MODUS Asia Edition 05.13

05.13 // FUTURE-PROOFED Christchurch’s new, more resilient city p14 CATCH THE WIND Carbon capture and storage dissected p24 TIMES CHANGE The expertise you need to keep ahead p36

STEEL: 1.46kg CO2e/kg

BRICKS: 0.24kg CO2e/kg

ALUMINIUM: 9.16kg CO2e/kg CEMENT: 0.74kg CO2e/kg

COPPER: 2.71kg CO2e/kg

WHAT’S THE EMBODIED CARBON IN OUR BUILT ENVIRONMENT? Page 32

Contents

NO 9 05.13 //

THE CARBON ISSUE As surveyors, we strive to influence and support the adoption of a sustainable approach to construction, which is why serious attention is now being paid to the impact that our industry has on the natural environment and the use of scarce resources. This market era has heralded a consciousness about productivity, the use of finite resources and extending the life expectancy of existing assets to achieve a new primacy. And beyond its physical life cycle, considerations should also be given to an asset’s life-cycle impact, and its potential economic, functional, technological, legal and social obsolescence. Ultimately, to contribute to a more productive and sustainable built environment, we must make sure we move beyond compliance and the temptation to ‘greenwash’ traditional approaches.

PHILIP LO FRICS RICS MANAGEMENT BOARD MEMBER

Regulars 04_FEEDBACK Your views on Modus and the surveying profession

28_MEMBER PROFILE Nguyen Thi Van Khanh, head of valuation, Savills Vietnam

06_INTELLIGENCE Global news, plus opinions, reviews and reactions

32_TIPPING THE SCALES Measuring the embodied carbon in materials to reveal a building’s whole-life footprint

31_LAW ADVICE The importance of effectively managing time issues in construction contracts

36_AHEAD OF THE GAME Skills and specialisms to future-proof your career

44_BUSINESS ADVICE Simple ways for smaller firms to cut their carbon emissions

42_EARTHQUAKE-PROOFING Smart ideas and new technologies to fight back against disasters

Features

Information

14_CHRISTCHURCH REBUILD The New Zealand city’s ambitious plan to build in disaster resilience

45_RICS NEWS News and updates, plus a message from the RICS President

20_JOIN US The RICS members actively helping the next generation

48_EVENTS The latest updates and events

24_WHAT LIES BENEATH Can we bury our escalating CO2 problem underground?

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36

24

50_THE MEASURE Facts and figures on RICS’ comprehensive suite of courses and online learning

05.13 // MODUS ASIA

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Feedback //

JOIN THE DEBATE :EMAIL YOUR FEEDBACK TO editor@ricsmodus.com

WHAT’S THE POINT? I have read the various articles in the global February ‘Carbon’ issue of Modus, and while I believe that making building more energy and environmentally friendly is a good idea, I would like to make a few comments.

Firstly, RICS accepts climate change theory without question – ie that it is entirely due to human activity – however this is by no means the scientific consensus (for example, see thegwpf.org). Secondly, in the current economic climate, sustainability is of little or no interest to most surveyors I meet – we’re trying to ride out the recession.

Finally, if climate change theory is correct, then it doesn’t really matter what we do in the UK – it’s the US, China and the emerging economies that are the issue.

Charles Fifield FRICS, Cheshire, UK Thank you for your letter. You are concerned about the seemingly unquestioning position RICS takes on the issue of climate change, and say that sustainability are of little or no interest to surveyors you meet.

I feel that, from an RICS point of view, it is actually immaterial whether climate change is completely manmade or caused by natural cycles – or by a combination of both. As a body operating in land, property and construction, the key issue for RICS must be about responsible stewardship of the earth’s resources. The RICS Charter explicitly mentions ‘securing the optimal use of land and its associated resources’, and considering the current population growth projections, resources such as energy, water and, in fact, land itself are

going to become even more scarce in the future. These issues are only going to become increasingly important for RICS members, no matter where on the globe they are.

Ursula Hartenberger, RICS Global Head of Sustainability LEADING THE WAY In the global ‘Carbon’ issue (February), the various features highlight interesting opinions and thoughts on carbon in property.

What the articles don’t discuss is just how far the construction material suppliers have come in the past decade. I would suggest that they are well ahead of the game. Companies such as Aggregate Industries, CEMEX, Hanson, and Tarmac Lafarge have driven, innovated and pushed the sustainability agenda for many years.

The sector has dramatically reduced its carbon footprint and supplies materials that help developers meet the BREEAM Excellent standard. Chartered surveyors have played and continue to play an important part in this process. Sadly, many have left the sector over the past few years as redundancies hit.

Jeremy Murfitt FRICS, Leicestershire, UK

RURAL AFFAIRS I write as a simple muck-on-your-boots agricultural man to ask why there is never anything of interest in Modus for the likes of me? All I seem to see are pictures of sanitised young townsmen in shirtsleeves, and all I seem to read about is complicated tales of their urban matters.

Christopher Price FRICS, Devon, UK Thanks for your feedback. Modus showcases the latest news and views, expert advice and in-depth features spanning the breadth of the surveying profession around the world.

The magazine is one part of the suite of communication tools available to members.

Inevitably, for a profession with so many specialisms and such a wide geographical spread, no single magazine could cover all issues in depth. For specialist land-related news and information, visit rics.org/land to access the land journal. Other specialist journals are: Building Surveying, Building Control, Construction and Property. For information specific to your region, visit rics.org/whereweare. Finally, we welcome suggestions for specific topics to cover in Modus – contact editor@ricsmodus.com.

Oliver Parsons, Editor

@RICSnews // @modusmag @SHUBESS If anyone is interested in Carbon & the Built Environment, get a copy of @modusmag - insightful & extremely informative. #RICS #Carbon @MattWackett Carbon Issue @modusmag provides logical discussions & possible solutions to carbon & Built Environment; although political debate lingers. @gfree1985 Another @modusmag another lead story on green issues. Granted it’ s key to today’s industry, but any chance of a business lead? @alexmarkdempsey New copy of @modusmag just landed on the mat, excellent reading material to fill the time

Due to the volume of correspondence we receive, we regret that we are unable to print all letters or respond to every one individually.

The MODUS team // FOR SUNDAY

Modus Asia edition is the official publication of the Royal

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Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Asia: Room 3707-09,

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Hopewell Centre, 183 Queen’s Road East, Hong Kong

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Views expressed in Modus are those of the named author and are not necessarily those of RICS or the publisher. The contents of this magazine are fully protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any form without the prior permission of the publisher. All information correct at time of going to press. All rights reserved. The publisher cannot accept liability for errors or omissions. RICS does not accept responsibility for loss, injury or damage or costs that result from, or are connected in any way to, the use of products or services advertised. All editions of Modus are printed on paper sourced from sustainable, properly managed forests. This magazine can be recycled for use in newspapers and packaging. Please dispose of it at your local collection point. The polywrap is made from biodegradable material and can be recycled.

Intelligence :NEWS :REVIEWS :OPINIONS :REACTIONS

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Images courtesy of ALROSA

:MIR DIAMOND MINE SIBERIA, RUSSIA Formed millions of years ago at tremendous depths, natural diamonds are brought closer to the Earth’s surface by volcanic eruptions that produce igneous rocks, known as kimberlite. In 1955, a group of Russian geologists discovered traces of this rock for the first time in the country in Yakutia, eastern Siberia, and the development of the world’s largest open-pit diamond mine began two years later. The 525m-deep mine was originally excavated under extremely difficult conditions – not only was the ground frozen for seven months of the year, vehicles and machinery would also be rendered next to useless by the low temperatures. But at its peak in the 1960s, the mine produced around 2,000kg of diamonds per year, of which 20% were gem quality. Amazingly, worldwide, around 80% of mined diamonds are unsuitable for use as gemstones and, as it is the hardest known natural material, are used in industry instead – essential for toughened drill bits, angle grinders, saws and scalpels, for example.

While Mir mine was permanently closed in 2011, Russia’s diamond mining industry could be set for a new boom after recent reports that ‘trillions of carats’ of diamonds may be lying beneath an asteroid crater in nearby Popigai – more than 10 times the former estimate of global reserves.

01.11 // MODUS

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Intelligence //

Opinion

BUILDING A LOWCARBON FUTURE FOR HONG KONG Christopher To Construction Industry Council

B

uildings currently account for about 60% of Hong Kong’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Reducing this high figure will require an overall behaviour change, as well as a rethink of the city’s planning and design processes. But with the government’s leadership, policy and regulatory support, and the active participation of the construction industry and the general public, I feel certain that this can be achieved.

As the construction industry coordination body, the Construction Industry Council (CIC) has undertaken a number of initiatives, including the development of ZCB – the first zero-carbon building in Hong Kong. Located on a 14,700m2 site in Kowloon Bay, ZCB comprises three storeys of exhibition areas, an eco-home show flat, an office area and a multi-function hall. There is also a landscaped area, providing a high greenery ratio to help mitigate the urban heat island effect. It includes the first native urban woodland in the city, which aims to promote biodiversity. More than 80 different eco-building technologies are showcased in ZCB, some of which are being used for the first time in Hong Kong – such as high-volume, low-speed ventilation fans and the combined cooling, heating and power generation system, which is operated using a biofuel made from waste cooking oil. In fact, a life-cycle analysis showed an overall energy reduction of 45% compared to a standard design building. What’s more, not only does ZCB generate sufficient electricity from renewable sources for its own needs, but it also exports surplus energy to the local grid.

The embodied carbon of the construction material – ie the carbon emitted during its extraction, manufacture and transportation – is also significant in the life-cycle carbon emissions of a building. And for a low- or zerocarbon building, the selection and use of low-carbon construction materials is critical. So, to help increase the use of low-carbon construction materials in Hong Kong, CIC recently completed research to establish a Hong Kong-based carbon-labelling scheme, which aims to develop a framework for labelling construction materials based on the amount of GHGs emitted during their extraction, manufacture and transportation. This will aid different stakeholders – including clients, designers, contractors and end-users – to understand the different emissions levels of key construction elements embodied in a facility in a simple and unequivocal manner.

Initially, six basic construction materials are covered in this research – cement, structural steel, reinforcing bar, aluminium, glass and ceramic tiles – and this year, CIC will coordinate with construction industry to help implement the carbon-labelling scheme.

CHRISTOPHER TO is executive director of the Hong Kong Construction Industry Council. hkcic.org

China ASIA-PACIFIC CITIES ARE INCREASINGLY ATTRACTING THE WORLD’S WEALTHY London and New York City remain the top places for the world’s ultra-high net worth individuals (HNWIs) to live and invest, but Asian cities are fast catching up, according to Knight Frank’s Wealth Report 2013. The report analyses trends affecting economic growth and wealth creation around the world, and

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GOING FOR GREEN ZCB, Hong Kong’s first zero-carbon building, boasts a native urban woodland, as well as showcasing 80 green technologies inside

this year, Shanghai is ranked the fifth most important economic centre in the world, above regional economic centres Hong Kong and Singapore (seventh and eighth respectively). The report predicts the growth in the number of billionaires in Asia by 2022 will more than double that of Europe, and Chinese investors’

behaviour will reshape the global profile of the HNWIs. ‘Spurred in large part by growth from emerging economies around China, wealth creation in China has not slowed down in the wake of the financial crisis,’ said Nicholas Holt, research director at Knight Frank Asia Pacific.

‘Chinese investors are making

their impact felt around the world. While Western HNWIs are becoming more risk tolerant as the global financial slowdown continues, many wealthy Chinese are seeking more conservative real estate investments – but they also are making investments that allow them to enjoy their wealth, too,’ he added.

China

MOTT MACDONALD WINS HK CONTRACT

Opinion

ເབྷ‫ࢀ۝‬ᄶֵ ถ໊দ ࢀᄶ၃ၷ߽Ɨฯ಻

བྷ‫۝‬ᄆႼ ໘൰ఞ฿Ɠ/0/Ɣ஍٩দሸࢀሄ ༅èး࡯ֵᆊ۸஛ս֬и৯Ɨࢃྺး՝ᆣ฿ഏ‫ۆ‬ є໨૓֬ྡྷເ଍൛Ɨၢࠪ٘මӳ൮݆ߊ‫ދ‬നࡀੇ Ӹè֓໨པྗƗ೉‫ݛ‬஬‫ލ‬ᆦ‫਼֤֬ڰ‬çᆦҭ‫ٌދ‬ ݆֬ᆭჸƗၢࠪࢀᄶ၃‫܋ދ‬ᇠ֬࠙ࠥҜთƗᆊ۸ ଩њ൥ढ़ၢ൓ཊ֬è ቛເࢀᄶ၃֬ཿ‫ܙࠖן‬Ɨࢀᄶ၃ၷ߽ᅂ๾ྡྷ‫ئ‬ར ࡀߊƗЎচ‫ن‬ᅡབྷ‫ׂ۝‬၉ቝਲ਼ถࢀሄ༅ýਲ਼ถๆ ‫׀‬þèਲ਼ถๆ‫׀‬໑჆ࣻ੊ຝƗᅤ‫ ׀‬௣١ ૣƗ฻‫܉‬೟ұᅡল౼ç၉۸ߓГࡌउ൜ٚ֍໑ç ၉۸྆ሺ੓౼ࠪ၉۸‫܆ئ‬୆ ߽ฝè਽ບߕႼ၉۸ ۡ੺ߋ੸֬ჺࣦ౼ၢ࡯౥ӳ൮ಪ֢ཹ႒èჺࣦ౼ ୄനႼЮ‫۝‬൵۸‫؂‬൮ჷഺਦƗႯ჆գ࣐ഺ༅‫ئ‬ဩ ߋèਲ਼ถๆ‫׀‬ᅡ൜ਛ ‫ئ‬ᇜ҉๤֬ߓГࢀሄ࠶ ඓƗఊᇖҍ‫۾ٺ‬൥൵՘ᄤབྷ‫۝‬ൗႯƗ৯೉սಿ ਏçֵ෕๠‫ڋڋ‬ഈƗၢࠪሿ‫ލ‬ᇌ৖ç‫܉‬ಪࠪ‫׏ن‬ ༩๫Ɨ‫ۅ‬༩๫৭Ⴏၢ‫ٳ‬ఠ൑Ⴙᇌӵ֬ഺ༅ಞਟ‫ن‬ ‫׏‬è‫ؚ‬ਲ਼ถๆ‫֬ྡྷ࣐׀‬ഺଈᇢఀ‫ٺ‬༌཈൜Ɨఊ୆ ჾ཯‫ނ‬ਏࢧҗႯњሠനࡀ֬ս༷࡯ങ èՕບƗ ਲ਼ถๆ‫׀‬৭Ⴏढ़ᄣഺ୆ჾ‫׏ن‬Ɨԩਛ୆નቇሸഭ ֬ྺ౷ບƗߕढ़ࢃു჌‫׏‬৶ও෉ᇇЮ‫׏׀‬ະè

Mott MacDonald has been appointed as building services design engineer by China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong) for the development of a new HK$2.88bn (£245m) Fire Services Training School in Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong. The school will provide simulators covering seven types of emergency situations, and the team, which includes design architect Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners (MRY) and local executive architect Andrew Lee King Fun & Associates Architects (ALKF) will help the school secure ‘Gold’ certification from the Hong Kong building environmental assessment method society by including features such as self-shading structures, green roofs, solar panels and wind turbines.

