(1)    Renewable energy systems (e.g., solar, wind and biomass)

(2)    Power generation technologies (e.g., CHP systems, fuel cells and anaerobic digestion plants)

(3)    Energy efficiency (e.g., heat pumps and hybrid solar/gas systems)

(4)    Low carbon buildings and future cities (e.g., low/zero carbon buildings, sustainable cities)

(5)    Water treatment and desalination (e.g., solar water desalination)

(6)    Sustainable materials (e.g., innovative composite materials and aerogels)

(7)    Waste management and water recycling (e.g., households and construction waste management)

(8)    Agri-food technologies (e.g., innovative greenhouses and food drying)

In no more than 100 words, please summarise the environmental technology, innovations and process, where applicable.

Green Building Calculator aims to provide non-BIM equipped small design practices with the ability to evaluate their design’s environmental impact and cost of constructing and occupying a building.

Fuel carbon factors and costs will provide carbon and pay back periods

Enabling these designers to become carbon literate and with practice, be able to intuitively identify low carbon materials and methods of construction and avoid others.

GBC collects product data from manufacturers determining the primary function, proposed application and product performances

GBC will use this information to actively encourage competent application and avoid incorrect application.

In no more than 250 words, please outline what stage your technology and innovations have reached. Please set out clearly all empirical evidence of the innovation, third party verification and the stage that the roll-out has reached.

Green Building Calculator Version 1 (GBCV1) was launched June 2020 as a milestone in 29 planned Versions.

Version 2 needed to follow quickly and include:

·       Embodied Energy to Sequestered Carbon

·       Life Cycle Analysis

·       To support growing urgency and desire to respond to the climate emergency.

GBC is based upon 45 years of experience in construction, once we have V2 sales projections, the priority is to seek independent 3^rd party verification of Excel interpretation of equations, use of data and calculations in LCA and more.

Prior to GBC V1 we used V0 components:

·       Supported an ex student in a Timber design competition with performance and impact data.

·       All my part-time students took V0 calculators to their offices and used them in live projects,

·       One of them confirmed he still uses them today 6 years later.

GBC V2 is MS Excel based multi-functional whole building calculator to check the competency of a proposed building design;

·       Initially aimed at residential and commercial new-build (V1)

·       Refurbishment (V2);

·       multi-storey, terraced, detached (V2).

GBC includes:

·       winter thermal heat loss,

·       summer solar heat gain & condensation (V3?);

·       bill of quantities for cost planning, cost control and tendering;

·       environmental impacts; energy, carbon dioxide and life cycle analysis.

Planned versions include:

·       892 readymade elemental assemblies

·       Manufacturer’s accredited assemblies

·       non-domestic buildings, furniture, services, landscape, infrastructure

·       waste reduction by design

·       reuse of reclaimed materials

·       Reduced plastics, recycled content

·       New build and facilities management specification generators

·       Renewable energy services design

·       Lighting and Lighting Nutrition

·       Biodiversity Net gain

·       Airtightness heat losses

In no more than 500 words, please describe the environmental technology and innovation in sufficient detail for the context and capabilities to be understood and evaluated.

GBC V2 requires the use to assemble a building:

·       Using numbers, quantities, dimensions, shapes and form

o   other factors: temperatures, duration of use;

·       GBC calculates areas and volumes

·       GBC calculates Form factor using occupied volumes and enclosing envelop areas

·       Form Factor guides the user towards target heat loss resistances (U Values)

·       User chooses between regulation, design standards or campaign to meet those targets

·       GBC displays thicknesses of different insulation materials to meet those targets

·       User chooses which elements are included in their project

·       GBC asks for additional dimensions to calculate areas and volumes of materials in building elements

·       User is required to assemble elements of the building and their components using ready made templates to choose from,

·       User selects materials and products and their thicknesses from drop down lists

·       Selected materials and product interrogate product data look up tables to populate cells of the calculator:

o   Conductivity and thicknesses

o   Moisture permeability for condensation check

o   Density and Specific Heat capacity for overheating check

o   Cost data for Materials, Products, Accessories, Labour

o   Embodied Energy, Embodied Carbon, Sequestered carbon (EE EC SC)

o   Life Cycle Assessment data

·       GBC carries out individual conductivity and elemental U value calculations

·       GBC checks calculated against targets and warns of shortfalls

·       User can ten make adjustments

·       GBC will carryout Static condensation check to warn of risks inviting review

·       GBC will carryout an overheating check and warn of risks inviting review

·       User is invited to add any additional prices for example services systems

·       GBC totals up prices per components, elements and whole building

·       GBC totals up EE EC SC impacts per components, elements and whole building and compare them with targets

·       User can adjust material choices to lower carbon impacts to meet targets

·       GBC totals up LCA per components, elements and whole building

·       GBC displays elemental groups and their % of performance and environmental impacts

·       Users can see % of performance and understand where better performance is needed

·       GBC displays summary sheets of all of the targets and calculated values highlighting passes and fails

·       Users makes fuel choices from drop down lists

·       GBC uses chosen fuel and look up tables to interrogate datasets and add fuel carbon factors and fuel costs

·       GBC calculates In use costs, in use energy, in use carbon

·       Users can consider alternative fuels and see instantaneous comparisons

·       GBC calculates, Embodied Energy, Embodied Carbon, Sequestered carbon

·       GBC calculates Pay back period and carbon back period for any changes in specification

·       Once all cells are populated any change can be made and all calculations update instantaneously: size, numbers, materials, products, temperatures, house of use, properties, thicknesses, fuel, etc.

