Brian Murphy aka BrianSpecMan

GBE > About > Contact > Team > G#896 N#916

About:

Profile:

He spent the first ten years of practice in small firms, working on a wide range of new and existing buildings, getting a thorough grounding in building technology and studying day release ONC and HNC Construction.
He went on to work with talented Architects whilst studying day-release Architecture (part-time), the solid background giving him the freedom to ‘fly kites’ with his college designs, unrestricted by lack of construction know-how.
He was recognised as a top student in his year, commended at BSc and awarded a Distinction with Honours at PG Diploma.
The technical background led him back to the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the building design process: Specification writing, where he felt he could make the best contribution to a project’s final outcome, with sensitivity to the aspirations of the designer and the ability to contribute to the design process in the minutiae of the details.
He is passing his general and specialist knowledge in this and related fields back to the industry via CPD (continuing professional development) practice’s staff development seminars, university lectures, workshops, conferences, software training and individual tutoring on project design, building construction, materials, specification and professional practice.
In April 1999 he made a public declaration of intent to work with designers adopting environmental approaches to building in the future and to influence others in this area. He was lucky that some of his existing clients welcomed the opportunity to green up their act.
Set out in April 2001 launched National Green Specification (NGS) in November to create an Encyclopaedia of Green Construction.
2003 Joined by Sandy Patience to create ‘GreenSpec’ website, describing products with the right environmental credentials and performance characteristics available in or from the UK.
2008 – 2014 joined a NW European team to carryout Interreg funded CAP’EM project to develop an intelligent tool to select appropriate products for any building application and compare short listed product’s Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs)
September 2012 started creating this new website to relaunch NGS and Green Building Encyclopaedia (GBE).
2013 left GreenSpec behind to focus on GBE website and achieved 1.8 million page views in 2 years.
2020 COVID lockdown gave BrianSpecMan a chance to work on calculators he developed for architecture students since 2011 he merged in-use carbon and embodied carbon calculators adding a bill of quantities to create a design and decision tool Green Building Calculator and then Green Retrofit Calculator.

Key Achievements

Brian has established a specification consultancy ASWS Architectural Specification Writing Services over the past 33 years, been self-employed 33 years and has >40 years experience in the industry.
Successful commissions have included:
- new build, alteration, extension, conservation quality refurbishment, fit out
- Project Clients: government, public, private and speculacive developers,
- Procured by: general contracting (GC), construction management (CM), management contracting (MC), design & build (D&B), Design manage Construct (DMC), Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) and Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT).
Project values carried out range from £50,000. to £511m. Package values range from £10,000 to £12m.
Total Specified Projects to date £2415m.
Client list includes: architects, interior designers, furniture designers, exhibition designers, landscape architects, facilities managers, builder’s merchants, self-builders, manufacturers, fabricators, suppliers and universities, ex students, Authoritative bodies. Whilst he has worked with D&B Contractor’s Architects, he was keen to work directly with contractors and successfully worked with Kier Group to develop their internal supply chain specification preliminaries.

Project Roles

Specification Consultancy on Projects

Reviewing drawn, written, and scheduled information including briefing notes, outline specifications and production information from participating consultants, giving feedback on buildability, compatibility and quality; offering advice on alternative methods, materials and sustainable alternatives.
Run Sustainability Design Reviews and Site Waste Management Plan Workshops round table brainstorming with the design team, Client, Contractor and Quantity Surveyor to review proposals and seek out opportunities to improve the use of site, methods or construction, choice of materials, services and use of resources in a cost effective manor to afford environmental solutions.
Tender Evaluation: Reviewing Tenders for compliance with project documents and highlighting any short falls, advising project team of findings and reviewing any further submissions.
Project List

