The GreenBuilding Endorser Programme

The GreenBuilding Endorser Programme has been established to help the European Commission and the GreenBuilding National Contact Points to promote GreenBuilding to potential participants and to support already registered GreenBuilding participants in their efforts to reduce the energy consumption in their non-residential buildings. The GreenBuilding Endorser Programme is open to almost all interested parties from the building sector.

In particular, registrations are welcome from:

• Equipment manufacturers,
• Building contractors,
• Energy management and system design companies,
• Electric utilities and energy service companies,
• Energy equipment importers, distributors and vendors,
• National professional and trade associations.

To become a GreenBuilding Endorser, an organisation must have assisted at least one building owner in becoming a GreenBuilding Partner. Furthermore, it is expected that a GreenBuilding Endorser will undertake specific actions to support GreenBuilding, according to the requirements below. In return, the Endorser will get public acknowledgement for their efforts.

Though not entailing legally binding obligations, joining the Endorser Programme requires a commitment to the objectives of GreenBuilding. Joining proceeds through a registration whereby the company in question commits itself to fulfil the GreenBuilding Endorser Programme requirements. Endorsers may use the GreenBuilding logo, and their relevant activities and products may be included in the promotional and technical support material.

The list of GreenBuilding Programme Endorsers, including a description of their specific contribution to the GreenBuilding Programme, will be published widely (brochure, Internet etc.).

Organisations, that are interested in becoming a GreenBuilding Endorsers are also advised to consult the Endorser Guideline and the "Highlight GB Endorser".



Becoming a GreenBuilding Endorser

• Each Endorser shall appoint a person responsible for communications with the European Commission and the GreenBuilding National Contact Points.

• Each Endorser shall promote the GreenBuilding Programme and its goals. In particular each Endorser shall help the European Commission and the GreenBuilding National Contact Points to promote the GreenBuilding Programme and strategies for enhancing the energy efficiency in non-residential buildings to potential programme participants.

• Each Endorser shall lay out a specific plan of how to promote the GreenBuilding Programme and send it to the European Commission and the GreenBuilding National Contact Points within three months after receiving the acceptance letter, together with a short description of the company.

• Each Endorser shall have assisted at least one building owner in becoming a GreenBuilding Partner.

• Each Endorser shall provide the European Commission and the GreenBuilding National Contact Points with up-to-date non-confidential and commercially available information on its products, technologies and services relevant for the GreenBuilding Programme.

• Each Endorser shall educate its clients on the benefit of energy savings and of the GreenBuilding Programme.

• Endorsers can withdraw from the Programme at any time without penalty.




QUESTION

1) Who can become the Endorser
2) What are the minimum requirements to become Green Building Endorser
3) Do you think that green building procedures are common in Poland?