·       Armed with these sets of information the real meaning of value engineering can be exercised, considering the bigger picture and ramifications of any decision, in place of the ‘cost-cutting without visible consequences’ that normally goes on.

·       As more versions of GBE are launched more calculators will work simultaneously and allow more detailed interrogation of the building’s performance shortfalls and environmental impacts.

Please set out, in no more than 250 words, the unique innovative aspects or the technological advances that are the key elements.

In recent years numerous LCA calculators have appeared in the market, some too costly and complicated for small practices to afford or use.

In recent months numerous Carbon calculators have appeared in the market, developed by institutions for their member, some dedicated to specific profession’s needs; needing many to calculate whole project impacts and effort to aggregate the impacts.

Using a structures-only calculator requires much effort to add building fabric in a comprehensive way

GBC is primarily a design and decision tool to assist designers to help make very well informed decisions during design, specification, post tender evaluations, substitution management processes, not allowing cost cutting to create or widen the building fabric performance gap.

Small practices need something:

·       cheap to buy and update,

·       made using familiar already owned software,

·       easy to learn and use

·       multi-functional to make the time invested to populate it worth while,

·       with lots of readymade parts as aid memoir to speed the assembly process.

GBE makes environmental impact analysis of whole buildings doable for small practises without BIM and a plethora of Apps

GBE brings materials, products, properties, performance, impacts and cost datasets together with many issue equations and calculators into one place to provide component, element and whole building analysis with instant update of any choices made.

Please tell us what advantages and benefits the innovation will provide. This is the key part of the form to promote your innovation.

Quantity surveyors have dominated the construction process with their preoccupation to reduce the costs against a violet cost plan based on violet price books, violet materials, violet product, violet rates, violet tenderers, violet constructors with their violet supply chain.

When a Green minded client comes along they start out with great ambition to invest well, setting the brief and driving the specification.

But due to the violet cost plan never reflecting the green client ambitions and specification the QS automatically starts the ‘race to the bottom’, holding cost cutting meetings titled ‘value engineering’ when they are anything but.

Violet tenderers unfamiliar with Green materials and construction methods add a green safety margin, inflating the green product prices and well above the violet cost plan.

Violet tendered will anticipate substituting green with violet materials available from their violet supply chain then make endless spurious claims for extras or delays if they cannot substitute.

If we are:

·       To overcome Zero Carbon Hub’s identified ‘Performance Gap’ we need our buildings to be Built2Spec;

·       To meet carbon targets we need to use Grown2Build timber and bio-based materials

Substitution and surreptitious substitution needs to be driven out of the industry, the race to the bottom needs to be stopped.

GBE allow users to instantaneously see the long term ramifications of an initial cost saving and give the client the choice to make a very well informed decision about initial and long term costs and the greenness of their investment.

Please set out the ownership structure of the intellectual property rights and where the original IP /patent resides or originated with someone else.

All IPR for the current version lays with Brian Murphy aka BrianSpecMan

Early versions of calculators (V0) were by Brian created using public domain Energy and carbon datasets, these were adopted and adapted whilst an hourly paid lecturer at LSBU to create whole building calculators.

LSBU may discover what they have in their archives and claim an IPR, but by not providing me with an opportunity to op out or counter claim, ‘sign up or you do not work with them’ one could argue under duress.

LSBU claimed a right to something they do not understand and would not know what to do with it.

Brian was paid for the hours of lecture creation and delivery; not paid for the hours setting and marking homework and not paid for the hours creating the Whole Building Calculators.

LSBU has 5 year old versions of 2 such calculators, they do not have anybody capable of understanding them, presenting them or having the students use them.

Brian has continued to develop the two whole building calculators over 400 hours to merge two calculator into Green Building Calculator V1 and add a further 1200 hours and significantly more functionality, user interface, datasets, equations, drop down lists and Look up tables and summary sheets in GBC Versions 1 & 2

Most if not all of the original calculation formulas have been updated with more levels of sophistication and accuracy.

Please add any supporting information or enclose preferably as an attachment/diagrams (no more than 5 MB) to the entry form, any documentation to support your entry.

I declare that all information confined in this application is correct and honestly presented. I agree to abide by the rules of the awards, including the understanding that the judges’ decision is final and that no correspondence will be entered into regarding their decision. By entering the awards, I agree to take part in publicity and promotion of the event and undertake to secure similar permission from any other partners involved in the entry.

Please provide precise details if applicable. Your details will be held in strict confidentiality.

After GBC Version 2 is launched GBC will seek independent 3^rd party confirmation with LCA good practices and compliance with regulations.

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