Users Challenges Requests About

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GBE Users challenges

Designing, choosing methods, materials; systems, products and accessories; and specifying them for building is complex.
Even more so if you are trying to ensure they are healthy, environment-friendly: indoors, outdoors and globally; and make them energy, carbon, material and resource efficient.
Choosing between them is a mind blowing complex affair that is difficult to get right.
Trying to make sense of all of this information is a challenge for architects, design professionals and constructors, it is made more complex if you are not trained in the subject, let alone self-builders BIYers, DIYers or first time clients.
If it is your own home or place of business, this is an opportunity to invest well and not penny-pinch, to create low or bill-free, healthy living and working spaces.
There are too many options and alternatives that are full of financially tempting short term compromises with long term implications.
Quantity Surveyors are well practices at helping build cheaply and will habitually use violet pricing books, to get a violet building cost plan, ignoring all the client’s aspiration to invest well in a good or green building.
When tendered to violet builders, violet tenders come in above the violet cost plan and inevitable cost cutting disguised as ‘Value Engineering’ takes place to strip out all of the client’s green or better building aspirations.
Grenfell enquiry has reported on the ‘race to the bottom’ of materials properties and costs; and discourages the use of ‘Value Engineering’ as it is practiced in the UK construction sector.
With the right guidance multi-functional multi-property materials can be included in projects that hold their own in ‘Value Engineering’ exercises
Authoritative information can also be biased due to the history of its development or its funding.
We are all surrounded by eager manufacturer or their advisory associations all-vying for our attention.
Many have their own single system with emphasis on single-issue or single-property that top-trumps, ignores or discounts many others; and their guidance will usually be against alternatives and towards that one system, rightly or wrongly.
Even in the presence of good information, there is often little joined-up bigger-picture thinking.
Story telling is a valuable selling skill, we all need to be able to tell the difference between fact, fiction or fantasy.
All of this is challenge at the best of times.

GBE Users Requests

Students regularly want all the answers without the learning.
Everybody wants all the answers all in one place.
Everybody wants more detail at their fingertips.

GBE Response to Users Challenges Requests

Green Building Encyclopaedia is striving to meet some of these requirements with the assistance of other developing satellite websites:

GBE Satellite Websites

Green Building Learning
Green Building Calculator
Green Building Encyclopaedia (this website)

GBL Green Building Learning

Just before COVID-19 plague occurred we set up a learning programme to deliver CPD webinars
Just when it was needed most one of our team was hit by COVID-19 and has become a COVID long hauler, so we mothballed GBL
As soon as our team is up to full strength we will reopen the programme

GBC Green Building Calculator

During the COVID-19 lockdown GBE developed one of its whole building calculators originally for students and made it professional-ready
It is a Design and Decision tool focussing on competent building fabric-first approach using form-factor, Regulation v Design standard to set U value targets, insulation material choices, fuel choices, to give in use energy and carbon, embodied energy, carbon and sequestered carbon data to enable well informed, whole life cost and whole life carbon decisions.
>29 development stages will follow, allowing many calculations all in one place, all at the same time, to enable well informed decision making.