Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSAs) in Europe

Posted on: 25 October 2013
By: mackene
No Comments »
Filed under: News

Tourism plays an important role in many countries’ economies and labour markets. Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA) is a framework developed to quantify the importance of tourism. This publication disseminates national results for a set of key TSA indicators for EU, EFTA and candidate countries who have compiled TSA for recent reference years and is a follow-up of the publication “Tourism Satellite Accounts in Europe” of 2010.

Read more online

Successful development of the Thame neighbourhood plan: a case study

Posted on: 25 October 2013
By: mackene
No Comments »
Filed under: News

Thame was one of the first communities to get a neighbourhood plan in place.  As a front runner, the South Oxfordshire District Council and Thame Town Council have pioneered the process of developing neighbourhood plans. Their experience with the process and with working together provides invaluable advice to help other councils to work effectively on translating community aspirations into plans for the future.

Read more online

England biodiversity indicators

Posted on: 25 October 2013
By: mackene
No Comments »
Filed under: News

Defra has published a detailed statistical update of 24 indicators that give an overview of biodiversity in England. The publication measures progress in the delivery of goals and objectives outlined in Biodiversity 2020 published by the government in 2011. The detailed assessments for each species and habitat, including all grassland priority habitats and the ‘old’ priority bees, are published online.

Read more online

Planning out poverty: A reinvention of social town planning

Posted on: 24 October 2013
By: mackene
No Comments »
Filed under: News

The Town & Country Planning Association has published a report which highlights strong evidence that planning could play a much more positive role by fully integrating, within both local and national public policy, with sectors such as regeneration and health and by reconnecting with issues that matter to local people.

Read more online

The changing face of smart buildings: The Op-Ex advantage

Posted on: 24 October 2013
By: mackene
No Comments »
Filed under: News

Jones Lang LaSalle has published a report which explains how today’s building technology investment decisions are delivering return on investment (ROI) while shaping the way humans, machines and buildings will interact in the decades to come. Building owners, operators and investors are under pressure to manage costs, risks and energy consumption and are looking at smart building technologies to help their company’s triple bottom line (people, planet, profits).

Read more online

Theorising governance and innovation in sustainable energy transitions

Posted on: 24 October 2013
By: mackene
No Comments »
Filed under: News

Understanding why and how it is that some countries are able to implement policies which lead to deeper and faster change in sustainable practices and outcomes is an important step in enabling an acceleration in the transition to a sustainable energy future. This paper presents a tentative, provisional framework for analysing energy system transition, differential outcomes and the reasons for them. It suggests that energy system rules (in enabling or blocking change) and incentives (in making change economic or not) play an important role in shaping change. A key insight is a need to understand ‘how and why’ policies are implemented, of ‘how and why’ changes in practices and outcomes are driven, and the links between the two. A provisional Theory of Managed Energy Transition is put forward that seeks to: firstly identify the linkages of politics, actors and agency to the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of energy policy implementation and delivery; and secondly, relate these to changes in practice and outcomes.

Read more online

HS2 Growth Taskforce: The challenge

Posted on: 24 October 2013
By: mackene
No Comments »
Filed under: News

Set up by the Secretary of State for Transport in June 2013, the HS2 Growth Taskforce’s initial report sets out the key areas on which its final report will focus. It will provide recommendations to Government early next year.

Read more online

City transformations

Posted on: 24 October 2013
By: mackene
No Comments »
Filed under: News

Urban Age, an international investigation of cities jointly organised by the London School of Economics and Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society, has chosen to hold its twelfth conference on 24-25 October 2013 in Rio, a Brazilian city that is both investing and reflecting on the long-term impacts of  intense urban change. Over 70 speakers from 40 cities and 20 countries will be joining local urban experts, policymakers, investors, NGOs and academics to discuss these issues, with a view to improving our understanding of how to design, manage and live in more equitable urban environments. LSE Cities has published a newspaper to coincide with this event.

Read more online

Offsite construction key to major UK Passivhaus refit

Posted on: 24 October 2013
By: mackene
No Comments »
Filed under: News

The use of prefabricated elements is helping to minimise disruption to residents and control costs on one of the UK’s largest Passivhaus retrofits. The Parkview Hub development, on London’s Thamesmead estate, is being refurbished by Gallions Housing Association to the Passivhaus Institute-certified EnerPHit standard.

Read more online

Improving collaborative construction contracts

Posted on: 24 October 2013
By: mackene
No Comments »
Filed under: News

Encouraging and improving collaborative working in the UK construction industry has been a recurring theme for some years. While the benefit of collaboration is now widely acknowledged in the industry, few projects are actually adopting collaborative working methods. This article considers how best to improve collaboration in the UK construction industry.

Read more online