New York City: Department of Building’s Energy – Efficiency Grading Program Launches

WOBO has received notification in respect of a reminder that the the city’s annual energy efficiency letter grade sign program, which was instituted by 2018’s Local Law 33, officially went into effect on October 1.  It is essential that members and fellow professionals note the...

Evacuation Experiment in a High-Rise Hotel Building with Evacuation Elevators: A Study of Evacuation Behaviour Using Eye-Tracking

WOBO Governor David Gibson has a focussed interest on the built environment and peoples behaviour.  This article was significant in terms of people, peoples actions and movement in the event of fire and the use of lifts for evacuation.  Positive reading… The paper accessed through...

Australian Building Certifiers: Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) without a ‘cladding exclusion’

WOBO Governor David Gibson was pleased to receive notice from the RICS and the provision of a new Professional Indemnity Insurance, without a cladding exclusion, for members and fellow professionals operating as Australian Building Certifiers.  This addresses the PII issues relating to aluminium composite panels...

Offshore wind to provide electricity to all UK homes by 2030

The UK government, as set out in “The Engineer” is committed to renewable energy as reflected in the Prime Ministers statement in respect of off-shore wind capacity. Offshore wind will produce enough electricity for every home in the country by 2030 with floating offshore wind...

UK: PAS 2038- Retrofit of Commercial Buildings

Energy is an integrated part of the built environment.  A significant emphasis has been placed on the existing built environment and the need to consider the retrofit of commercial buildings  PAS 2035 the domestic retrofit  specification was published by BSI, including direct from input from...

India: IGBC Green Logistics Parks and Warehouses Rating System

WOBO recognises that the IGBC Green Logistics Parks and Warehouses rating system addresses the three pillars of sustainability i.e. Social, Environmental and Economical; thereby, the logistics park and warehouse projects going green can have multi-fold tangible and intangible benefits.  The tangible benefits include reduction in...

Firefighting in Engineered Timber Buildings

The current focus on mass timber structures has provided significant interest in material performance.  Paul Grimwood provides a reminder of “some firefighting concerns” Engineered Timber CLT and GLULAM – Some Firefighting Concerns. The timber industry has been enjoying significant growth in the last decade, primarily...

Europe goes all-in on hydrogen for the transport economy

WOBO Governor David Gibson received a link from Robin that provided an interesting update highlighting research and development proposals that will reduce the embedded energy within the built environment in terms of the creation and delivery of products. Robin Whitlock Europe has a clear and...

UK 2050: Water innovation strategy launched

Water is key to survival.  Take a look at the UK Strategy, Innovations and Ambitions for 2050. The water sector’s vision is to create open collaboration opportunities across the water sector to drive transformational changes through innovation that delivers greater value for customers and the...

Singapore: Kajima’s Global Hub to accelerate digitalisation of Singapore’s built environment sector

Research and digitalisation are key to the future of our built environment.   The Kajima Global Hub. Photo: Kajima Corporation JTC Corporation (JTC) is the lead agency in Singapore to spearhead the planning, promotion and development of a dynamic industrial landscape. Since its inception in 1968,...

©2025 All Rights Reserved World Organization of Building Officials.

MENU