In 1987 a mobilizing call for action and a fundamental definition of sustainability
came out with the Bruntland Report. It was also called; Our Common Future:

Development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs.

Pre war buildings were made on the . . . exemplifies the state of
knowledge circulating in the early nineties, produced by the Fijdhorn
Foundation in 1993, their idea being to consider not only the larger
ecological and global impact but also concerns with human health.

Shortly before in 1992, from Rio . * . the world received the United Nations
Declaration on Environment and Development.
It holds 27 principles, the 1st. states:

Human beings are at the canter of concerns for sustainable development.
They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.

A comprehensive plan of action, Agenda 21 . * . was adopted.
In the UK a broad program to inform, debate, articulate, and impart further through education, was set to work, initially aimed at educators, government
officers, and practitioners in environmental industries, it proved effective to the point of government ministers going back to university and, return with
a new color in their political discourse. Awareness rose.

During the massive task of post war reconstruction . . . another UK study
presenting the same indoor issues, but giving a different balance of emphasis.
It was written in 1994 by Architect David Elliot.
Both studies are focused on the house unit.

In 1991, the US Environmental Protection Agency was clear about Sick Building Syndrome . * . , three years later addressed health practitioners . * .
, and by 1995 gave guidance on indoor air quality in apartment buildings . * .
fallow the link: What if you live in an apartment?.

From the earliest the Precautionary Principle . * . was and is high in the mind of
all involved.
A global effort to set a coordinated legal framework and Enviromental Agencies was and is underway:
European Environmental Agency key partners . * .
In the UK The Environment Act 1995 . * . was passed, and with it the establishment of the Environment Agency . * . ; note that in contrast
with the . * . US EPA ; indoor air quality is not a specific issue.

London embarked on the largest planning and construction program since the post war reconstruction. The Greater London Authority GLA was created in 1999, their website presently has a page for . * . Air Quality Issues and Policies. with a link to: Indoor air quality at home

Circle of blame . * . as described by The Building Research Establishment in 2000.

In 2003 the European Commission proposed a new EU regulatory framework for the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals REACH . * .
"will reverse the burden of proof so that industry, both producers and importers of substances, rather than the public authorities, will have to assume greater responsibility for providing the necessary information and taking effective risk management measures."
"It will introduce a new European Chemical Agency to be established in Helsinki, Finland, which will manage the registration of substances, through the setting up of a database. It will play an important role also in the evaluation and authorization of substances."
Adding to the good news in 2008 we have REACH & GHS . * .

In The Housing Act 2004 HA; Part 1 of the Act replaces the existing housing fitness standard contained in the Housing Act 1985 with HHSRS
Housing Health and Safety Rating System . * . Coming into force on April 6th 2006, it places the emphasis on the effects on occupiers rather than the building itself. It also adapts and extends the powers of enforcement currently available to LHAs Local Housing Authorities to tackle poor housing conditions. LHAs will, under the HHSR system, asses the rating of hazards in the building and use this to asses what action needs to be taken.

In the UK affluent home owners adopted the awareness brought in by Agenda 21 creating the initial demand for healthy substitutes to products on offer by the mass market.
To feel the scale of the catchment area in the mind of a marketing strategist.
I suggest take a flight with Google-earth to cities of all sizes, focus on the density, the grain; . . . all those rooms, billions of them.

More than 50% of the worlds population already lives in cities, keeps growing at a rate of 1/4 of a million people a day, and the prediction is that will stabilize by 2030 when it reaches 75% of an estimated total of under 10 billion people.

Governments have to balance concerns about the disfavourable impact of some areas of the economy, against the benefits to the Common National Interest.
Growing demand presently means: increased production, monetary growth, employment and stability.
Stimulating demand it follows; is beneficial to the CNI.
Progressively the legal, financial and institutional structures taking place will account capital as a composite made of: Natural + Social + Human + Technological Capital.
This plus Carbon as a dominant exchangeable commodity will set the course to sustainable human practices.
The risk of promoting potential health hazards will be valued differently.
This framework will increasingly allow governments to stimulate drivers of sustainability . * .