Everything else

Environmental Literature Audits on Websites, Literature, Videos, Marketing, Adverts
Greenwash hunting and proposing alternative credible statements
Report writing and liaison with Peer reviewer on GBE Echo and NGS Echo to ISO 14021
Interface between Client & LCA Practitioners and report writing on LCA, EPD, PEF and OEF projects
Review Interreg Project Reports and propose changes (UPStraw)
Review draft proposals for publishable technology books
Proofread book drafts and propose changes (Tom Dollard, Sofie Pelsmaker)
Write product, accessory and system specifications including whole work sections after review of literature
Attend and contribute to Project and organisation Steering Group Meetings (TGR, CobBauge, EoESCS, AECB)
Propose and write topical technical guidance papers (TDUK) Moisture in Timber
Proposals for project development

Relevant Experience

He is not a practising architect so does not normally design buildings, his commitment is to influence the architects and other project team members he works with to consider and adopt appropriate green methods and materials, carryout any research to support a change and then specify them.
1999 Organised a visit to Construction Resources showroom for CIIG members to get a taste of Green construction where we met Lucy Pedler who went on to set up TGR membership and training.
1999 Invited to talk at ‘Green is the Colour’ Conference at RIBA on legislation driving Green
2000 Attended The Green Register’s Sustainable Building and Services course became a member and then delivered 2 workshops on Day 2 and joined the steering group.
2000 Attended Association of Environment Conscious Building annual conference, joined and became part of the Steering Committee
2001 Launched the National Green Specification NGS in November 2001
2003 ‘GreenSpec’ website launched at www.greenspec.co.uk
2004 BrianSpecMan invited to join GOEast developing and launching their East of England Sustainable Construction Strategy
2004 BrianSpecMan joined EofE Sustainable Development Round Tables on Construction Waste and Water
2004 Brian SpecMan joined UKCEED, Constructing Excellence, Environment Agency, BRE, Envirowise, WRAP, NISP, Kier Easter, Simons Construction, Responsible Solutions in running over 40 Site Waste Management Plan workshops across the UK
2006 BrianSpecMan wrote many waste management specifications as part of PII project with BRE
2006 BrianSpecMan created WasteCost® Lite calculator and invited BRE to do it better, 3 years later they did.
2007 BrianSpecMan was invited to lecture at London South Bank University which continued until 2018 finishing with a 12 week Energy and Resource Efficiency in Design Module which included creating whole building Energy, Carbon, Waste calculators in Excel.
2008 BrianSpecMan invited to become part of the CAP’EM Interreg Project to develop an LCA tool that chooses product that are healthy, environmental, resourceful, appropriate, competent, effective before choosing their LCA.
BrianSpecMan has written and presented well over 1000 PowerPoint seminars on sustainable construction, specification and professional practice
BrianSpecMan has supported The Green Register of Construction Professionals as a speaker on their SBS Sustainable Building and Services courses, Waste conferences and on their steering group.
BrianSpecMan acknowledged by the RIBA Journal as a top 10 CPD provider whilst with GreenSpec
None of this was acknowledged or promoted on GreenSpec website; it all needed another website.
2009 Adopted a space on Scribd website over 300 CPD and specification files loaded there 267,000 page reads, then counter reset to zero and the site started charging users; time to move on.
He has also written many specification work sections, product clauses and supporting appendix.
Occasionally a calculator or data is needed to carry out a task and he creates or collates them too.
2012 www.greenspecdownload.co.uk created, it soon became the exit strategy from GreenSpec
2013 National Green Specification relaunched/CAPEM launched at www.greenspecdownload.co.uk
2013 GreenSpec Ltd. set up and left to Sandy Patience
2013 National Green Specification Ltd. created to continue CAPEM project as a Partner
2014 https://greenbuildingencyclopaedia.uk reserved
2015 NGS CAPEM website content decanted to Green Building Encyclopaedia website
2015 Green Building Encyclopaedia launched with an ambition to complete a 40 man year task in 5 years
2018 Started at University of Hertfordshire RIBA Part 1 Years 2 for Architects and Interior Architectural Design, as a visiting Technical Champion providing lectures and tutoring in studio
2019 At Greta’s request for adults to support the School Strikes for Climate BrianSpecMan joined the Global strike in London where he met Architects Declarers and Architects Carbon Action Network who needed guidance on where to get the new know-how to change and joined their fortnightly meeting
2020 Joined by Edith Colomba of MaD Network to and Nigel Temple of The Marketing Compass to develop and launch GBE Learning multi-format learning website
2020 Joined The Green Register on their Retrofit zone stand at FutureBuild 2020 to promote GBE Learning and explore potential co-promotion and co-hosting
2020 During COVID lockdown developed Green Building Calculator V1 & V2
2022 Currently developing Green Retrofit Calculator with STBA
2022 Launched Green Building Calculator GBC V2 and Green Retrofit Calculator (GRC V1) at FutureBuild 2022, UKCW 2022, Regen 2022, SelfBuild&Design West 2022
2022 Joined Forces with Firstplanit to push our agendas forwards
2022 Presented GBC & GRC in CPD and lectures to many audiences.
2022 Working with Bat Conservation Trust on a Brown Long Eared Adaptable Bat House project
2022 On CobBauge Project steering groups and writing a ‘CobBauge page turner’ and Cob Checklist
2023 Invited to join BIM Heroes platform and prepared numerous CPD papers on Environmental Standards, Sustainability and next on Procurement.
2023 Invited to become an HiiGuru Ask an Expert at Grand Designs Live ExCel 2023 and on line video calls all year round along with 5 speaking opportunities on discussion panels, seminars and one to one discussion with Kevin McCloud. Planning more for Grand Designs Live NEC 2023 & 2024.
2024 Investigated Green Insurance Repairs Calculator (GIRC)
2024 Proposed Green Interiors Calculator (GIC)
2024 An opportunity to develop GBC with GBPDC Green Building Product Data Collection, GBPB Green Building Price Book, GBREA Green Building Readymade Elemental Assemblies with Home@ix. Modelling Home types.