:ONE BIG QUESTION IF YOU COULD WAVE A MAGIC WAND OVER THE PROFESSION, WHAT WOULD YOU IMPROVE? Nigeria I would introduce a fast-track multi-door dispute resolution process.

Arbitration is now engrossed in too many legal technicalities. A simpler, give-andtake mediation and conciliation process would enhance speedy project delivery.

Image Courtesy MRY/ALKF

Levi Oguike FRICS, Levi Oguike Partnership

ࢀሄҒਟ֬ႌ‫ݪ‬ถƗ࠮ᄤఊ฻ಃçᇌᄶ‫ދ‬ᄕං‫ݝ‬ Ӹ֬ถ஍٩Ɨ၀߽ᆷࢫႜའࢀሄ༅ᄤഺଈᇢఀୄ ֬ถ஍٩ƗႀՕ࿑ᄻ‫ދ‬ൗႯֵถࢀሄҒਟ‫ؚ‬჆ֵ ถࠎਲ਼ถࢀሄ༅٫ӏᇞးèເ฻ӗᄤབྷ‫۝‬ᅀࡍൗ ႯֵถࢀሄҒਟƗࢀᄶ၃ၷ߽ቒࣔຢӵਛ၉རက ࣵƗၢՕᇌ‫׮‬൨Ⴏ჆བྷ‫֬۝‬ถњభࡀߊè‫ߊࡀۅ‬ ᇂᄤᇌ‫׮‬၉ัআࡖƗၢ‫ۻ‬ओఊ฻ಃçᇌᄶ‫ދ‬ᄕං ‫ݝ‬Ӹ֬໘൰ఞ฿஍٩ਏ‫ࢀؚ‬ሄҒਟ࣐ྡྷњభƗ՝ ‫ؾ‬ಥ҉๤֬Ԃ‫ځ‬ᆇƗЎচॡ߃çനࡀൄçӼЎഌ ࠪ൓ࡄൗႯᆇְƗ୆๠‫֍࡬ݝ‬ଃಙ֬١൛Ɨਛࢺ ࢀሄ༅෵Ⴏ֬ࢀሄҒਟ֬ႌ‫ݪ‬ถඪ௣èЮကࣵԡ ҋ‫੉ۉݫ‬ᇜࠕЮࢀሄҒਟƗЎচඪ୊çࢹ‫ۘܙ‬ Ғçۘࣆç੯çѱ৷ࠪՓልèࢀᄶ၃ၷ߽ࣉ୔߽ თࢀᄶ၃ཱྀ൴๾ྡྷถњభࡀߊè

West Midlands I would insist that every school governing body have at least one member who properly understands property and construction – ideally a chartered surveyor, architect or civil/structural engineer.

This would make my life much less stressful.

Michael Bayley MRICS

South East Perhaps our thinking on how young people enter the profession. Following skills minister Matthew Hancock’s initiative, firms could take on school-leavers and then sponsor them through university while they learn the skills needed in the profession.

Stephanie Marsh, Kingston University

ฯ಻൥བྷ‫ࢀ۝‬ᄶ၃ၷ߽ƓPSKQK WZOƔᆺྡྷቀ࡚

Take part in discussions by joining the RICS group at linkedin.com.

05.1301.11 // MODUS // MODUS ASIA

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Intelligence //

Column

IS THIS A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL? Simon Rubinson, RICS Chief Economist

W

ith leverage being so critical not just to the real estate sector, but also to economic activity more generally, it’s not surprising that, as we move into 2013, a huge amount of attention is being given to the outlook for bank funding. Nowhere is this more the case than in the UK, where the government has introduced a number of initiatives over

the past couple of years in an attempt to kick-start lending. Project Merlin was an early incarnation – announced with a fairly hefty fanfare in early 2011 – but it failed to live up to expectations, as the authorities and lenders argued over whether the targets for loan growth were being met or not. The National Loan Guarantee Scheme – or ‘credit easing’ as it was more commonly known – followed around a year later.

However, the scheme’s shelf life proved even shorter before it was consigned to the shredder and replaced by the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) in July 2012.

Whether this latest programme will be any more successful is open to question.

However, I have a hunch that any scepticism generated by the first report on its usage, which covers the quarter up to the end of September 2012, will eventually prove to be misplaced – or perhaps it’s just that I’m getting tired of the endless run of negative stories. I’m not talking about a sea change, but I can sense that even over the past month or two, there has been a downward shift in some lending rates and a greater willingness from lenders to provide finance for specific projects.

It has to be noted that this improvement has gone hand in hand with a lessening of the risk premium emanating from the euro area in the wake of the commitment by the

European Central Bank to purchase unlimited amounts of sovereign debt.

On this, I have my doubts as to whether the euro issue has really been settled given the scale of austerity being imposed on a number of European economies. Indeed, it wouldn’t be a complete surprise if tensions were to re-emerge at some point over the next few months – and it will be this that will provide the acid test as to whether or not the FLS really has the capacity to deliver.

As I have already acknowledged, we are not talking about a transformed lending climate.

There is still too much else going on that will either effectively raise the cost or limit the scope of lending activity. At best, we’ll find that we are looking at an improved ‘new normal’, where somewhat more modest deposits are required by potential home buyers, and developers can once again access bank finance. Unfortunately, though, for many members working in the real estate field, but with a focus on what might be loosely termed the secondary market, this change may be imperceptible.

A more general pick-up in economic activity would, of course, do everyone a favour – but with the Chancellor, and most other forecasters, anticipating very modest growth over the course of this year, it’s hard to see the macro backdrop providing very much assistance either.

India

AIRTEL’S SUPER DASHBOARD GOES LIVE

Telecommunications giant Bharti Airtel’s new Network Experience Centre was recently completed in Manesar. Turner & Townsend provided project, cost, ICT and construction management services for the project, which houses one of the world’s biggest video walls to allow Airtel to monitor and maintain the mobile and broadband networks of more than 200m customers. ‘It’s been one of the most technology-intensive projects we’ve worked on and is a ground-breaking feat of engineering,’ said Mark Richards, Turner & Townsend India country manager. The centre is designed to adapt to future shifts in datausage patterns, as technologies such as 3G and 4G networks evolve.

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We like

HONEST BUILDINGS It is: A free social media network to connect buildings, projects and property professionals.

It does: Working in a similar way to LinkedIn, Honest Buildings connects real estate stakeholders to a network of building data and company and individual profiles. Listing around 700,000 buildings, the site is useful for owners, managers and occupiers. honestbuildings.com

Books

3 of the best

REVIEWS

NEW REGIONAL OFFICE OPENINGS

Order from rics.org/shop

» Turner & Townsend, Uganda After seeing marked growth in East Africa, T&T opened an office in Kampala, which will offer a range of project, cost management and contract services across the power, commercial, manufacturing, retail, and oil and gas sectors. » Gleeds, France Gleeds Energy, a subsidiary of Gleeds, has opened a new office in Paris following an increased workload and new management structure. The operation will provide services to the energy, chemical and petrochemical sectors. » Sweett Group, Qatar The firm is strengthening its services across the Middle East with a new office in Doha.

Its launch was marked with a special reception attended

by Sheikh Jassim bin Khalid bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Global

INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTORS OPT FOR ASIA’S SAFER MARKETS OVER THE UK

Investors in infrastructure are increasingly looking to markets in Asia and the Gulf region as ‘safer bets’ to invest than in the UK, says new research by EC Harris. The firm’s Infrastructure Investment Index ranked 40 countries around the world according to how attractive they are to infrastructure funds. Although the UK will always remain of interest, political uncertainty, high levels of regulation and a problematic planning process is making it less attractive to investors than markets such as Qatar, Malaysia and Chile. The report placed the UK in 13th place, and named Singapore as the world’s safest market to invest in infrastructure schemes, such as the Marina Coastal Expressway (pictured). ‘Unless steps are taken to provide greater policy certainty, loosen regulation and speed up the approval process, investors will continue to look to markets with fewer barriers and where they can see a much clearer exit strategy,’ said Matthew Cutts, head of Lenders and Investors at EC Harris. To read the report, visit bit.ly/UPamkn.

Provides a thorough introduction to the work of the quantity surveyor in private practice, public service and contracting organisations, with worked examples.

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This guide explains the process under the RICS New Rules of Measurement with plenty of diagrams, worked examples and detailed explanations.

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Singapore

HIGH COMMISSIONER WELCOMES GLEEDS

Gleeds’ new office in Singapore has been given a seal of approval by the British High Commissioner Antony Phillipson, at a dinner held at his official residence, Eden Hall.

Guests included representatives from RICS, Rolls-Royce, Deutsche Bank, and the British Chamber of Commerce. ‘Singapore is a thriving metropolis that offers a dynamic business environment, and it’s encouraging to see that prominent companies with such impressive client relationships, are recognising the enormous potential here,’ said Phillipson.

‘This is a fascinating time to be in Singapore, it’s an area that sits at the heart of a region that is driving the global economic recovery.’

Practical guidance for those involved in the management of international construction and engineering contracts.

19410 // £49.95

This price book can be used to identify costs for various work including demolitions, roofing, plumbing, electrics, painting and decorating.

19449 // £145

05.1301.11 // MODUS // MODUS ASIA

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LATEST NEWS

Opinion

SMART CITY INITIATIVES ARE CRITICAL FOR URBAN GROWTH WORLDWIDE

Burns honour

Gordon Falconer MRICS Cisco systems

G

lobally, cities and communities face population growth, increased greenhouse gas emissions and disproportionately strong economic growth – the 600 largest global cities are predicted to contribute 65% of global GDP growth to 2025.

And all this is happening in the context of ever-decreasing administrative budgets.

However, these challenges can be mitigated through the adoption of scalable solutions and policies that take advantage of information and communications technology (ICT) to increase efficiencies, reduce costs and enhance quality of life. Doing more with less, or making older infrastructure perform better, is at the heart of the Smart City movement – but the benefits of this approach go much further, stoking technological and business innovation and, in turn, economic growth and success.

Many cities see their role as that of a ‘living lab’, trialling Smart City initiatives and, therefore, bringing private sector companies into the city, along with the accompanying investment. Amsterdam, Moscow and Singapore have been particularly successful

in implementing Smart City initiatives, and in other cities, industry or knowledge-based innovation clusters are being identified, such as London’s Shoreditch digital media cluster and the Boston biotech hub.

For all of the clear benefits and, now, increasing funding available, there are still a number of issues that hinder the adoption of Smart City solutions. The foremost of these is the complexity of how cities are operated, financed, regulated and planned.

Much more focus is needed in this area, and surveyors, with their expertise in the built environment and economics of real estate, are ideally placed to play a bigger role in how Smart Cities can be progressed.

Smart City solutions present a fantastic opportunity, and cities and governments will continue to promote and develop initiatives. Surveyors, therefore, need to be aware of the changes coming to the built form and know how to respond to them.

GORDON FALCONER is director of urban innovation at Cisco systems. cisco.com

Americas

TOAST OF MANHATTAN

One thing I know...

TURNOVER IS FOR VANITY. MARGIN EQUALS SANITY David Stevenson MRICS MD at Edmond Shipway, Nottingham ‘Don’t fall into the trap of “casino” tendering to win work. Clients want a competitive price but they won’t want you to disappear into bankruptcy halfway through the project. Be sensitive to the market but also be realistic.’

What’s your business tip?

Email editor@ricsmodus.com

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Gardiner & Theobald (G&T) is providing a number of services for an ‘iconic’ new office tower to be built at 425 Park Avenue in Manhattan. Designed by Foster + Partners for the partnership of L&L Holding Company and Lehman Brothers Holdings, the 6,000m2 tower will be constructed to LEED sustainability standards. G&T assisted with the original design competition, assessing costs and schedule for each design proposal, and will continue to provide project and cost management assistance through to completion. The team is also working on the Coach tower skyscraper at Hudson Yards, and last year celebrated its 20th anniversary in the Americas.

Scottish poet Robert Burns has become the first person to be granted posthumous RICS membership for his work as a surveyor.

Born in 1759 into a farming family, Burns later trained as a land surveyor. The honorary award was accepted

by Scottish planning minister Derek Mackay.

Brazil calling

UK partners are being sought to work on around US$20bn (£12.7bn) of infrastructure projects in São Paulo. The city’s deputy governor believes UK firms could invest in Public Private Partnership deals for projects such as the construction of prisons, hospitals, rail networks and transport logistics.

Expat demand

Demand for expatriate housing is increasing in Shanghai, especially in the Pudong area, says Knight Frank’s Shanghai Expatriate Housing Market Insights 2013.

The report notes that the rental rate of expatriate housing is expected to increase by 8% this year and the vacancy rate will remain low at 4%.