A magnet placed on one side of a piece of cardboard, will hold a paperclip on the otherside, magnetizing it while doing so. Magnetism jumps across the space between isolated metal structures. Playing on with the clip and the magnet you will notice acceleration in the attraction between them as they get closer, this indicates an exponentiall relation to distance. Now think of urban compaction, of every electrical appliance first adding to the EM field of the host building structure and then passing it to others in proximity; also think of harmonic resonance.
Knowledge about health hazards related to electromagnetic radiation depends on studying the effects of electrical equipment, their interaction with metal structures; and of how that affects chemistry and biology.
For the parties in charge of building products production everywhere in the world; a critical view on electricity or steel is almost delinquent. Authoritative opinion tells that buildings with metal structures had been electrified for a while, and historically the level of EMR related hazards, falls within the boundaries of acceptable risk; which differs from culture to culture.
London is in the implementation stage for the production of 450.000 dwellings to be in place before 2020..
Production of buildings as it is, will more likely be compelled to comprehensive revision by the carbon market calling the price of embodied energy, than by health matters.
The issue however, will not go . * . and stands as a true challenge for inventors, and industry.

Before going further, first we have to go back to 1971 when the Nixon Administration withdrew the legal foundations of the US Dollar convertibility to gold, and so, the Bretton Woods agreement initiated in 1944 was set to collapse, and it did in 1973.
It was the beginning of an era now adjusting or possibly ending, characterized by:
- expansion of the money supply, and;
- market forces free to adjust foreign exchange rates.
This still current, currency exchange system, was going to drive amongst other things; the ending of the cold war, the IT revolution, and Den Xiao Ping to proclaim "to get rich is glorious".
Financial gurus and super achieving chief executives emerged as stereotypical role models, exalted by the prospect of making real money, instrumentally fit to operate systems, finance, and contracts.
Yes; . the Culture of Management.

While all this was happening, in 1972 a study done at MIT for the Club of Rome was published . It came out as a book with some quotations, one amongst them:

Most persons think that a state in order to
be happy ought to be large; but even if they
are right, they have no idea of what is a
large and what a small state. . . . To the
size of states there is a limit, as there is to
other things, plants, animals, implements;
for none of these retain their natural power
when they are to large or too small, but
they either wholly lose their nature, or are
spoiled
Aristotle, 322 BC.

The members of the club understood that: Interdependence; between the economic, political, natural, and social components making the global system, needed study.
And so, computer modeling did the runs with all known factors and feed back variables. Transparent about methodology, the modelers rejected the overshot and collapse result trials, and searched for a model output representing a world system that is:
1st: Sustainable without sudden and uncontrollable collapse, and
2nd: Capable of satisfying the basic material requirements of all people.
The model would not bring about such behavior unless, Deliberate Constrain on Growth was in the input.
The report's name is: The Limits to Growth,.
For the beliefs and interests at play; it was Anathema; and; . . it took 16 years for Sustainability and the Precautionary Principle to be brought back to surface with the Bruntland Report.
By then the Culture of Management had its ways well established. . * .
Still, the debate has not been fully resolved as new science validates central claims a of the original message. . * .
3 decades since, from within . * . we see signs of revision .

There are 25 million dwellings in the UK.
London has a share of over 3 million of which 75% are pre 1970; 40% are tenant occupied and most of the stock is ailing from the consequences of successive renovations.

The effects of all the above are noticeable in W9:
-The Campaign Against Smoking is strongly going through its paces. Recycling is daily routine, and eating habits are improving.
-Just like on cigarette packs; furnishings and paint-decorating products begun to show labels informing about some of the hazardous substances in them.
- Enterprise is coming up with clean products at mass market
competitive prices. * . B&Q. and look!; ICI has its name on the list . * .
- On the internet: . * . * . * .
- On Metro . * . a local paper.
- On the radio: BBC4. 15 11 05: " The World Health Organization declared painting and decorating a hazardous occupation.
We know that 75% of all cancers are caused by mutations triggered by substances found in the environment.
30 thousand substances are being scrutinized by the EU. . Yes; REACH .
Until the appearance of DDT 75% of beds in the UK were infested with bugs;
the perception of chemical solutions still holds a kind local memory."

