As HAESCO (http://www.haesco.org) was a supporting organisation for the SustainaBuild conference in Hong Kong last Wednesday, I decided to attend, a decision I would regret later. The pitch for the event was sustainable design of buildings, but shouldn’t such events … Continue reading →

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Green Building in Asia: It’s more advanced than you think

Posted on 16 March 2009 by John Herbert, BEAM Professional

I feel the author of this blog article should have conducted a little more research before gushing over yet another green building conference in Asia, that event is certainly not the first green building event in Asia, and I am … Continue reading →

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LEED Green Building is not leading

Posted on 15 March 2009 by John Herbert, BEAM Professional

This great presentation, worth the nine minutes, it raises the discussion about LEED, and green building rating systems by Mr Henry Gifford. It reminds us that LEED is a great marketing system, yet the study shows that LEED rated buildings … Continue reading →

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a global green building standard?

Posted on 4 March 2009 by John Herbert, BEAM Professional

Well not quite. Green Building Councils from the UK, USA, Australia, and the BRE in the United Kingdom (BRE is the owner of BREEAM) have signed an agreement to prepare a common methodology for calculating carbon emissions from buildings (here … Continue reading →

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