Nanjing plan

Atkins is to masterplan the development of 30km of waterfront in Nanjing, China’s second largest commercial centre in the East China region. The firm has been chosen to oversee the detailed landscape design and construction of the project over the next two years, which will regenerate former industrial sites and areas of urban dereliction.

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AFTER A CATASTROPHIC EARTHQUAKE IN 2011, THE NEW ZEALAND CITY OF CHRISTCHURCH IS BEING REBUILT TO BE MORE RESILIENT TO DISASTER. HERE’S HOW THEY’RE MAKING IT HAPPEN Words by George Bull

Christchurch rebuild //

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very day, 200-300 trucks, each carrying around 25 tonnes of demolition waste, visit the Burwood Resource Recovery Park just outside Christchurch, New Zealand.

By the time these trucks make their final journey, it’s estimated they will have removed some eight million tonnes of construction waste from earthquake-damaged buildings. For Christchurch’s 348,400 residents, this means that more than half of the buildings in their city will be reduced to rubble.

It’s a painful but a necessary part of the rebuilding process. Although many of the buildings avoided collapse when earthquakes struck the Canterbury region in September 2010 and February 2011, more than 100,000 houses were damaged and around 70% of commercial buildings in central Christchurch have since been deemed beyond repair. But this programme of demolition will make way for an ambitious attempt to future-proof the city for the next 100 years.

While the September 2010 magnitude 7.1 earthquake weakened buildings and infrastructure across central Christchurch and the eastern suburbs, it was the earthquake that followed in February 2011 that brought the city to its knees and ended in 185 fatalities. At that time, Graham Matthews FRICS, one of the founding commissioners of the RICS Disaster Management Commission, was director of chartered surveying firm Hampton Jones.

Matthews was asked if he could advise on how to get the city back on its feet and attract investment. He was seconded to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA), where part of his advice was that what was missing was a masterplan: ‘What you need to encourage the private sector is a clear plan so it knows what goes where.’

The Christchurch Central Development Unit (CCDU) was set up as a result, and on 30 July 2012, the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan was made public.

The Recovery Plan incorporates a spatial Blueprint Plan that describes the form in which the central city will be rebuilt, as well as the location of ‘anchor’ projects, designed to stimulate further development. The Blueprint was developed over 100 days by a professional consortium and the CCDU, >>

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and both this and the wider Recovery Plan bring together key changes the community said it wanted, including a stronger built identity, a compact central business district (CBD) and a green, accessible city.‘The Blueprint isn’t just about the buildings,’ says Matthews.‘We took a much broader approach, and asked ourselves how we could ensure the economy can recover, and how we could rebuild a city that will still be relevant in 100 years. We looked at everything from infrastructure, utilities and sustainable energy, to what might command people’s behaviour and the way businesses operate in the future.’

Warwick Isaacs, director and deputy chief executive of implementation at the CCDU, says the Plan signals,‘a significant central government and council commitment to reinvest in the city’, and also sets out a framework for how the economic geography of Christchurch will change.‘The combined effect is to ensure the private sector can have confidence in the rebuild, and that there is increased certainty for their own decisions,’ he says.‘The design addresses issues that the city faced pre-earthquake – with its large, spatially inefficient and underutilised core. The plan delivers a well-defined, high-amenity, walkable city.’

Matthews’ view is that most people are happy with the plan, partly because it provides them with certainty where there has been uncertainty for so long. It’s not surprising then that CCDU research has shown that what attracts people back to the city is confidence that the buildings they will be living and working in are new and safe. Given that swathes of the city’s eastern suburbs and CBD had to be abandoned due to the landslides and liquefaction that affected the performance of many buildings, resulting in residual deformation and damage, CERA has done a great deal of work to demonstrate that the ground is safe to rebuild on. Some 1,000 bore holes have been sunk since September 2010.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which is currently managing the recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Building Failure Caused by the Earthquakes, says its analysis shows that lighter homes are likely to be more earthquake-resilient and less costly to repair. This is because lighterweight roofs and wall cladding reduce seismic loading on the foundations and structure. Older houses with timber floors also performed well, while houses with a more rectangular floor plan performed better than those with a complex floor plan.

Structures specialist and RICS Disaster Management Commissioner Dr Philip Esper FRICS explains that this is because simple,

Christchurch rebuild //

ENGINEERS AND SURVEYORS ARE GOOD AT DESIGNING SEISMICALLY RESILIENT BUILDINGS, BUT HOW DO YOU DESIGN BUILDINGS THAT ARE ALSO ECONOMICALLY RESILIENT?

symmetrical shapes will perform better and suffer less from torsional effects: ‘If a building has a weak point or a material discontinuity, that’s where an earthquake will hit,’ he says. Esper was part of the British team to visit Kobe, Japan, after the 1995 earthquake, and he believes it was after that event that researchers really started taking things seriously in terms of retrofitting and strengthening buildings.‘Mixed use of materials such as steel and concrete in the same building will result in weak points at the interface between the two materials,’ he says.‘In addition, there should be a framing action taking the load into the soil and through the foundation, and the upper structure should be tied properly to the foundation to avoid collapse.’

‘Most modern buildings in New Zealand are built according to stringent building codes, but it’s like the airbag in a car – you can’t use it again,’ adds Matthews. ‘Seismic engineers and surveyors are pretty good at designing seismically resilient buildings, but the real issue for Christchurch and other cities is how you design buildings that are economically resilient as well.

How do you design something that not only doesn’t collapse, but can be used again?’

Buildings constructed from reinforced concrete might be strong, but the violent movement created by an earthquake will extend the building’s joints, which in turn stretches the steel reinforcement and weakens it. Once it’s been stretched, it loses its strength and repairs can be economically prohibitive. There are similar challenges when it comes to finishes, which are likely to crack as the building shakes, and incur expensive repair costs. Matthews believes it won’t be long before attention turns to these problems, too, as the top end of the market starts to demand economic resilience, and pressure comes from the insurance industry, commercial sector and a more informed public.‘In New Zealand, we’re seeing that individuals and businesses are becoming more aware. People will start to think about whether they want to be in a building if they know that it’s built to a lower standard,’ Matthews comments.‘These questions will begin to be asked, and this will stratify the market. A building might become difficult to let because it doesn’t meet the national building code, for example.’

Richard Sharpe, technical director of earthquake engineering at Beca New Zealand, believes there’s been a big shift in the public mindset.‘The first earthquake in September 2010 was the one people could cope with. We had commercial recovery within a week. Once people died, and two buildings collapsed, I think there was a big change for the public,’ he explains. >>

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EVEN A DEVELOPED COUNTRY SUCH AS NEW ZEALAND HAS TAKEN MORE THAN TWO YEARS TO GET TO THIS POINT

Images New Zealand Aerial Mapping Ltd. Crown Copyright Reserved.

‘It’s becoming common for clients to say they want their building strengthened to 100% of the building code, even in cases where it’s a heritage building. As engineers, we have to warn them that it might not be economically viable to do so – two-thirds of the code is reasonable to aim for in most existing buildings. People are prepared to go for low-damage technology, such as base isolation in new buildings, to overcome the psychology of those who don’t ever want to go back into a building of five or six floors. It can be a commercial imperative for a developer.’

It’s not just Christchurch’s building stock that’s had to be updated, but the city’s infrastructure system, too. The Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (SCIRT), which is responsible for rebuilding horizontal infrastructure, estimates some 124km of water mains and 300km of sewer pipes were damaged by the earthquakes.

Mark Revis, director at quantity surveying firm WT Partnership Infrastructure, which audits SCIRT, says the main difference to other reconstruction projects the firm has worked on is the sheer size of the rebuild, both in physical and financial terms.

‘Renewing a large percentage of a city’s infrastructure over such a compressed programme, and ensuring it’s delivered at a reasonable cost while giving maximum value, will be a key challenge,’ he says.

SCIRT is not just replacing what was there before. More resilient polyethylene pipes are being used, and pipework that was previously laid in particularly deep trenches – given that the city’s water table is not far below the surface – is being re-laid at shallower depth, so that it can be repaired more quickly should the city experience another major disaster.

‘In some cases, whole sub-catchments are being replaced with either pump or vacuum systems, and pipework is also being wrapped in a Geotech mesh to make it more resilient,’ says Revis.‘Standalone items, such as pump stations, reservoirs and bridges, are all being looked at individually to determine the best solution to increase resilience.’

As the Christchurch reconstruction gains momentum, it’s worth noting that even a developed country such as New Zealand has taken more than two years to get to this point. Like many other cities in disasterprone areas, Christchurch might have had a relief plan before the unprecedented events of September 2010 and February 2011, but it didn’t have much of a reconstruction strategy. Now, as the city stands ready to spend the next two decades rebuilding, it appears to have seized its recovery as an opportunity to build in the resilience that other cities are desperately trying to retrofit.

Christchurch has its blueprint, but its construction will be the real test.

Christchurch rebuild //

:PICKING UP THE PIECES POST-DISASTER WORK IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD With limited infrastructure and internal resources to call upon, natural disasters can be even more devastating in developing countries.

Two surveyors share their experiences.

TOM MARSHALL MRICS, commercial surveyor at Deloitte Real Estate, spent three weeks with Architecture Sans Frontières in 2011, working with communities in Ladakh, northern India, following the flash floods ‘In August 2010, flash floods in Ladakh killed more than 200 people and left more than 1,000 families homeless. National and international efforts focused on rehousing those displaced by the disaster before the onset of winter. However, many of the new homes were built on floodplains and are not appropriate for the climate or traditional social structures in the region.

‘A year after the floods, I joined a team of 15 surveyors, engineers and architects, put together by Architecture Sans Frontières, to spend three weeks with local charity SEEDS evaluating the reconstruction efforts and promoting sustainable development. We also undertook our own project at the Leh Government Girls’ School, where we designed and delivered new and much-needed sanitation facilities that would be more resilient to earthquakes and flooding, and would benefit from better natural light and ventilation.

‘Having trained in a regulated and well-established market, it can be frustrating to witness poor development decisions being made, and how slow the process can be to change things. But it’s important to gain the trust of local charities for projects to be really effective.

‘I’m still surprised by the lack of surveyors involved in reconstruction.

This project demonstrated that there is a clear need for surveyors’ expertise in disaster management and relief projects, at the earliest possible opportunity, to help avoid problems with the quality or location of new buildings in the future.’

SIMON MORROW MRICS, a quantity surveyor, spent 14 months in Haiti working on a shelter programme with non-governmental organisation GOAL after the 2010 earthquake ‘Before Haiti, I worked with GOAL in Sri Lanka following the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. Then, I gave up my job in the UK to join GOAL’s reconstruction effort in Port-auPrince and Gressier, a small town not far from the epicentre of the Haiti earthquake. The nature of disaster management means that you need to be on the ground relatively quickly.

Fortunately, I have a good relationship with the people I work with that allows me to leave at relatively short notice.

‘The job was extremely demanding.

You are never off duty and often have to fill in for other people. As a quantity surveyor, you have a lot of transferrable skills – so in Haiti, I was expected to cover lots of disciplines, from budgets and HR to site management. You have to be flexible, but it’s important to know your limits. Many non-governmental organisations (NGO) are lacking in construction experience and don’t appreciate the importance of good construction techniques in helping to protect people against future natural disasters, and the gaps in skills often lead to inefficiencies on the ground. Having a quantity surveyor is invaluable in making sure the NGO is getting the right quality materials and value for money.

‘I worked closely with a project manager and a Haitian architect.

In the immediate aftermath of an earthquake, the focus tends to be on transitional shelters rather than permanent housing. These are only supposed to have a lifespan of three years until a permanent house can be built. However, because of a lack of available land, the reality is that many transitional shelters will stay there for the next 20 years. Therefore, it’s much better to repair a house if you can.

It’s a real highlight when you see a family move out of a tent and back into their home.’

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Mentoring //

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JOIN US

NEW RECRUITS ARE VITAL TO THE FUTURE OF SURVEYING. CHERRY MASLEN MEETS THE RICS MEMBERS HELPING THEM TO JOIN THE PROFESSION Illustration by Noma Bar

THE APC ASSESSOR

As a busy commercial director at Carillion, Michael O’Connor FRICS doesn’t have much time on his hands.

But he devotes at least two days a year to the crucial task of deciding whether APC (Assessment of Professional Competence) candidates have sufficient skills and knowledge to become chartered surveyors. These two days, usually in spring and autumn, are spent in intensive interviews and deliberations at one of five assessment centres across England, Wales and Scotland.

The final assessment days are, of course, the final leg in a candidate’s journey to RICS membership, and O’Connor is a member of one of the many assessment panels that prepare questions for individual candidates based around their chosen and declared competencies and experience. ‘I got involved because I wanted to be part of upholding the RICS gold standard for surveying within our industry, as well as putting something back into the industry and the institution,’he says.‘It’s also very useful experience, and it can significantly benefit anyone linked to internal recruitment or training programmes within their own organisations.

‘We usually assess four candidates in a day, with an hour for each interview, plus time for deliberations, so it’s fairly intensive. The candidates’competencies are divided up between the three panel members so we each get to ask different

questions. With the preparation and deliberation on each candidate, it’s a tiring day, but it’s very interesting and rewarding, and it provides a networking opportunity with the other assessors.

‘It’s quite exciting to see the new blood coming into the profession and to get a feel for their potential, although I believe a lot of trainees only really appreciate the true value of the APC process and their professional qualification once they’ve been through it,’ adds O’Connor. ‘And in challenging economic times, the value of an internationally recognised, industry gold-standard, professional qualification is, of course, greater than ever.’

to take a more informal route with people in the early stages of their careers – which is easier for everyone as there’s no concern about taking up senior management time.’

Since CEMENT – now in its third year – was launched, Grant is delighted to confirm that the idea has mushroomed.

Students are now being invited on site visits as the relationships with their young mentors develop their own momentum. ‘Students really benefit from the informal contact, which helps them become more confident in their own abilities,’ she adds.