GREENBUILDING


The goal of substantially improving end-use energy efficiency and promoting the use of renewable energy sources is a key
component of the EU energy and environmental policies, The European Commission Directorate General Energy and
Transport contributes to this goal through a series of actions under the "Intelligent Energy - Europe" Programme. In addition,
given the large share of energy consumption in buildings and the large cost effective energy saving potential, special
attention has been dedicated to the building sector. The GreenBuilding Programme is one of these actions, aimed
specifically at private and public non-residential buildings.
The GreenBuilding Programme is a European Commission voluntary programme through which non-residential building
owners and occupiers, being private or public organisations, are aided in improving the energy efficiency and to introduce
renewable energy sources into their building stock. Any enterprise, company or organisation (hereinafter defined as
“organisation”) planning to contribute to the GreenBuilding Programme objectives can participate.
Organisations, which occupy on long term lease or own non-residential buildings, can acquire "Partner" status. Through the
GreenBuilding, Partners will receive:
• aid in defining and carrying out an Action Plan, to reduce energy related operating expenses, while maintaining or
improving the building comfort level, indoor air quality and the related services;
• public recognition for their contribution to achieving the objectives of the European Union's energy policy
By reducing energy use, companies contribute to:
· minimising environmental impact, and in particular reducing CO2 emissions;
· improving the competitiveness of European economy;
· reducing dependence on imported energy sources, thus improving the security of European energy
supplies.
An organisation wishing to join the GreenBuilding programme and to acquire GreenBuilding Partner status will proceed by
the following 4 step process.
1) Energy Audit of the organisation's building, which are selected to participate in the GreenBuilding programme
2) Formulation of an Action Plan, defining the scope and nature of the organisation's commitment.
3) Approval of the Action Plan by the Commission in consultation with the National Contact Point; Commission grants Partner
status to Organisation.
4) Execution of the Action Plan, report to the Commission and to the relevant National Contact Point.
A partner could also be a company with only new buildings or buildings already (and recently) refurbished.
The organisation's engineering and/or maintenance staff may be qualified to carry out the four steps of the GreenBuilding.
1) Energy Audit of Building(s).
The GreenBuilding Programme and the National Contact Points (will propose specific materials to aid the organisation in:
• establishing the energy use and the current state (hours of operation, climatic data, etc.) of the organisation's
building(s);
• evaluating the potential energy savings of building systems and equipment enhancements and replacement,
including the introduction of renewable energy sources.
The building audit is a mandatory step to start the GreenBuilding Programme participation. The building audit should identify
the major energy efficiency/savings opportunities, should prioritise them with regards to their cost-effectiveness and should
also indicate interactions between possible measures undertaken in different part of the buildings between insulation and
boiler sizing). If the organisation decides, following the whole building audit, to upgrade only a specific subsystem (i.e.
lighting, HVAC, etc.), then it is strongly encouraged to make a more detailed audit for the chosen subsystem to identify the
most important and cost-effective efficiency opportunities, as well possible interactions between different measures and/or
subsystems.
2) Formulation of an Action Plan to achieve energy savings On the basis of information collected in step 1, the organisation
decides on an Action Plan laying out the energy saving measures that correspond to the enterprise's criteria for profitable
investments. This plan must define the building or site at which energy efficiency and renewable energy actions will be
undertaken. The commitment has to apply to the building’s total energy consumption (electricity, WW and heating). The
organisation will identify, within the chosen building, the types of end-use equipment, systems, and/or services it chooses to
upgrade. The scope should in principle include the systems responsible for the major part of the energy consumption.
Partners are supposed to select more than one module.
Technical Modules):
• Building shell (insulation, windows, etc.);
• Lighting;
• Office equipment;
• Electric appliances (commercial refrigeration, washing, cooking, lifts etc.);
• Distribution transformers and UPS;
• Ventilation;
• Air-conditioning and passive cooling;
• Heating and water heating;
• Solar hot water and heating;
• Co and tri-generation;
• Energy management (mandatory module)
Organisations wishing to become GreenBuilding Partners will receive aid, advice and technical assistance from the
Commission and from participating National Contact Points in formulating and carrying out a building energy saving and
renewable "Action Plan". The GreenBuilding Programme focuses on non-residential buildings, for which it has been
demonstrated that large technical and economic potential for energy savings exist. By carrying out the Action Plan,
organisations will be able to:
• maintain or improve comfort levels, indoor quality and the quality of the service of the systems concerned;
• realise technically and economically feasible energy savings. The plan must satisfy the criterion of economic
efficiency, so that the allocation of scarce financial and human resources is justified from the viewpoint of the
organisations.
Furthermore, Partners will receive public recognition for their efforts, through theProgramme's promotion campaign, aimed at
raising public awareness of energy issues.
• Partners may use the GreenBuilding Programme logo. Partners may post signs, artwork of which is provided by the
European Commission, publicising their energy saving actions and the contribution they are making to the environment.
• The list of GreenBuilding Partners, including a description of their specific contribution to the Programme will be published
widely (brochure, Internet, etc.). The Commission will send the list of Partners to the national GreenBuilding representative
(see paragraph 4 below) and to the Member State representatives in the IEE Programme Committee.
• Partners will be invited to provide documentation of showcase buildings/systems that the European Commission can
publicise, providing details on baseline energy use, what was done, and the resulting energy use after the upgrade. The
European Commission will provide estimates of pollution prevented.
• The organisation's relevant activities may be included in GreenBuilding promotional activities, such as Awards and the
Catalogue.
• GreenBuilding Programme Awards will be made to outstanding GreenBuilding Partnerships in several categories.

Questions.

1) What company received green building certificate recently. A little help (building is located in Warsaw)
2) What are other energy saving certificates you can get.
3) Is it possible that already existing building can get a green building certificate? If yes what are rules.
4) How much energy you must save to become green building partner.

CASINO ROULETTE

Hello everybody,

Today I would like to present you the famous game Roulette. This Casino game was first played in France in around the 17th century. Nowadays it is one of the most popular European but not only gambling game. The city Monte Carlo in Monaco is a well known and famous casino centre for playing roulette.