© GBE GBC GRC GIC GGC GBL NGS ASWS Brian Murphy aka BrianSpecMan ******
Brian Murphy ONC HNC Construction BSc Hons PGDip Dist Architecture
10th December 2012 – 20th October 2024

Images:

HiiGuru At GDL 2023 NEC BrianSpecMan & Kevin McCloud talking Bats and Birds in buildings Kevin McCloud + BrianSpecMan Grand Designs Live 2023

Grand Designs Live 2023 Kevin McCloud and BrianSpecMan in conversation c/o HiiGuru

BRM Build4 png .

At Interreg NWE JTS Visit to CAP’EM Build4 exhibition near Dover

CAPEM meeting in JTS Office Lille France

Avnir2011BRM

[avniR] LCA Convention 2011 Lille France

EdinburghNapierBIMEventBRMAlphabet

Napier Univeristy @ Edinburgh Zoo BIM from a Specifiers Perspective

Real Estate Influencer in Social media

January 2023

January 2023 Green Real Estate Influencers 15th Ranking

December 2021 10th position

Real Estate Influencers Dec 2021

October 2024 2nd position Wow

Thinkers 360 Thought Leaders 15/10/2024 BrianSpecMan of Green Building Calculator at 2nd position. Wow I am an influencer!

Thinkers 360 Thought Leaders 15/10/2024 BrianSpecMan of Green Building Calculator at 2nd position. Wow, am I an influencer!

Certificates

PTC A level Building+Drawing

PNL Degree Architecture

PNL Degree Architecture Results

PNL Diploma Architecture Dist+Hons

PNL Diploma Architecture

© GBE GBC GRC GIC GGC GBL NGS ASWS Brian Murphy aka BrianSpecMan ******
Brian Murphy ONC HNC Construction BSc Hons PGDip Dist Architecture
10th December 2012 – 20th October 2024