THE MENTORING INITIATIVE

Tough economic conditions have dealt an inevitable blow to graduate and other corporate traineeships during the past few years. But, luckily, not all organisations felt the need to cut their intake, and there are now signs of recovery among some of those that have.

Jon Jones FRICS, Network Rail’s discipline manager in finance and commercial, offers guidance to trainees and matches them with mentors within the company. From eight graduate trainees three years ago, the organisation is increasing its postdegree traineeships to 11 in 2014, while at the same time focusing on alternative routes to APC as well as funding part-time day release for non-graduates. ‘We support several >>

Forging good relationships between university students and the companies who could employ them should be at the top of the agenda for course leaders.

As Chair of RICS Scotland, and director of studies for construction management and surveying in the School of the Built Environment at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Dr Fiona Grant FRICS is in a unique position to do that.

As sponsorship agreements began to disappear, Grant set up CEMENT (Culture of External MENToring), a scheme that links recent graduates in the industry with students at the university. ‘I didn’t want to lose the ties we’d had with industry through sponsorship,’ says Grant. ‘So I decided

SUPPORTING CORPORATE TRAINEES

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Mentoring //

‘I enjoy talking to the pupils – it can be fun and it also reminds me why I went into surveying in the first place’ routes to RICS membership, so there’s a choice for anyone joining us,’says Jones.

‘We have our graduate programme, but we also want to encourage more people to follow the professional experience route to membership.

‘We’ve already had a couple of recruits with law degrees who are now chartered MRICS, but we want to help those who have, for instance, been working in their family business or who just haven’t got round to pursuing their APC.’ The organisation has some 29 employees registered for APC. ‘I can’t mentor that number myself, so I rely on a team of RICS members within Network Rail as coaches and a point of contact for our trainees,’ says Jones.

‘I’d never be able to do this as well as my own job without them,’ he adds.

Network Rail has been able to maintain generous terms for trainees.

A group are currently doing part-time day release funded by the authority, and up to 20 days a year study leave is offered to all trainees. There’s also a marketcompetitive remuneration package, including a generous ex gratia payment,

proposed by Jones a couple of years ago, once a member of staff becomes chartered. The challenge for large organisations dealing with major contracts is trying to ensure trainees are moved around the business to gain a depth of experience.‘To counteract that issue, we try to give trainees experience on smaller projects, then move them across to bigger contracts,’ says Jones.

After three years supporting trainees in his current role, and before that working with them in his capacity as a line manager, Jones has no intention of stopping now: ‘It’s hugely rewarding to see these young people coming through and being able to support them, armed with the skills to, in turn, support the business.’

THE UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR

At Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, the future of students at the School of Real Estate is looking a lot brighter than it did two years ago.

The companies who stopped hiring graduates during the US real estate crisis are now recruiting again.

Professor William Hardin FRICS, director of real estate programmes, says the rebound in demand is creating favourable opportunities for current graduates.‘There was a period when we had great students but I couldn’t place them anywhere in the industry, and the number of young people signing up for real estate programmes fell,’ he says. ‘We’re about two years past the crisis from a careers standpoint now, with Miami back to peak and high-end condos being built.’

During the crisis, Hardin adapted FIU programmes to focus on what market activity there was.‘Our students benefited by learning about investing in distressed assets from industry speakers,’ he explains. ‘They also learnt that understanding what makes a good investment opportunity, and what makes a risky one, are skills that can be used in a good or bad market.’

THE SCHOOLS RECRUITMENT DRIVE

Many secondary school students don’t consider a career in surveying because they don’t have a clear idea of the variety of roles available to them. To combat this, RICS matrics has drafted a Schools Business Plan with the help of members who have volunteering experience at schools and careers fairs.

Matrics board member David Keddie MRICS, senior quantity surveyor at Robinson Low Francis in Glasgow, has contributed to the draft. ‘We’ve been going into schools for some time, but we’re now implementing a coordinated business plan that can be followed nationwide,’ Keddie explains. ‘We’re looking at creating more age-appropriate materials to present in schools, to show pupils before they make decisions about GCSEs that surveying is not about being stuck behind a desk. I enjoy talking to this age group – it can be fun and I wish more surveyors would get involved.

It also reminds me why I went into surveying in the first place.’

Are you interested in contributing to the future of surveying? Turn to page 47 for more on how to become involved.

Insight

A STUDENT’S VIEW Robert Hu, 28, is a student at Columbia University, New York, working on his masters in real estate development at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. With his family home in Taiwan, he worked in Hong Kong

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for JP Morgan before deciding to switch to real estate. ‘I was in touch with headhunters in Hong Kong who were looking for people with RICS membership and qualifications, which is why I got involved with RICS,’ he says. ‘I feel very

lucky to have Nicholas Brooke, chairman at Professional Property Services Group and a former RICS President based in Hong Kong, as my mentor. Whenever I’m back in Taiwan, I either meet Nick in Hong Kong or he’ll arrange a conference

call with me. He’s never too busy to include me in his schedule. It’s been so important to have him to guide me, and help me avoid taking a step in the wrong direction. Because of my own experience, I would like to become a mentor myself one day.’

WHAT LIES BENEATH

REMOVING CARBON DIOXIDE FROM POWER STATIONS AND BURYING IT UNDERGROUND COULD DELIVER COST-EFFECTIVE LOW-CARBON ENERGY. SO WHAT’S STOPPING US? Words by George Bull Illustrations by Neil Stevens

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Carbon capture //

‘I

f there was a prize for false starts, dashed hopes and failed promises, the carbon capture and storage industry would be a strong contender.’ That’s how the Financial Times’ environment correspondent Pilita Clark summed up the industry’s prospects in March last year – and it would be difficult to deny that progress has been slower than hoped. Despite some US$23.5bn (£14.6bn) having been made available for large-scale carbon capture and storage industry (CCS) projects globally, to date there are only eight in operation and seven under construction.

The Global CCS Institute anticipates that there will be at least 20 large-scale CCS projects operating by 2020 – a significant shortfall on the International Energy Agency’s projections that 100 large-scale CCS projects will be needed by 2020, and 3,000 by 2050, if we are to meet climate change targets. But should these early projects succeed in proving the commercial viability of large-scale CCS and, given sufficient electricity market reform and a carbon price floor, CCS has the potential to compete with renewables and nuclear as a cost-effective way of generating low-carbon electricity – and become a huge growth sector.

The individual elements of CCS – capture, transport and storage – have already been proven: North America, in particular, has a long history of injecting CO2 into oil reservoirs in order to increase output (enhanced oil recovery). Yet, still no largescale integrated CCS projects currently exist in the electricity generation sector. Those that are under construction tend to take one of three approaches: retrofitting a postcombustion CCS to a coal-fired power station, as at Boundary Dam in Saskatchewan,

Canada; building from scratch so that the CO2 is separated pre-combustion, as at Kemper County IGCC in Mississippi; or an Oxyfuel capture project, which involves burning fossil fuel in nearly pure oxygen rather than air. The UK’s own £1bn CCS competition, which was relaunched this year as the CCS Commercialisation Programme, has shortlisted four bids that include each of these three approaches.

Barnaby Pilgrim FRICS, who leads the policy group for RICS’ Environment and Resources Board, believes CCS is an important part of the energy jigsaw for the UK in the future. ‘The UK has always had a balanced energy mix and coal has always been an important part of that. For the past two winters, coal has delivered 50% of the UK’s power and a lot of those coal-fired power stations are scheduled to be closed down over the next five to 10 years,’ explains Pilgrim.

‘Under Electricity Market Reform, any new coal-fired power stations will need to be fitted with CCS if they’re to be brought forward, so CCS represents an important solution in achieving a broad and secure energy mix that maximises the use of our indigenous coal resources – and meeting climate change targets,’ he adds.

What’s more, the range of expertise that is needed to develop wider CCS infrastructure, particularly on the transportation side, is likely to provide opportunities for RICS members’ skills. Barry Jones, general manager of policy and membership at the Global CCS Institute, says that they expect to see other industries grow up around CCS. ‘There could be a lot of work in a major new pipeline industry for surveyors: there is currently 6,000km of dedicated CO2 pipeline globally, but as the number of CCS projects increases, we could be looking at tens of thousands by 2030 and hundreds of thousands by 2050,’ he explains.

Creating a viable CCS market in the UK rests, to a great extent, on Electricity Market Reform. The UK government’s long-awaited Energy Bill, which was introduced to

parliament on 29 November 2012, was welcomed by Jeff Chapman, chief executive of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA) as providing confidence to the businesses developing the UK’s first CCS projects. The Energy Bill includes provisions for government-backed counterparty for Contracts for Difference, a capacity market and primary legislation to enable a 2030 decarbonisation target, which Chapman believes is ‘a step in the right direction and sends a signal to developers of CCS technology that there may be a worthwhile market to play for in the 2020s.’

If the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) CCS Roadmap – published in April 2012 – is to be believed, then a CCS industry in the UK could be sizeable.

Although the DECC has since admitted that the figures are out of date, and new modelling is being done, an estimated 100,000 jobs could be created by 2030, contributing £6.5bn to the UK economy. Furthermore, if the UK is one of the first to develop CCS, the industry could be as big as the North Sea oil industry, taking a significant share of a £5trn global CCS business by 2050.

The North Sea could well play a significant role if CCS takes off. A report by Scottish Enterprise, published in September 2012, highlights the potential for a Central North Sea storage hub to receive and store as much as 100m tonnes of CO2 a year by 2030, and 500m tonnes a year by 2050 – equivalent to 25% of total EU emissions in 2007. Judith Shapiro, policy and communications manager at the CCSA, believes the main growth sectors would be in the transport and storage of CO2, partly because, while storing C02 offshore under the Central North Sea will involve a large amount of public consultation, it is likely to face less opposition than storing it onshore.

‘We’re in a phenomenal position for storage, and there is also a large amount of industry clustered around the main estuaries, which lends itself to pipeline networks,’ she says. >>

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Case study:

GORGON PROJECT AUSTRALIA

The world’s largest CCS project is currently under construction on Barrow Island off the northwest coast of Australia. The Gorgon Carbon Dioxide Injection Project will take CO2 separated from the gas stream already produced at the Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) project via a 7km pipeline and inject it 2.3km underground. The project is a joint venture between Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas and Chubu Electric, which has invested AUS$43bn in the first phase of Gorgon LNG and AUS$2bn in the Gorgon Carbon Dioxide Injection Project, alongside AUS$60m from the Australian government.

The greenhouse gas storage legislation, Barrow Island Act 2003 (WA), which allowed the Australian government to approve the CCS operations, is thought to be the first of its kind in the world. A key component is the long-term monitoring of the stored CO2 via surveillance wells and repeated seismic surveying. In 2009, the state and federal governments announced that they would jointly accept responsibility for any long-term liabilities associated with CCS as part of the Gorgon Joint Venture, which could provide a legislative model for other jurisdictions around the world.

The project is due to begin CO2 injection in 2015, and it’s hoped that some 40% of the emissions from Gorgon LNG will be captured and stored – which equates to up to four million tonnes of CO2 per year.

For surveyors, CCS provides a great opportunity.‘While our own contribution to capture is minimal, we have expertise in storage and transportation,’ says Dr Evan Passaris, technical director of ground engineering at Atkins. ‘I would expect our surveyors to have a major role in the design and construction of pipelines,’ he adds.

Passaris suggests that a North Sea storage hub could be up and running in a decade if the cost of capture is brought to an affordable level. ‘We don’t have the option not to use it,’ he says.‘We’re sitting on an area that, sooner or later, will be depleted and we have this opportunity for it to act as a CO2 bunker for the rest of Europe. We already have the infrastructure and appropriate geology, and it could be affordable.’

But individual projects don’t make an industry – nor will they make CCS as cost effective as it needs to be. It’s important that relevant CCS infrastructure develops in line with the build rate of projects. Inga-Liisa Paavola from the Environment and Energy Law Department at the University of Helsinki delivered a paper on the subject at RICS Cobra 2012. She argues that regulation must enable building pipeline networks to cover European countries, with networks around each major industrial region, and urges organisations such as RICS to inform and shape this regulatory framework to support CCS infrastructure planning at a local and national level. Such an approach also recognises the potentially crucial role that CCS could have in sustaining other industrial sectors. For many industries that use CO2 as part of the industrial process, such as steel and cement producers, CCS is the only viable option for decarbonising. ‘At CCSA, we’re beginning to see completely different conversations coming from this sector,’ says Shapiro.‘These companies would only be able to afford CCS by linking into a wider infrastructure. But the planning and support needed for such infrastructure is on a par with the development of other major national infrastructure projects.’

CO2 will be captured from the Gorgon natural gas plant on Barrow Island

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WE’RE SITTING ON AN AREA IN THE NORTH SEA THAT COULD ACT AS A CO2 BUNKER FOR THE REST OF EUROPE

But not everyone is as optimistic about CCS’s future role. Professor Stefaan Simons, director of the UCL International Energy Policy Institute is one such sceptic: ‘There’s some fatigue coming in from a business perspective. Does it make sense? What we really should be doing is putting a much bigger focus on renewables, and I think that’s being said privately. CCS only really makes economic sense if you have enhanced oil recovery.’

According to the International Energy Agency, CCS should account for 19% of global emission reductions by 2050 and to do so without it would be 70% more expensive.

Despite this, Barry Jones says that fewer governments have been willing to invest since the failure to establish a global treaty to cut carbon emissions at the 2009 UN summit in Copenhagen. ‘While there is some capital funding on the table, it will need to be increased until the carbon price reaches a high enough point,’ he explains. The amount of capital required is significant – it’s generally accepted that most CCS projects will be in the region of £1bn or more – but, says Jones, so is the scale of emissions reductions: ‘The rate of reduction currently being achieved by the eight CCS projects in operation is more than all of Australia’s emission reduction programmes put together.’

For an industry with such huge promise – both in what it can contribute to the economy and in meeting climate change targets – this is a precarious time for CCS. What is certain is that these are huge projects and they are not going to happen quickly. The question is: will it be worth the wait?

Agree? Disagree? Share your views on the value of carbon capture and storage by emailing editor@ricsmodus.com or tweeting @modusmag.

