Sustainable Construction and Planning in London

1
Sustainable Construction and Planning in London

• Yvonne Rydin, LSE
• 17th May 2005
• Y.Rydin_at_lse.ac.uk

2
The SusCon Project

• HEFCE Innovation Fund
• Academe-practice links
• SusCon project runs to August 2006
• Best practice on sustainable construction and
  London planning departments
• Ecological Footprint methodology, baselines and
  sustainable construction strategies

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The SusCon issue

• RICS research suggested that 60 planners and
  surveyors aware of SD but felt they had limited
  knowledge, particularly practical and relevant
  knowledge
• Another RICS report cited lack of relevant
  information as the most important barrier to SD

4
SusCon Best Practice 1

• There is a lot of it about
• A trawl of websites found 141 sites on
  sustainable construction, most including advice,
  guidance and best practice
• London Sustainable Construction Projects scoping
  study found 207 initiatives that could contribute
  to a Code of Practice

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SusCon Best Practice

• It coves a huge range of issues
• Land use e.g. density
• Building materials e.g. embodied energy
  sustainable sources
• Building design e.g. passive solar design
  renewable energy flooding adaptation
• Construction process e.g. water efficiency
  habitat protection

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Project Aim

• To investigate how planners were drawing on
  available knowledge, particularly best practice
  knowledge in everyday planning practice
• Theoretical reconceptualisation of BP
• Empirical survey of planners

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The Concept of BP

• A form of knowledge resource held or used by the
  planner
• Framed as what planners need to know
• A new knowledge input to planning
• Arises in specific contexts and then moved to
  different contexts

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Reframing BP 1

• Knowledge is a constructed category
• Constituted as a set of claims
• Requires recognition as knowledge within specific
  institutional contexts
• Draw on Jasanoffs idea of co-construction of
  policy and knowledge
• What counts as knowledge evolves alongside policy
  itself

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Reframing BP 2

• BP is translated and recontextualised to fit the
  specific local case
• BP can be seen as a locally recognised mix of
  local and generalised knowledges
• recognised as knowledge
• recognised as policy relevant

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Knowledge Management Literature

• Availability as an active process involving
  filtering, searching, translating, forgetting and
  serendipity
• Influence of organisational structure and culture
• Resources and incentives for learning
  relationship to power and legitimacy in
  organisations and processes

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Knowledge Management Literature

• The role of individuals
• bureaucratic behaviour and values
• knowledge brokers/champions
• relationship to politicians
• Links to networks beyond the organisation

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The Survey

• On-line survey of London planners March-April
  2005
• 56 response rate (81 respondents)
• 9 follow-up interviews

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The Respondents

• 54 male, 46 female
• 47 18-30 yrs, 38 31-50 yrs, 15 50 yrs
• 54 work in development control
• 21 worked in their LA for less than 1 year
• 97 educated to undergraduate degree or higher,
  of which 82 obtained in the UK
• 30 without professional membership
• 25 belong to RTPI, 1 RIBA, 0 RICS

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Planners feelings towards work

• Majority feel valued in work (61 agree or
  strongly agree) that is of medium-high
  responsibility (89)
• 64 agreed or strongly agreed that they had
  autonomy at work
• but
• 32 expect to leave their position within 1 year,
  62 within 5 years
• Fits ALBPO study on retention/recruitment

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When asked in general terms

• The LPA effectively researches (69) and uses new
  knowledge (79)
• It builds on current planning knowledge (63) and
  uses past learning (60)
• It holds learning sessions and has a training
  budget
• 67 agreed they had opportunities to learn
• 94 said they shared knowledge and information
  with colleagues

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More qualified answers.

• Less than half (44) agreed that their job makes
  the best use of the knowledge they have
• 42 thought there were incentives to learn but
  25 said there were not

17
When asked about SusCon knowledge

• Only 5 felt very knowledgeable 19 felt not at
  all knowledgeable
• 27 felt not at all able to advise applicants
• 35 did not know if they had access to SusCon
  experts (inside or outside the LA)
• 58 never or rarely discuss SusCon with others
  inside the LA 65 with others outside the LA

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Of the 50 with access to SusCon BP

• 55 often using SusCon best practice, whenever
  possible
• 37 only using it when obliged to
• 75 thought this information fitted well with
  their daily job

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What is the problem?

• Planners feel pressured
• 70 agreed that they were pressured by time
  targets
• Development control officers especially do not
  have the time to self-teach
• While 43 agreed that they did have time for
  reflection on their work, 37 disagreed

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What is the problem?

• There are issues of access to knowledge
• Not clear that LAs are ensuring only relevant
  knowledge reaches planners (27 agree 26
  disagree 40 neutral)
• Not necessarily up-to-date (21 below average
  28 above only 9 very up to date)
• 36 did not know if they had access to SusCon
  best practice

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What is the problem?

• Majority of planners research sustainable
  construction best practice independently
• Google searches
• RTPI, DEFRA, BRE sites
• Planners complain that too much information is
  not user-friendly
• Too technical
• Documents too long
• Documents too generalised

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What is the problem?

• Limited external consultation
• departmental pride
• competition with other local governments
• lack of time
• generalised nature of advice given
• Those that do consult externally use
• RTPI CPD seminar sessions
• GLA (where major schemes referred on)
• External consultants hired by developers

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What is the problem?

• The highly departmentalised context
• 64 operate in very departmentalised LAs
• These are all somewhat (62) or very (38)
  hierarchical
• 70 had been recently reorganised
• Few planners regularly consult with other
  departments located outside planning

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What is the problem?

• The routine nature of planners work
• 62 agreed their work was rule bound
• 43 said it was sometime routine another 25
  said it was often or always routine
• Some local authorities have sustainability
  officers who research and consult this may limit
  learning for others

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Back to the literature review

• The Knowledge Management literature review
  emphasised that this organisational structure and
  pattern of working would inhibit learning
• Most organisations seem to fall into the
  resistant or compliant categories with regard to
  knowledge management as opposed to responsive or
  auto-didact categories

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The political and policy context

• Unless made a statutory requirement, sustainable
  construction best practice will have little
  influence in the development control process,
  because
• It will not hold up in public hearings if used to
  reject an application
• Regeneration may be pursued at any cost anyway

27
The London Context

• Local plans may be prioritised over London Plan
  (where SusCon is emphasised)
• SPGs are too many, too thick, too tedious to
  review, and too confusing (e.g. The GLA SusCon
  SPG)

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Wanted!

• Need a common language that is simple to
  understand, user-friendly, explanatory and to the
  point about sustainable construction best
  practice measures
• Planners predominantly suggested a simple,
  quick-to-reference sustainability checklist that
  would be available for each local authority to use

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Sustainability Checklist

• GLA commissioned WWF and BRE to prepare such a
  checklist
• Draft in Summer 2005
• GOL published a checklist emphasising adaptation
  to climate change (February 2005)
• To be integrated

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Next Stage

• Action research with GLA and LDA on implementing
  the checklist
• Complement with work on how BP travels vertically
  through EU, national, regional and local levels
• 2 research officer posts available deadline end
  of May!
• www.lse.ac.uk/collections/geographyAndEnvironment