Basics
Usually there are up to eight players and they play against the House represented by the croupier sometimes House is called the dealer, who spins the roulette wheel and is responsible for the wagers and payouts. In the European roulette and French roulette version, the wheel has 37 slots representing 36 numbers and one zero but in the USA most roulette wheels have two zeros and therefore 38 slots.

Each player buys-in a different coloured chips so their bets don't get mixed up. At the end of play, if you won, you exchange back the colorued chips with cash chips. Each cash chip has its own amount printed on it.Those cash chips can be exchanged for real cash when you are leaving the Casino

To play roulette, you place your bet on numbers in the table layout or on the outside, and when everybody at the table had a chance to place their bets, the croupier starts the spin and launches the ball. Just a few moments before the ball is about to drop over the slots, the croupier says 'no more bets'. From that moment no one is allowed to place - or change - their bets. The winners are those bets that are on or around the number that comes up. Also the bets on the outside of the layout win if the winning number is represented.
Short video showing basic rules:



The payouts
A bet on one number only, called a straight-up bet, pays 35 to 1. (You collect 36. With no House advantage you should collect 37 (38 in the USA on double zero roulette wheels).

A two-number bet, called split bet, pays 17 to 1.
A three-number bet, called street bet, pays 11 to 1.
A four-number bet, called corner bet, pays 8 to 1.
A six-number bet, pays 5 to 1.
A bet on the outside dozen or column, pays 2 to 1.
A bet on the outside even money bets, pays 1 to 1.

Object of the game
To win at roulette the player needs to predict where the ball will land after each spin. This is by no means easy. In fact, luck plays an important part in this game. Some players go with the winning numbers calling them 'hot' numbers and therefore likely to come up more times. Others see which numbers did not come up for some time and bet on them believing that their turn is now due. Some players bet on many numbers to increase their chances of winning at every spin, but this way the payout is considerably reduced.

QUESTIONS!
1) Have you ever player Roulette?
2) Do you think that playing with friends the Roulette with small money is risky?

Tallest Buildings Part 2/3

Petronas Towers (452 meters)

With about 88 4-meter above the ground floors and 4 underground floors, the Petronas Towers is the tallest building in category highest to architectural top of the building.
Both towers have 76 elevators, 29 two-level elevators and 10 escalators are to transport people. The two towers at a height of 41 and 42 floors, which is at an altitude of 170 meters are connected by an external bridge 58,5 meters long.
7000 people worked in the construction of towers. 160 000 m³ of concrete, 77 000 m³ stainless steel were use to build the towers.

Sears Tower (443 meters)

2400 people worked in the construction of Sears Tower.

Sears Tower is a 443 meter high skyscraper and contains 110 floors. It has two television aerials 84 meters high each.

76,000 tons of steel were used to construct the skyscraper, this is sufficient to produce 52 000 vehicles. Installed telephone cables are about 80 000 kilometers long.

Building has 104 lifts and 18 escalators. Sears Tower is covered in black colored aluminum and has more than 16 100 windows. 1.5 million tourists visit the Sears Tower every year. At a height of 103 floor there is a observation deck.

Question:
Find some more buildings where Spiderman climbed on.

Tallest Buildings Part 1/3

Burj Dubai Burj Dubai has been called the tallest on the world before the end of the construction. It surpassed such constructions as the Petronas Towers (452 meters), the Sears Towers (442 meters), and the Taipei 101 (509 meters).

Burj Dubai is the highest ever man made structure (the previous record belonged to the Radio mast in Konstantynów) thus it has in the four main categories recognized by “The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat” (CTBUH), which juxtapose and categorizes the highest buildings. The main categories recognized by CTBUH are:

1. Height to architectural top of the building
2. To highest occupied floor
3. To tip of spire
4. to top of the roof

Taipei

The entire structure contains 101 floors above ground and 5 floors underground. At 89 floor there is the internal observation room, the outdoor observation deck is located at 91 floor.

In 2004 its external observation deck was the second highest in the world, it was surpassed only by the Shanghai World Financial Center.

In 2004 the Taipei 101 owned 3 of the 4 titles of tallest buildings in the world:

1. building with the highest structural point,
2. to the of the roof
3. the highest occupied floor.

Question to discuss:

Do you know any more tall buildings around the Word?