Carbon capture //

QS viewpoint

ANDREW FERGUSON MRICS, COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR, RHEAD GROUP

‘We’ve been involved in eight CCS projects since 2009, including schemes in the UK as part of the DECC’s £1bn CCS competition, the European Energy Programme for Recovery funding budget and a major project in the Middle East.

Our surveyors have conducted high-level cost estimates around capture and storage, but our focus is on the transportation of C02.

‘One of the big challenges with CCS is the lack of mature, defined specifications. The CCS chain is still developing and the health and safety guidance, separation distances and control measures

for CCS pipelines are still being modelled. Safety is a particularly big challenge as there are so many unknowns, which makes the commercial management more complex. For example, we don’t know exactly how a C02 leak will behave, so there’s a lot of research and development being done.

‘I don’t think CCS is as far advanced as anyone in the industry would have hoped by now – but the DECC’s CCS competition represents a commitment from the UK government and I think CCS will play an important part in the energy mix over the next 30 years as we head towards 2050 emissions targets. Subject to how things develop, I can only see an increasing need for quantity surveyors in this area.’

Geomatics viewpoint

DAMIAN GILLIS,

VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS, PIPELINE AND INTEGRITY PROJECTS AT FOCUS ‘About five years ago, the provincial and federal Canadian governments put a lot of money behind CCS, but that funding has been gradually whittled down. Though more projects are promised, the CAD$600m Enhance Energy’s Alberta Carbon Trunk Line (ACTL) is one of a small number that’s currently going ahead, and we were appointed in 2011 to carry out the land surveying work for what will be a 240km pipeline.

‘Construction is now set for 2014 and, when completed, the project will have the capacity to gather,

compress and store up to 14.6m tonnes of C02 every year and will contribute to enhanced oil recovery.

‘On the geomatics side, there isn’t a big difference between working on a CCS pipeline and working on a more conventional oil or gas pipeline. But if you’re dealing with large-diameter pipelines, where CCS might exclude smaller firms is that, depending on the stage of the project, certain industry expertise and a large number of resources may be required – for example, 3D as-built surveys on every bit of pipeline and several two-person field crews per construction spread. However, there are other opportunities for surveyors at the storage end, in creating new sites and repurposing depleted oil fields.’

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NGUYEN THI VAN KHANH Member profile

Head of valuation, Savills Vietnam Interview by Kit Gillet Photograph by Christian Berg

Vietnam is still an emerging country – its property market is relatively immature and, as such, it’s not transparent. The complex process of approving projects, together with different ownership structures, provide challenges for investors, consultants and valuers. Lack of public and registered information also contributes to a less transparent market. International Valuation Standards are gradually being adopted and mandated in property appraisal as principals recognise the importance of high-quality and good governance.

The Vietnam Valuation Association frequently update regulations, and meet with RICS members, who can help promote the awareness and the adoption of professional standards.

Vietnam’s real estate market presents both challenges and opportunities for consultancy and property management companies. Unstable macroeconomics, high inflation and immature banking systems are just some of the issues foreign investors have to consider, but opportunities always surface and investors can find prime, or super-prime, assets for a reasonable price. I started work at Savills Vietnam as a financial analyst in 2007, as part of the early stages of our current valuation team. I was then promoted to senior level, and last year appointed head of valuation.

I became chartered by following the professional route.

The Oxford Brookes University (OBU) adaption programme provides students like me with intensive training in property valuation, which helps us to develop and broaden our knowledge and skills. While the course was only three months long, it was very intensive and I learnt a lot quickly. The teaching materials they use contain a lot of practical and relevant case studies. Thanks to the in-depth professional experience that I already have from my current work and the supportive OBU training programme, I successfully passed the RICS Assessment of Nguyen Thi Van Khanh MRICS has five years’ experience working for Savills on various types of properties and real estate portfolios

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Professional Competence in January 2013. With this achievement, I hope to keep moving up to a higher level within the Vietnamese property industry.

As well as being a member of RICS, I am also a price-valuer, approved by the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance. I aim to continue promoting professional standards in my country through my networking in these two professional organisations. Recently, I supported my director in organising a successful information session on RICS for college students majoring in property valuations, which provided career guidance for post-graduation, and attracted hundreds of attendants. It’s important that RICS is active in Vietnam, since it’s a globally recognised professional body with the highest level of professional services in the property industry. RICS members’ professional competencies are well established, and they are kept up to date with best practice and how to act in an ethical manner in order to provide the highest standard of service to clients. Through its members, RICS can help to promote high levels of professional standards in the Vietnamese property industry.

The community of RICS members is relatively small compared with the growth in the property market in Vietnam – currently, there are only six Vietnamese RICS members, plus some members working as expatriates here. However, with the strong support of the chartered surveyors community, I believe there can be more qualified RICS members in Vietnam soon, which will broaden the professional property community. I have already seen our monthly CPD (Continuing Professional Development) sessions becoming more and more crowded with interested participants – both members and non-members – from different fields within the property industry. savills.com.vn

Vietnamese real estate //

The property market here is still relatively immature and, as such, it’s not transparent

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ADVERTISE IN MODUS.

Inuence top executives and decision-makers.

Email bryan@rofmedia.com or call +852 3150 8912

Key Responsibilities t t t

MRICS Chief Quantity Surveyor Pace is a multi-disciplinary architectural and engineering consultancy firm based in Kuwait providing professional design and construction supervision services to Clients from public and private sectors with a reputation for successful completion of over 1200 projects in Kuwait and overseas, including corporate headquarters, college campuses, banks, hospitals, shopping malls, hotels, commercial & residential buildings, roads and infrastructure, etc.

We seek a highly experienced and respected professional to join Pace to play role of CHIEF QUANTITY SURVEYOR to lead a team of Quantity Surveyors and manage with full responsibility the preparation of Contract Conditions, Specifications, Bills of Quantities, Cost Estimates, Tender Evaluations and Award of Contract activities.

t t t t

Advise upon appropriate procurement strategies.

Preparation of all tender and contractual documentation.

Administration of pre and cost contract tendering activities including evaluations and recommendations.

Maintain cost data base.

Prepare budget estimates cost plans, value variations, assess claims and settle final accounts.

Provide the Project Managers with all cost information related to budget, payments, variations, claims and any other financial data.

Detailed monthly cost reporting to Clients.

Essentials t t t

B.Sc. in Quantity Surveying.

Membership of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS).

Overall 15+ years of experience in a similar senior role with leading international A/E design consultancy firms providing architecture and engineering services for large scale projects.

Skills t

Highly developed leadership, communication, relationship management, commitment and ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously.

Please submit your application by applying on www.pace-kuwait.com or by sending your resume directly to hrd@pace-kuwait.com

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Law advice //

Construction contracts:

MANAGING TIME ISSUES By professional contracts specialist Eugenie Lip

Most construction contracts will state a time for completion, which the contractor is obliged to keep to, subject to any time extensions. If the contractor fails to do so, the employer is entitled to recover liquidated damages at the rate stated in the contract. This apparent unpredictability in timely project delivery can be seen from familiar expressions in standard forms, such as ‘extension of time’, ‘rate of progress’, ‘suspension’, ‘liquidated damages’ and ‘time-bar notices’, which generally presume that construction projects tend not to complete on time. It is, therefore, important for the contract administrator to understand some of the key issues when dealing with time in a project.

TIME AT LARGE When the employer prevents the contractor from achieving completion by the contractual date, and the contract does not include a mechanism for a new date to be fixed, time becomes ‘at large’.

Time can also become at large if extension of time provisions in the contract have been improperly administered.

When time is set at large, and there is no new date identified for completion of the works, the contractor is only obliged to complete within a reasonable time, and not by the original completion date, which no longer applies. This also means that the employer loses the right to liquidated damages, as there is no longer a fixed date from which liquidated damages can be calculated. However, the employer may still claim such losses as general damages.

The common notion about extension of time clauses is that they appear to benefit the contractor by allowing them more time to finish. In fact, these clauses actually preserve the employer’s right to liquidated damages by giving them the power to fix a new date for completion.

Given the problems that can be caused when time becomes at large, it is prudent to ensure that there are contractual provisions giving specific powers to the contract administrator to grant an extension of time in the event of an employer’s act of prevention.

Illustration Borja Bonaque

THE INTERESTS OF ALL PARTIES CAN BE BETTER SERVED IF TIME ISSUES ARE MANAGED AND CONTROLLED

CONCURRENCY OF DELAY Where two or more events, caused by different parties but operating at the same time, delay completion, there is concurrent delay. If the event caused by the employer is

only a minor cause of delay, it cannot affect completion and there is no concurrency. True concurrency only occurs where the delaying events – one of which must be caused by the employer – start and end simultaneously.

Dealing with concurrent delays can be exceedingly complex and has been the subject of much judicial scrutiny and legal commentary. In City Inn Ltd v Shepherd Construction Ltd (2010), the court in Scotland held that in a situation of concurrent delay, the period of delay has to be apportioned in a fair and reasonable manner. More recently, in the case of Walter Lilly & Company Ltd v Mackay (2012) in England, it was confirmed that where there are two or more causes of delay, and one was a relevant event under the applicable contractual terms, the contractor is entitled to an extension of time even though the contractor may be at fault for the other concurrent event.

ISSUING VARIATIONS DURING THE DELAY PERIOD It is not uncommon for variations to be ordered during the delay period. Following the decision in the case of Balfour Beatty Building Ltd v Chestermount Properties Ltd (1993) in England, it is settled law that variations given during the delay period do not cause time to be at large. The new completion date is calculated by adding on an amount of time that the contract administrator considers to be fair and reasonable for carrying out the required variations.

It seems that, particularly with the growing complexity of construction projects, the interests of all parties can be better served if time issues – both from the contractual and practical perspectives – are efficiently managed and controlled to avoid potential costly legal entanglements.

EUGENIE LIP FRICS is a director with Davis Langdon KPK, an AECOM company, and heads the Contracts Support Group. davislangdon.com

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Aluminium, Aluminium,recycled recycled 1.810kg 1.810kg Concrete Concrete 0.107kg 0.107kg

Rubber Rubber 2.850kg 2.850kg

Plasterboard Plasterboard 0.390kg 0.390kg UPVC UPVCfilm film 3.160kg 3.160kg Cement Cement 0.740kg 0.740kg

Aluminium Aluminium 9.160kg 9.160kg

Copper Copper 2.710kg 2.710kg Plastics Plastics 3.310kg 3.310kg

Zinc Zinc 3.090kg 3.090kg

PVC PVCpipe pipe 3.230kg 3.230kg

Iron Iron 2.030kg 2.030kg

Steel Steel 1.460kg 1.460kg

Toughened Toughenedglass glass 1.350kg 1.350kg

Lead Lead 1.670kg 1.670kg

Rockwool Rockwool 1.120kg 1.120kg

Ceramics Ceramics 0.700kg 0.700kg

Bricks Bricks 0.240kg 0.240kg Plaster Plaster 0.130kg 0.130kg Stone Stone 0.079kg 0.079kg

Soil Soil 0.024kg 0.024kg Aggregate Aggregate 0.005kg 0.005kg

Carbon calculator The embodied carbon in a range of building materials expressed in kg of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent – a single unit that expresses the global warming potential of various greenhouse gases in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide required to produce the same effect) per kg of material. The materials’ descriptions have been simplified for presentation purposes and, in many cases, are the UK weighted average Source: The Inventory of Carbon and Energy

TIPPING THE SCALES

BEFORE WE FLICK A SINGLE LIGHT SWITCH, A NEW BUILDING PROJECT WILL HAVE EMITTED MANY TONNES OF EMBODIED CARBON DIOXIDE. SO WHAT CAN SURVEYORS DO ABOUT THE SITUATION? ROXANE MCMEEKEN REPORTS Infographic by La Tigre

D

id you know that the hot water boiler in your home might be better travelled than you are?

It may have started life as iron ore, deep beneath the plains of the Western Australian desert. After being extracted, it might have been shipped to India – to a steel mill on the outskirts of the frenetic city of Mumbai – to be smelted and rolled.

Next, it could have journeyed on to a high-tech factory in Austria for assembly.

In these carbon-conscious times, the rather exotic journeys that construction products may take, and the energy-intensive processes used to create them, are coming under growing scrutiny. The CO2 emitted during these activities – known as embodied carbon – happens before a single light switch has been flicked in the building where the construction products finally end up.

‘While the built environment industry has been focused on lowering the energy consumption of buildings, embodied carbon emissions for a property are also very significant,’ explains Craig Jones, principal associate at Sustain. Indeed, in some cases they might even be higher than the CO2 pumped out during the building’s entire post-construction lifespan.

So a new RICS information paper, published in July, that sets out methodology for measuring embodied carbon could not be better timed. The paper, entitled Methodology to calculate the embodied carbon of materials, is the first information paper RICS has issued on this topic, and is in response to a call from Paul Morrell, the government’s chief construction adviser until November 2012, whose 2010 Low Carbon Construction report recommends embodied carbon be embedded in the appraisal process for all projects.

‘Embodied carbon is important because it is emitted in a short time – usually one or two years – in the period before the building opens for business. In-use carbon, meanwhile, is emitted over the many years that building spends consuming energy, so you have much more time to work on ways of reducing these emissions,’ says Jones.

In contrast, once the building is constructed, its embodied carbon is gone, he adds. ‘We need to improve our understanding of embodied carbon and develop a common measurement method – which is why the RICS information paper is such a key step.’

Interestingly, different components of a building contain vastly different levels of embodied carbon.

‘The biggest emitters of embodied carbon are foundations, frames, walls and roofs, because they tend to be heavy and more energy is needed to make them,’says Martin RussellCroucher MRICS, Director of Sustainability and Special Projects at RICS. A concrete frame building, for example, comprises a material that must be quarried and then burned, while the steel in a building’s frame requires smelting and rolling.