For individual houses, business premises and small buildings; the process of cleaning is likely to be more rapid, as owners, bosses, and boards of small organizations have the necessary proximity to their problems for planning and acting using clean, up to date methods and materials.
In the case of medium and large organizations things may unravel somewhat slower.
By the midd 90's a dialog on indoor health issues was possible with some housing professionals aware of Agenda 21; as they retired or moved up, the replacement found itself increasingly without a reference to the issues brought by it.
This is a strata whose practice and vision has been formed by habits of monetary management, and is in need of broadening and deepening its foundation
Long working hours, correctness, litigation, security, and increasingly questions seeking answers, first to themselves, and increasingly to the public; all motivate entrenchment; and really, there is no need for that.
Being members of the public themselves, they are aware of the stream of information, and of the questions arising:
- Why these substances are still being used ?
- Because contracts responding to economies of scale are still rolling, the agreed specifications and purchase orders, were signed at the time of commencement, consultations were made, and the appropriate package chosen with expert advise; to carry out ongoing maintenance and taking the necessary actions to ensure that the targets set by the Decent Homes Standard, are met.
- Ahhh; . . but we didn't know then what we know now. . Did you?.
- . . . . . . . the inner voice silently tells; our usual sources of authority are so far sparing with conclusive answers.
Consider The National Housing Federation, it represents 1,400 independent, not-for-profit housing associations in England and is the voice of affordable housing. Their members provide over 2 million homes for 4 million people. It has a London Branch, with a search facility; Try first the search words: - indoor air quality - volatile organic compounds - indoor health hazards . * .
Then use the search word: sustainability; . . what you'll find is intense preparatory research on pilot cases.
The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, also has a search facility on its site, try the same words . * . . . what you'll find indicates the scale and complexity of the on going work, most of it preparatory; and from it all, including the learning from a million units already delivered; The Decent Homes Standard evolves.
So; on April 06 the HHSRS comes into force, REACH in 2008, and DHS by 2010. Coordination and timing of a complex program are the make of a prime challenge involving us all, and it is realistic to think it will take a while to see it all working smoothly.
- . . . . and the question . . Did you? ; is a call for sincerity, and a check on ethical probity; . . trust and credibility inevitably will relate to the nature of the answers.-
At present most housing officers simply share the same level of awareness than everyone else, it is circumstantial and could be perceived as an impasse, but truly is a life time opportunity to open up revise assumptions, do away with abnegation, think strategies and work on plans based on face to face consensual agreements. Easier said than made, it is a process, the time to embark is due; distention, strength, social chesion and stability are the aim, learning, gradual cumulative learning is the way, mistakes will be made, that's part of it, a challenge offering deep professional satisfaction .
Without a higher authority than authority, fatally everything disintegrates; this time however, in place, proclaimed, delivered and official, we have a principle ranking on level of importance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Yes; Sustainability . * . * . * . ; its understanding, and adoption, are of essence for organizations not lapsing into rigidity and anachronism.
Housing organizations are a classic example of structures subject to limits of growth, they are first ground for local democracy and community, the bigger they are the less true is the face to face exchange. The creation of Arms Length Management Organizations and Tenant Management Organizations, express the governments sensitivity on the matter. My thought on this; restraines their size to the number of members that can be addressed at a general meeting in a hall without power amplification.

The intonation in the political exchanges audible in Westminster. places the accent on diluting polarities, aiming towards a pragmatism of change.
Graduality is in the intent, first at home and then as an international priority, see the date for: Chemicals . * .

Organizations will owe their success to the ability to learn at a rate equal or greater than the rate of change in their context. Compulsion is counterproductive, would take away the enjoyment of cleaning up for a vital city and for our common future.

JS: 14. Feb. 06.
Revised: May.08.

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