A project’s embodied carbon also depends on the type of building it is, adds Sean Lockie MRICS, lead co-author of the RICS information paper and director of sustainability at Faithful+Gould. ‘The higher you build, the more steel and concrete you need, and the more foundations you have,’ he says. Based on calculations that exclude maintenance and regulated and unregulated loads, Lockie says that high-rise buildings produce an average of 1,300kg of CO2e/m2, while residential buildings come in at 500kg CO2e/m 2. Lightweight industrial buildings, such as sheds, come in at only 400kg CO2e/m2 due to their simple structures.

When calculating a building’s overall carbon emissions, the in-use CO2 should be taken into account as well as both the embodied carbon and the carbon emitted during dismantling or demolition. The RICS information paper says that, typically, around 70-80% of a building’s lifetime carbon footprint is associated with the in-use phase. But, again, the ratio depends on the building type – a low-energy warehouse might see operating carbon emissions of only 20% of its overall footprint.

‘On buildings with low levels of energy intensity, such as an unrefrigerated warehouse, the embodied aspect might be as high as 70% of the overall emissions. >>

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Embodied carbon //

On office buildings, where the energy use is more intensive, the ratio might be more like 20:80,’ explains Lockie.

Turning the spotlight on embodied carbon is particularly interesting for quantity surveyors because they are perfectly placed to advise clients on lowering levels. Russell-Croucher comments that surveyors are the only profession to measure quantities for the whole building – as opposed to architects or building services engineers, for example. ‘It’s a matter of substituting the costs that surveyors measure for carbon,’he adds. RussellCroucher expects to see firms launching embodied carbon divisions, and suggests that specialist measurement practices may even be set up. ‘The good news is that just as building information modelling (BIM) is taking away some of the surveyor’s job, because BIM measures quantities automatically, a new area is opening up.’

So why is this service not already being offered more widely? Nevin Sood, a director at Turner & Townsend, says: ‘Only a few clients have asked us to look at embodied carbon. There is not a huge amount of interest.’ Lockie agrees: ‘We are only asked to provide embodied carbon information on a small number of projects,’ he says. ‘The leading lights in this among clients include British Land, Marks & Spencer, Brighton and Hove council, the water sector and the Highways Agency.’ Brighton, for example, which has the only Green Party council in the UK, has been asking for embodied carbon assessments as part of planning applications since July 2011. But, Lockie adds, even here the process is at an early stage.

The problem is that there are no real incentives to address embodied carbon. ‘Why have we not got further with embodied carbon? At the moment it is difficult to see where the financial gain is,’ Lockie explains. ‘With in-use emissions, in comparison, if they are lowered someone benefits from lower energy bills.’ Indeed, at Turner & Townsend, where they have been asked to investigate embodied carbon, it’s been to check for commercial implications: ‘We don’t essentially provide the footprinting service that some of the more academic consultancies offer. We’re more focused on how [measuring] embodied carbon adds value to the client,’

says Sood. ‘One key issue I’m looking at is whether there could be a conflict between the lowest embodied carbon options and the lowest operational options. If a client wants both, this could be difficult,’ he adds.

But Brighton may provide a clue to what the future will bring.‘As more councils start looking at embodied carbon, it could be that a lower emissions reading will benefit your planning application,’ says Lockie. The most powerful driver of change, though, would be legal or tax incentives.

‘If embodied carbon hits legislation or building regulations, then it will come to the fore,’ says Sood. And such moves do appear to be on the way. In the UK, from April 2013, publicly listed companies in the FTSE 100 will have to reveal their greenhouse gas emissions in their annual reports, and water sector companies have already been ordered to do so. It’s also worth noting that Australia, which is leading the way in some areas of sustainable construction, introduced a tax on embodied carbon emissions under the November 2011 Clean Energy Act. So, with embodied carbon looking set to become a business-critical issue, a second edition of the RICS paper will prove even more useful. ‘It will explore wholelife carbon, so it will focus on how to calculate emissions from the construction process (including transport), maintenance, replacement and end of life,’says Lockie.‘We also want to explore more case studies and show how you mitigate carbon once you have an initial number,’ he adds.

Version two may expand outside the UK, too, and cover more complex issues, such as carbon capture and storage.

Understanding the mysterious globe-trotting journeys of everything from bricks to boilers, and learning how to measure embodied carbon, is set to be part and parcel of the quantity surveyor’s job. And the RICS information paper is a good place to start.

Data taken from the RICS Methodology to calculate embodied carbon of materials and the Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE), developed by the University of Bath and published by the Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA). rics.org/guidance bsria.co.uk/bookshop

CARBON SEQUESTRATION Extraction and subsequent storage of CO2 from the atmosphere.

CRADLE Where building materials started their life.

CRADLE TO GATE Everything that happens to the material from cradle to leaving the factory, via the ‘gate’, where it saw its final processing.

CRADLE TO GRAVE The full life cycle, including cradle to gate, operation and end-of-life processes, such as demolition.

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CRADLE TO GRAVE PLUS END OF LIFE Includes end-oflife processes but excludes the operational or in-use phase of the building.

CRADLE TO SITE Cradle to gate, plus the journey to site and installation on site.

DOWNSTREAM IMPACTS The results of processes a product will go through later down the line. For example, a finished product in storage would later be transported and installed at its eventual destination.

EMBODIED CARBON The sum of fuel-related CO2 emissions, which means energy that was combusted but not feedstock energy (see right) retained in the material, and emissions from non-fuel processes, for example from chemical reactions.

EMBODIED ENERGY The total primary energy consumed from direct and indirect processes associated with a product or service within the

boundaries of cradle to gate.

FEEDSTOCK ENERGY Derived from fuel used as a material rather than as fuel, such as petrochemicals, used as feedstock materials to make plastics or rubber.

GLOBAL WARMING POTENTIAL (GWP) The release of greenhouse gases (GHGs) gives rise to climate change. Each GHG has a different level of potency and is normalised relative to the impacts of one unit of carbon dioxide.

For example, each unit of methane is considered to be 25 times more harmful than a single unit of CO2 (on a 100-year timescale), consequently it has global warming potential of 25kg CO2e.

UPSTREAM BURDENS The results of processes that occurred earlier in the life of a construction product, such as extraction and transport that happened before the product reached the factory.

Images aedas; britishland

:THE LANGUAGE OF EMBODIED CARBON

Embodied carbon //

LEADENHALL BUILDING The Leadenhall Building, a 46-storey, 224m tower clad in glazed curtain walling with a steel frame core, shows starkly where most embodied carbon occurs on an office tower. Davis Langdon studied the scheme, which is being developed by a joint venture between British Land and Oxford Properties. The biggest portion of the building’s embodied carbon was in its steel frame, accounting for 31,461tCO2e – tonnes of CO2 and green house gas emissions, ie embodied carbon. This was followed by the foundations and ground floor, together totalling 18,773tCO2e.

In contrast, the wall finishes came in at just 46tCO2e. ‘The steel, concrete and cladding are always the main culprits in terms of embodied carbon, because of the sheer volume of these materials and the energy-intensive processes used to make them,’ says Georgia Gosse from Davis Langdon. However, these are also the areas where the client has the most influence.

‘Small changes in the design can deliver large benefits, such as lighter-weight steel frames,’ she adds.

FARRINGDON STATION The recent revamp of Farringdon Station in central London demonstrates that re-using existing elements cuts carbon emissions dramatically. A Faithful+Gould study of the cradle to gate emissions of the redevelopment shows that retaining some of the existing façade and frame saved no less than 3,000 tCO2e. The project included adding a new ticket hall, concourse, footbridge and train shed roof. The largest sources of embodied carbon were the foundations, with total embodied carbon of 1,357tCO2e, followed by the ground floor construction with 823tCO2e. The frame, typically one of the worst embodied carbon offenders, came in third, with only 761tCO2e, while the external walls contributed even less – 520tCO2e.

761 ‘This project shows that when something can be re-used there is usually an embodied carbon benefit,’ says Sean Lockie MRICS, director of sustainability at Faithful+Gould. Lockie advises using lower embodied carbon materials in cement mixes, but adds that if the cement is to be used in a building’s structure it must be checked with a structural engineer to ensure the strength of the structure won’t be affected.

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AHEAD OF THE GAME

WHAT ARE THE VALUABLE SKILLS AND SPECIALISMS YOUNG SURVEYORS SHOULD LEARN FOR A FUTURE-PROOF CAREER INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE 21ST CENTURY? SIMON CREASEY INVESTIGATES

#1 CLIMATE CHANGE WHY DO SURVEYORS NEED TO LEARN ABOUT WEATHER? According to the Environment Agency, more than 5.5m properties are at risk of flooding across England and Wales – that’s one in six. Furthermore, a study published by the Committee on Climate Change last year found that the number of properties at ‘significant’ flood risk over the next 20 years is set to double – to 630,000 – unless the government increases the level of investment in flood defences.

‘With the changes in our weather patterns likely to continue, surveyors will need to have a much greater awareness of issues such as flooding and wind, and may need to learn from some of the lessons in other countries where these issues have prevailed for longer periods,’ says Christina Hirst, who runs a management and training consultancy specialising in surveying, real estate and construction.

WHERE DO SURVEYORS FIT IN? At the moment, there’s a significant opportunity for surveyors to develop their core competencies to offer advice on flood risks to householders and home owners, according to Dr Bingunath Ingirige MRICS, programme director at the University of Salford’s School for the Built Environment. Dr Ingirige was the lead researcher for the RICS Education Trust-funded research project Impacts of flooding on SMEs and their relevance to chartered surveyors, which was published in September 2012. ‘Climate change and rising insurance costs mean that smaller firms need to begin investigating other ways to reduce the impact of flooding,’ says Dr Ingirige.‘Chartered surveyors have the potential to play a major role in this area as the providers of advice, merging this area of expertise with their current portfolio of activities.’

ARE WE JUST TALKING ABOUT FLOODING HERE? Not at all – heat is just as big a danger. In 2003, a heatwave killed more than 35,000 people across Europe, so as climate change takes effect, one area where greater skills are required is in adaptations to houses to deal with periods of extreme heat, says Dr Stephen Hallett, principal research fellow in soil resource informatics at Cranfield University. ‘The overall trend is that it’s going to get hotter, and we’re going to get more extreme weather, so the

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built environment needs to try to cope with that because it’s going to become part of everyday life,’ he explains. Last year, Hallett oversaw a study called ‘Community Resilience to Extreme Weather’ (or ‘CREW’), which looked, among other things, into the risk of subsidence in an area to the south of London that’s filled with shrinking and swelling clay. Understanding the pattern and location of those soils, and merging that with predicted changes to the climate, gave the study group an idea of the patterns of risk that would emerge in the future. These are the types of skills that Hallett feels surveyors will need to add to their armoury of competencies in the future.

SO, BASICALLY, WE NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO ADAPT TO EXTREME WEATHER? Exactly. Some countries have already got to grips with these issues – for example, in Kuala Lumpur, the government has built the dual-use SMART tunnel that’s used as a vital road link for most of the year, but is closed to traffic and used as a water conduit during a storm.

Future skills //

ONE MILLION THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF PEOPLE FLOODED ANNUALLY

Image gallerystock

IN THE UK BY 2080 IF SEA LEVELS CONTINUE TO RISE AND THE NECESSARY ADAPTATIONS ARE NOT CARRIED OUT, ACCORDING TO A RECENT MODELLING STUDY

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#2 TUNNELLING

AS IN BORING UNDERGROUND? Exactly. Tunnelling and underground construction is enjoying a boom period at the moment. The growth of megacities around the world, and the need to transport millions of people through dense urban areas, means that underground railways are increasingly being considered as the answer for mass rapid transport problems. Also, some important road links are forced underground when land is not available on the surface at a cost-effective price. Then there are utility companies to consider, which are placing high-voltage cabling underground, as well as water and sewage management demands and tunnels for the gas and oil industries.

Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy in London, which has been financed by Crossrail. Another good idea is to join the British Tunnelling Society, which meets regularly on Great George Street, near RICS’ London headquarters, and is a great place to network.

ARE THERE ANY DOWNSIDES TO TUNNELLING? This is not a specialism for the faint-hearted.

‘The working environment can sometimes be described as challenging, perhaps even hazardous, and should not be underestimated,’ cautions industry stalwart Stephen Mudd, director at Eden Survey Services, who started his tunnelling career in the coal mines before working on the Channel Tunnel. Also, most tunnel projects are for a few years at a time, so surveyors may have to relocate away from their families for long periods.

BUT IF I SPECIALISE IN TUNNELLING, AM I GOING TO BE STUCK UNDERGROUND ALL MY LIFE? No. If you get bored of boring, the knowledge and many of the skills that you’ll pick up from tunnel surveying are also useful for some above-ground projects, such as mainline railways and city centre super-tram projects.

WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE? With so many tunnelling career opportunities at the moment, there’s the option to learn on the job. But if you want to increase your chances of securing employment by training, a good starting point is the new

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32 MILES THE LENGTH OF THE CHANNEL TUNNEL,

THE LONGEST UNDERWATER STRETCH OF ANY TUNNEL IN THE WORLD

Tottenham Court Road Station Upgrade Project

WHERE ARE THE MAIN OPPORTUNITIES FOR WORK? Some of the important cities in the far east – especially Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong – have rolling programmes for continuous metro system construction. In Qatar, new metro systems are planned for Doha ahead of the 2022 World Cup, and in Saudia Arabia, a new US$16.5bn (£10.5bn) underground transport system is being introduced to ease congestion in Mecca. There are also plenty of opportunities in Europe, North America and South America, and the UK is set to enjoy its fair share of tunnelling projects over the next few years thanks to Crossrail, the extension of the Northern Line Tube to Battersea and the construction of several major new water and electricity tunnels under London.

Future skills //

#3 LANGUAGES

POURQUOI? Because we live in a global village, and it’s never been easier to transfer your skills from one country to another. Also, gaining on-the-job experience and building your knowledge base overseas will make you much more attractive to future employers. According to the European-wide project Language Rich Europe2, more than 50% of companies take languages into account when recruiting. ‘What we are seeing now is a more definitive sense of motivation for learning languages than ever before,’ says Sylke Riester, managing director Europe at Rosetta Stone. ‘Not only does an additional language create a point of differentiation, but it also opens up a raft of possibilities for working abroad, or working more closely with overseas teams.’

ISN’T IT TOO LATE TO LEARN? There are lots of different ways to learn a new language to suit all lifestyles and budgets.

In addition to foreign language colleges and night-school classes, there is also online tuition, language-learning software, smartphone apps and podcasts – or you can even pay for one-to-one tuition in your own home. And you don’t necessarily have to be fluent in your chosen language to boost your chances of getting a job: the CBI found that 74% of employers are happy to appoint candidates who have the ability to hold a conversation in a foreign language, rather than being word perfect. Learning a new language isn’t easy, but it can be fun. The best way to learn is to go to the country where you intend to live, and immerse yourself in the language and culture, as experts say you pick things up more quickly when you have no alternative way of communicating with native speakers.

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WHICH LANGUAGE? After English, the top language used for business in the world is Mandarin, according to Bloomberg rankings. French comes next, followed by Arabic and Spanish. However, it might be wise to brush up on your German, the language rated as most useful by 50% of UK managers in the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) education and skills survey 2012, followed by French (49%), Spanish (37%), Mandarin (25%), Polish and Arabic (both 19%).

‘I CHOSE A TUTOR WHO WOULD TEACH ME ONE-TO-ONE IN MY OFFICE’ FREDERIC CHEN MRICS, partner, Cooper Chen Chartered Surveyors ‘I started learning Mandarin for two reasons: firstly, because China is pretty much there as the next superpower and, while English is still the language of commerce, it’s advantageous to be able to communicate even a little in the language of over 20% of the global population. The second, more personal, reason was to connect with my roots, as my father was Chinese. I’m really keen to do business with Chinese clients, and I believe more opportunities will arise in this area with the outward flow of money to invest in UK property. I’ve always felt that if a potential client has to choose between two advisers, the bias would be towards the one who is able to speak in their language. So I did some research, and chose a tutor who would teach me one-to-one in my office.

Recently, we’ve even added a Chinese page to our company website.’

Future skills //

WHY ENERGY? Energy providers around the world face major upheaval over the next few decades as new infrastructure is put in place to help cope with the projected demand. Worldwide energy consumption is predicted to increase a whopping 36% by 2035, fuelled by population growth. In China alone, demand is expected to increase 75% by 2035. Meanwhile, in the UK, the energy industry is enjoying unprecedented levels of activity.

By 2020, the UK government wants 15% of energy production to come from renewable sources, with more than 50GW of new or refurbished generation capacity required – equivalent to 95,000 on-shore wind turbines – to keep pace with UK energy demands. As a result, energy providers have to close or retrofit existing power plants and invest in new plants and renewable sources.

WHAT SORT OF DEVELOPMENTS CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE OVER THE NEXT DECADE OR SO? Cumulatively, investment of US$37tn (£23.5tn) is needed in the world’s energy supply system between 2012 and 2035 to meet projected future demand. Around US$17tn (£11tn) of this will be invested into the power sector, with the electricity networks accounting for around two-fifths of this sum. Around 5,890GW of additional capacity – more than the total installed capacity for the whole world in 2011 – needs to be added between now and 2035. A third of this is to replace retiring capacity, and the rest is required to meet growing demand for electricity. In October last year, the UK’s energy secretary Ed Davey announced that Britain is on track to have 20 new gas-fired power stations by 2030, with a number of new plants already being built. On top of this,

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there’s the retrofitting of existing sites, and the decommissioning of sites where it isn’t cost-effective to upgrade.

ISN’T THE ENERGY SECTOR ALREADY WELL SERVED

BY A SKILLED POOL OF SURVEYORS? Apparently not. According to Gerard Buda, postgraduate programme leader at Robert Gordon University’s Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment in Aberdeen, there’s a major shortage of expertise in the energy industry. ‘A lot of people working in the industry are getting near to the end of their career, and there hasn’t been sufficient take-up from younger people going into the industry, so there’s pent-up demand,’ he says.

DOES IT PAY WELL? According to Buda, remuneration rates are very competitive. ‘Half of our surveying graduates go directly into the energy sector,’ he says. ‘The other half start in the traditional construction industry, where they typically spend a few years before transferring over because unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on which side of the fence you’re on – remuneration in the energy sector is generally much higher than it is in construction, particularly at the moment.’

‘THE ENERGY FUTURES MARKET OFFERS MANY DIFFERENT CAREER PATHS’ EUAN DUNCAN MRICS, senior contracts engineer, Enquest ‘I studied quantity surveying at the Robert Gordon University and passed the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence on the first attempt. The core skills I gained are highly sought-after within a number of industries, which allowed a smooth transfer from construction to the energy futures market. I’ve worked in the energy sector for the past six years, mostly with oil and gas operators, drafting contracts for their offshore capital projects.

The industry was appealing due to the variety of opportunities and the scale of investment in the North Sea – and the harsh North Sea environment has exciting challenges that interest and motivate me. The energy futures market is exciting and offers many different career paths, but the industry’s greatest problem is finding well-qualified and experienced people. This means there are great opportunities at the moment for quick progression.’

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#4 ENERGY

VIBRATION CONTROL

Sabiha Gökçen International Airport terminal, Istanbul, Turkey The largest seismically isolated building in the world, the airport terminal, which opened in 2009, is able to withstand a magnitude 8.0 earthquake and remain completely operational afterwards – which is handy considering Istanbul straddles three tectonic plates. The terminal sits on 300 triple-friction pendulum isolators, which lift the whole building off the ground and absorb shockwaves to significantly slow down movement during an earthquake. The isolators were installed according to advanced computer simulation and modelling technology that can predict how a building will react.

THE GIANT PENDULUM

Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan Currently the world’s third-tallest skyscraper, Taipei 101 in Taiwan contains a giant 660-tonne Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) suspended like a pendulum inside the 508m tower. It’s the largest TMD in the world and, together with two smaller 4.5-tonne spheres in the tip of the 60m spire, it helps to counteract any swaying. There are also 36 vertical columns and 380 concrete piles sunk 80m into the ground to provide further stability.

The strength of the design became evident during construction when a 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Taipei in March 2002, toppling two construction cranes but causing no structural damage to the tower.

SEISMIC RETROFIT

The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, California, US Following the 7.1-magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, the Bay Bridge has undergone a major seismic retrofit, including the complete replacement of the East Span. Additions include viscous dampers to isolate, absorb and diffuse seismic energy; hinge pipe beams, designed to move within their sleeves during expansion or contraction of the decks; steel plates and lateral braces to increase stability; and replacing original rivets with high-strength bolts.

DUAL-PURPOSE DESK

LifeGuard Available in a range of sizes and designs, each LifeGuard table comprises a steel skeleton, top, floor and heavily padded sides to keep the person safe from building collapse, bullets and blasts, even if the whole unit rolls. Also, a ‘Crumple Zone’ on top absorbs energy from falling objects like a car bumper. The inside, where there is enough room to lie down, usually contains food, water, medical supplies, and emergency lighting and signalling devices. lifeguardstructures.com

FROM LIFE-SAVING EMERGENCY PACKAGES TO VAST SWINGING DAMPERS IN SKYSCRAPERS, HERE ARE SOME OF THE WAYS WE’RE FIGHTING BACK AGAINST NATURAL DISASTERS Words by Samantha Whitaker

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Resilience //

CORE OF STEEL

US Bank Tower, Los Angeles, California, US The tallest building in California, the US Bank Tower was constructed to withstand an 8.3-magnitude earthquake, which scientists believe is stronger than the San Andreas fault can produce. The 310m building’s resilience is due to a free-span chevron-braced steel core working with perimeter moment-resisting frames.

FLATPACK HOUSES

Toyota Home, Japan Bringing the knowledge and technology of the Toyota Group to the housing market, Toyota Home provides customers in Japan with earthquake-resistant prefabricated houses. Based on the ‘skeleton and infill’ approach, common in Japanese architecture, the design features a durable steel structure combined with a flexible infill designed to withstand even a major earthquake.

EMERGENCY SUPPLIES

ShelterBox When an earthquake does strike, ShelterBox provides an emergency refuge and the essentials a family needs to survive. Each ShelterBox is tailored to a specific disaster but typically contains a large tent, blankets, water storage and purification equipment, cooking utensils, a basic tool kit, mosquito nets, solar lamps and a children’s activity pack. Even the large, green box itself can be useful as a baby’s cot or food container. shelterbox.org

SAFER CITIES

Earthquakes and Megacities Initiative (EMI) An international, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving the resilience of cities to disasters, EMI promotes tested disaster riskreduction policy and practices.

Founded in 1998, in response to the urgent need to stimulate urban earthquake-damage mitigation in developing countries, EMI’s approach is to empower local-level institutions and organisations by developing informed leaders and practitioners through training and knowledge-sharing programmes. emi-megacities.org

ROLLING FOUNDATIONS

Yokohama Landmark Tower, Yokohama, Japan A combination of modern engineering and ancient design, the Yokohama Landmark Tower was built with the same theoretical structure as Japanese pagoda temples – which, amazingly, have endured multiple earthquakes. The entire 296m-tall skyscraper sits on rollers, which allow the earth to undulate beneath the structure without shaking it. It’s also weighed down by an active mass damper system, and is made from flexible materials that can bend with the earthquake instead of crumbling.

A SOLID BASE

Transamerica Pyramid, San Francisco, California, US While the Transamerica Pyramid Building was designed as such to allow maximum light to filter down to the streets below, the bottom-heavy structure is much more stable, and moves less in strong wind, than most other skyscrapers. It also rests on a block constructed from more than 300 miles of steel rods encased in concrete sunk 16m into the ground, which is designed to move with earth tremors.

SELF-SUPPORTING STRUCTURES

Monolithic Domes The compound curve of Monolithic Domes makes them stronger than virtually any other structure. To create the shape, an Airform balloon is fully inflated and then covered by a rebar (reinforcing bar) cage and sprayed with concrete.

When the concrete sets, the Airform is deflated and removed, and the interior is hand-plastered. With proper care, the Airform balloon can be reused more than 100 times. Rated by FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) as providing ‘near-absolute protection’, the Domes are able to withstand tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, fire, termites and rot, and can be designed to fit almost any architectural need, from sheds and cabins to homes, schools, churches and even stadiums.

Built in exactly the same way, only without the insulation, EcoShells provide affordable, permanent disaster-proof housing in hot and temperate climates, and are also ideal for disaster recovery – for example, Domes for the World constructed 100 EcoShells in Indonesia after the Yogyakarta earthquake in May 2006. monolithic.com

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Business advice //

How SMEs can

CUT CARBON EMISSIONS By carbon reduction expert Myles McCarthy

In recent years, increasing energy prices and an awareness of the need to cut carbon has seen energy efficiency moving up the agenda for businesses around the UK. But despite this, a lot of organisations are still only talking about it, rather than doing it. Here are five ways that can help you make energy efficiency a reality.

A LARGE ORGANISATION CAN SAVE AROUND 15% ON ANNUAL ENERGY BILLS JUST FROM COSTEFFECTIVE MEASURES

ESTABLISHING THE BUSINESS CASE While times are tough and budgets are squeezed, it’s tempting to pull the purse strings tight unless spending is going to benefit the business in the near term. So, in order to convince senior decision-makers, energy efficiency needs to be expressed in the same terms as other investment decisions. The Carbon Trust has identified that a typical large organisation has an opportunity to save an average of 15% (and often more) on annual energy bills just from cost-effective measures, such as lighting, heating and employee engagement and training.

The investments required to save this money have an average internal rate of return (IRR) of 48% – when up to 94% of businesses have an IRR requirement of less than 30%. Payback periods are another factor to consider – although if these are less than three years, they will satisfy the requirements of most CFOs.

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ENGAGING SENIOR DECISION-MAKERS In some organisations, there is a tendency to view energy as a fixed cost, so it can be difficult to make a case for making revenue savings through capital expenditure. More importantly, energy- and carbon-saving capital projects tend to come from discretionary spending, rather than the essential spending that goes on sustaining and growing a core business. Therefore, you should present a clear, concise proposal that culminates in a single request or recommendation, includes an implementation timetable and is supported by an appropriate analysis of the costs, benefits and risks. Avoid using jargon or ambiguous terms, and try to find an ally that can act as a sponsor and advocate for energy-efficiency investments.

FINDING FINANCING One of the biggest barriers to capital expenditure on energy efficiency can be obtaining suitable finance that doesn’t impact on existing credit lines for critical business spending. To help, the Carbon Trust has partnered with Siemens to make available up to £550m of energy-efficiency financing to business. The Energy Efficiency Financing scheme provides flexible and affordable financing that is designed to be offset by energy cost savings so that businesses can invest in reducing their carbon footprint, while remaining cashneutral, or in some cases cash-positive, from day one.

CHANGING BEHAVIOUR Energy efficiency isn’t all about the equipment; it’s also about how that equipment is used. Setting a thermostat one degree lower can offer savings of 8% on heating bills.

Switching off lights, computers and machinery when they are not needed can also make a big difference. Use an energy-efficiency project as an opportunity to reconsider use and increase staff awareness at all levels to create a culture of savings.

MYLES MCCARTHY is managing director of implementation at the Carbon Trust. carbontrust.com/implementation

Illustration Borja Bonaque

ASSESSING THE OPTIONS There are a lot of technology options that can save energy – or even generate on-site renewable energy – and all of them will eventually deliver a return on investment. The issue is to know which one to choose. There are different levels of capital outlay, varying amounts of disruption to operations during implementation, and some options are only suitable for energy-intensive businesses. It’s also true that some technologies have been aggressively marketed, whereas others may be better but are less known.

If in doubt, a good place to start is LED (light-emitting diode) lighting, which has seen a huge drop in cost in recent years and can offer substantial savings and returns within just a couple of years. But if you don’t know your ground source heat pumps from your voltage optimisation, or your combined heat and power from your solar photovoltaics, then it’s worth getting expert independent advice on which options are right for your business.

Information :RICS NEWS :DIARY :BENEFITS :RESOURCES

23.6% The rise in house prices in Hong Kong in 2012 (Knight Frank)

VALUATION IS AT THE CORE OF ECONOMIC STABILITY. WE MAY NOT GET A SECOND CHANCE AT THIS, SO NOW IS THE TIME TO MOVE FORWARD

Sir David Tweedie, chair of the International Valuation Standards Council

GLOBAL STANDARDS In February, members of the valuation, real estate and accounting communities met in Toronto to discuss the benefits of adopting International Valuation Standards (IVS) worldwide. More than 100 people attended the event, hosted by Canada’s three standard-setting bodies: RICS, the Appraisal Institute of Canada and the Chartered Institute of Business Valuers. Sir David Tweedie, chair of the IVS Council, led the discussion and provided insight on the role IVS plays in promoting best practice for valuation professionals, and closing expectation gaps for end-users of valuation services. rics.org/newsroom

RICS ASIA +852 2537 7117 General enquiries APC guidance Subscriptions Events Training Bookshop REGULATION HELPLINE +44 (0)20 7695 1670 CONFIDENTIAL HELPLINE +44 (0)20 7334 3867 DISPUTE RESOLUTION SERVICES +44 (0)20 7334 3806 SWITCHBOARD +44 (0)20 7222 7000

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RICS news //

Management guidance In March, RICS launched its real estate management guidance. The publication sets a framework for the execution and delivery of real estate management services, and provides best practice guidance in ethics and professionalism for residential and commercial

real estate managers. It will also help raise standards across international markets, and will support professionals in meeting local ethical codes and legislative requirements.

Produced in consultation with professionals worldwide, the guidance features 12 core

principles that together form the real estate management code, and establish a culture of transparency and fairness that should underpin the activities of all real estate managers, wherever they practice. rics.org/standards

WHAT NEXT FOR BIM?

In November 2012, RICS gathered 55 key Building Information Modelling (BIM) stakeholders for roundtable sessions to harness their views on the implications of BIM for the industry. From the discussion, it’s clear that those who are adopting BIM now will soon start to pull away, leaving those who are not adopting the technology far behind. Also, so far, BIM is making less of an impact with smaller firms, which can struggle to implement the technology, or recognise its far-reaching benefits. In fact, BIM can be used on any size project, but as it’s still a relatively new approach, there are a number of uncertainties. And with the technology now emerging so rapidly in the UK, it’s important that those who are implementing BIM set off in the right direction.

At RICS, we aim to work with all stakeholders in addressing these concerns as BIM continues to evolve, both in the UK and around the world. Download the full report from the sessions, including observations and discussion points, at rics.org/bim.

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£76,873 Average property industry salary in the Middle East (down from £78,170 in 2012)

Headline construction output looks set to increase further in Hong Kong, as workloads are expected to rise across 2013, according to the inaugural RICS Hong Kong Construction Market Survey. The survey indicates that sentiment within the industry is upbeat, with workloads for infrastructure, and public non-housing, growing strongly in the past three months, while workloads for energy, oil and gas remained flat.

Private housing and private commercial also recorded increasing workloads. Meanwhile, a substantial proportion of respondents (54%) expect employment in the sector to rise, however, skills shortages are prevalent in all areas, including quantity surveyors and other construction professionals, such as plasterers, electricians, carpenters and bricklayers.

£63,996 £64,461 Average property industry salary in Asia (up from £56,356 in 2012)

Average property industry salary across continental Europe (up from £62,082 in 2012)

Illustrations Oscar Bolton Green, Bernd Schifferdecker

WORKLOAD RISE

S PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

‘The key to success is the ability and willingness of the professional to constantly update his or her skills’ Alan Collett FRICS RICS President

ome say the Chinese word for crisis is made up of two characters meaning danger and opportunity.

It’s such an attractive thought that John F Kennedy once used it in a speech.

Sadly, it’s not entirely accurate. Nevertheless, it’s right to look for opportunities as we emerge from economic crisis, and among the global trends recently highlighted by the UK magazine The Economist was rapid technological advance.

Technology is everywhere. Tasks that once required human intervention are now automated – reducing costs while raising quality and efficiency. And where human intervention is still required, technology now enables amateurs to do what was once the preserve of experts. The lesson for professionals? Move up the value chain.

A good example is infrastructure. In a recent report, McKinsey estimates a global infrastructure investment need of US$57tn (£38tn) between 2013 and 2030 – 60% more than was spent in the past 18 years, and greater than McKinsey’s estimated adjusted value of all infrastructure currently in existence.

Whatever the exact figures, the scale of the challenge is clear. The response cannot simply be to increase budgets – especially

when many governments are reducing deficits and investors still lack confidence. Instead, we must work smarter.

Construction professionals have the opportunity to embrace technology that frees them from detailed number-crunching, and enables them to focus on higher-value activity.

Building Information Modelling is a case in point. Steve Pittard, Chair of RICS’ QS and Construction IT Working Group, sees such technology as an ‘opportunity to deliver new service streams and extend our professional reach’. Today, the key to success is the ability and willingness of the professional to constantly update his or her skills.

Continuing professional development (CPD) is nothing new to professionals. It keeps our skills relevant and is a source of individual pride. RICS requires members to stay up to date through CPD, and we issue comprehensive guidance and offer a range of courses. We’re not prescriptive, since each professional knows best what kind of learning he or she needs, but we do now ask all members to record their CPD online to make it simpler to comply with the requirements.

Many are already doing so on the new, easyto-use system – including me. If you haven’t already, I do hope you will join us soon.

ANY QUESTIONS? The RICS enquiry service can help you find answers to business, technical and professional queries. If you have a question, fill in the online enquiry form at rics.org/library and one of

52%

The percentage of respondents from Asia who received a bonus

the team’s expert and helpful staff will will investigate and respond to you within two working days. Recent enquiries answered by the team include the building costs of an aircraft hangar

£21,215 Average bonus amount across continental Europe

and the requirements for displaying EPC ratings on property adverts. This resource is particularly helpful to members in small firms or sole practitioners.

It forms part of the RICS

information and archive service, which provides members with access to the very best information from around the world.

For more information, email library@rics.org.

57%

$32,237 The percentage of respondents in Middle East who anticipate improved economic activity

Results taken from the RICS and Macdonald & Company international rewards and attitudes survey 2013. rics.org/salarysurvey

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RICS news //

Events FOR RICS EVENTS BOOKINGS AND ENQUIRIES ricsasia@rics.org // +852 2537 7117

CHINA 2013 RICS International Construction and Real Estate Conference 22 May, Chongqing Co-organised by RICS, the Chongqing Construction Cost Association and Chongqing University, this one-day conference covers the major dynamics affecting the construction industry in Asia, with a particular focus on China’s massive

urbanisation movement. Overseas and local speakers will address how quantity surveyors and project management professionals can shape their services to support their clients in an ever-changing industry in times of global economic uncertainty. For more information, visit ricsasia.org.

RICS Asset Management Conference 21 June, Shanghai

AWARDS ROUND UP Now in its second year, the RICS Hong Kong Awards 2013 received an increased number of entries ranging from small schemes to multi-million dollar developments. After diligent discussions by the 13 jurors, 17 winners were selected in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the industry: INDIVIDUAL AWARDS: Property Person of the Year Nicholas Brooke, chairman of Professional Property Services Young Achiever of the Year Reeves Yan, Colliers International

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RICS Asia will co-organise the inaugural Asset Management Conference in Shanghai with the Hong Kong Institute of Shopping Centre Management. This one-day conference will aim to: study the major dynamics affecting the facilities management industry amid the rapid development of commercial and residential properties in first, second and third tier cities; understand how commercial property surveyors can shape their services to support their clients in an ever-changing industry; look at new trends and technologies, and

draw lessons on how they are applied around the world; and allow business networking and interchange of ideas between the leading professionals, academics, regulators, investors and developers.

For more information, visit ricsasia.org

HONG KONG RICS Hong Kong Annual Conference 2013 3 May, Hong Kong The Annual RICS Hong Kong Conference, now in its fifth year, will focus on the topic of ‘Riding the Wave of Competition’. With C-suite business leaders and professionals from

TEAM AWARDS: Retail Agency Team of the Year Grand award winner: CBRE Industrial Agency Team of the Year Grand award winner: CBRE Residential Agency Team of the Year Grand award winner: Knight Frank Office Agency Team of the Year Grand award winner: CBRE Merit winner: Jones Lang LaSalle Property Management Team of the Year Grand award winner: Kai Shing Management Services – International Commerce Centre Management Services Office Merit winner: Jones Lang LaSalle Project Management Team of the Year Grand award winner: CBRE Best Project Team of the Year Grand award winner: Rider Levett Bucknall, Mace and Simon Kwan

New York City, London and Hong Kong as speakers, the conference will take a close look at the competitive landscapes from both global and Hong Kong perspectives, and explore how Hong Kong can stay at the front of the competition. For more information, visit ricsasia.org/ hkconference.

UK/JAPAN RICS-ARES-JREI Joint London Conference 16-18 July During the three-day London visit, ARES and JREI members will visit RICS headquarters, global business investors and major real estate

companies and meet with RICS members.

RICS will organise a one-day London Conference for local and Japanese investors and professionals to provide an opportunity for the members and Japanese investors from ARES and JREI to learn about the real estate investment market in the UK and Europe, discuss how to stimulate global investment in Japan’s real estate market, and seek effective ways to offer its information to the global investors.

For more information, visit ricsasia.org.

and Associates Best Deal of the Year Grand award winner: CBRE Merit winner: Cushman & Wakefield Innovation Award of the Year Grand award winner: Construction Industry Council Merit winner: Hong Kong Housing Authority Contribution to the Community Team of the Year Grand award winner: CBRE Merit winner: Wheelock Properties Kenneth Kwan FRICS, Chairman of RICS Hong Kong, said: ‘We were very pleased to see the overwhelming response and generous support from many industry players for the RICS Hong Kong Awards.’ For more details, visit ricsasia.org/awards.

RICS recognised globally THE PAST SIX MONTHS HAVE SEEN UNPRECEDENTED DEMAND FOR RICS STANDARDS IN KEY MARKETS AROUND THE WORLD, FINDS RICS CHIEF EXECUTIVE SEAN TOMPKINS

Government and market recognition of RICS’ thought leadership, and of our members’ qualifications, and the professional and ethical parameters within which they operate, has been made very clear to me, and to the members of the Presidential team, in our engagements on behalf of the profession. In September 2012, we opened RICS Japan with tremendous support from leading sector body the Association of Real Estate Securitization (ARES). We welcomed a number of eminent new RICS members, and I was honoured to address a 1,000-strong audience at the ARES conference in Tokyo, sharing a platform with the head of the Financial Services Authority, the vice-chairman of the Bank of Japan and the minister for land, infrastructure, transport and tourism. We have signed formal MoUs (memorandum of understanding) with ARES, the Japan Association of Real Estate Appraisers and the Japan Association of Real Estate Counselors.

Later in September, I was part of UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s trade mission to Brazil, and I felt proud that RICS was the only professional body to be represented there.

Brazil is keen to expand its workforce of skilled professionals in the property and construction sectors during a time of huge developments in infrastructure sparked by the forthcoming FIFA World Cup (2014) and Olympic and Paralympic Games (2016) – but also extending far beyond, to support the growth of this rising economic powerhouse.

Talks in Delhi and London with Kamal Nath, the Indian minister of urban development and parliamentary affairs, highlighted the massive opportunities and challenges facing a country

that is expected to be the world’s thirdlargest economy by 2030 with 600m urban dwellers – the largest proportion of any country. Professional skills in land, property, construction and infrastructure are needed on a vast scale, and Minister Nath has declared his government’s strong support for RICS’ major project to open a School of Built Environment in April 2013 at Amity University, near Delhi.

In November 2012, we hosted an infrastructure-themed event for the chief secretary of the Hong Kong Government, Carrie Lam, who was presented with a certificate of RICS Honorary membership.

There is also growing support for our project to create and promote high-level, overarching international standards in valuation, property measurement and ethics, in collaboration with sector bodies and other organisations around the world, including the World Bank.

The aim, ultimately, is to create greater global financial stability by establishing common standards in these fields, which feed directly into financial reporting.

Further examples of RICS’ standards, qualifications and thought leadership achieved around the world over the past six months can be found in the RICS half-year performance report. To download the report, visit rics.org/corporateperformance.

MEMBERSHIP INCREASES OVER SIX MONTHS MRICS

2012 73,729 2013 74,956 FRICS

2012 20,050 2013 20,137 AssocRICS

2012 2013

2,772 3,000

Trainees

2012 17,909 2013 19,396

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Measure //

2,545

CLASS ACT

95%

The percentage of ‘excellent’ and ‘good’ ratings on feedback forms from RICS face-to-face courses

RICS LEARNING AROUND THE WORLD Illustration by Ian Dutnall

1,5 40

70

The number of face-to-face RICS course titles

UK undergraduate and postgraduate surveying course completions, 2011

4 99

12

90 Ireland

16

376

G PR ENER AC AL TIC E

MA PR NA OJ GE EC ME T NT

59 0

2 10

UK

RU RA L

584

The number of RICS-accredited undergraduate and postgraduate surveying courses available around the world

Total

PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

CS ATI OM GE

TE N PU TIO DIS SOLU RE

7,400

683

FACILITIES MANAGEMENT

ING ILD NG BU VEYI R SU

ENVIRONMENT

73

S RT EA FIN

M CO ANAG NS EM ULT EN AN T CY

CONSTRUCTION

5,123

The number of delegates trained on RICS face-toface courses to date

20 3

9 30

259 Asia

80 South Asia

Americas

5

EMEA

48

2 Oceania

57 Course numbers worldwide

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1,415

The number of people who have participated in web classes since the academy launched

15,000+

The number of registered users on the RICS Online Academy THE RICS ONLINE ACADEMY’S E-LEARNING PRODUCTS INCLUDE: 53 e-learning courses, 7 distance learning courses, 100+ web classes Source: RICS