The King Part 3/3

Another interesting adventure in Presley life was becoming an actor. That is third and final part of my presentation. As it's impossible to pack a whole history into thre posts, if you still feel courious about Elvis (especially from late 60's and 70's) you can visit Wikipedia at http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley.



Presley first movie was "The Reno Brothers". Exclusively for this motion picture he recorder song "Love Me Tender". During the promotion of movie he performed it on very popular Ed Sullivan TV show. What's funny - cameramen were ordered to film Elvis from belt to heads in order not to scandalize audience with his pelvis dance. During that night show was watched by 54 million of Americans. Massive number of record orders pushed film company to change movie name to Love Me Tender. After noticing Presley potential and Love Me Tender success we got 7 year contract. He starred in typical romance movies that were full of colors, beautiful girls and such weak songs that even Elvis recorded them with disgust. Still he loved cinematography since youth when his favourite movie was City Across The River (1949) with Tony Curtis.



What's interesting Elvis first casting wasn't that successfull. Actually he was aware of not having an acting talent but Colones wanted very badly him to be a film star too. One reason is obvious - starring in movies was much less exhausting than performing live at concerts. But there is another theory - Tom "Colonel" Parker real name was Andreas Cornelies van Kuijk - illegal immigrant from Holland earning earlier by dabbling in many various things (hot dog seller or dogcatcher). That's would explain why Elvis never had a concert outside USA (in Europe or in Japan) although they had some attractive offers. Parket also didn't visit Presley during his army duty in Germiany.



Elvis hated TV because he was afraid of it and almost every time made out bad. That's why he preferred motion pictures - director was always there to help him, weak scenes could be replayed etc. Many times he was saying "I'd like to be a better actor". Spending hours on watching Marlon Brando and James Dean acting he was hoping to develop himself. Dean's sudden death created unfulfilled niche that Presley could utilize. Unfortunatelly he never dit it and Elvis never had a doubt about it - "I would have never compare myself with James Dean because he was a true genius... I thing I'am a weak actor but maybe with time I will learn something". Michael Curtiz ("Casablanca") who worked with him said he was very polite and hardworking having incredible memory for roles. Still Elvis wasn't best actor in the world.



In the end of 1956 Elvis was declared "King of Rock and Roll". Elvismania was at it's top and was going to be there for next decades about which proof hits like "Suspicious Minds", "In the ghetto", never published "We can make the morning" attached to this post. Hope you enjoyed this short presentation and learn something about Presley legend rising. Do you know any Presley songs? If you do - please list them in your comments.

The King Part 2/3

Recorded on 1954 in Sun Records studio debutant single raved everyone. Once people discovered Elvis they wanted him to perform live at concerts.
Girls were going mad, boys wanted to look like him - their parents apparently couldn't stand his way of entertaining. They have forgiven him his black male
voice but that "animal expression" and "sexual tension" were too dramatic for traditional older generation to accept. What was interesting - Elvis was a very
shy person in private. Once he walked the stage he was changing to completely different person - the one that his young fans always dreamed of. Fame and
success were increasing day by day - his father once asked him - "What's going on, El? Yesterday I was working at can factory, and you were a truck driver".

Next great breakthrough in Elvis career was meeting Thomas Andrew Parker called Colonel. Some say he was the manager of century but in fact he was rather sharpie harnessing Presley tremendous talent. He decided that best thing for his young star was hitting the nationvide market which effected in contract with
RCA Victor, which was the bigest american label. Sam Philips sold in this transaction right to Elvis for $ 35 000. Although it was a giddy amount of money back then, Elvis potential should be counted in millions, therefore Philips decision is inexplicable. Obviously it was his worst business deal of life.

Parker had another idea for Elvis image. He urged him to become a great star and righteus citizen. First thing that was about to change was young singer
scandalous rebel performing. His idea was also trying Elvis luck in film industry. First occasion to realize new strategy occured when Presley received his
call to Army. Elvis was terrified because two years out in army meant a certain stage death. Parker on the other hand was convinced it is a right choice and
answering country's call of duty was going only to help him in further career. Colonel took necessary steps to promote Presley accession. For example ceremony of cutting his hair was assisted by a big group of journalists and photographers. Elvis was not only famous but also an examplary soldier. When his unit was sent to Germany it turned out he was famous also there. Everyday between 19:30 and 20:30 he signed authographs for german fans. On 1958 Christmas he recevied 370 000 postcards! What's more - people couldn't wait for his return to showbusiness.

After serving two years in army he came back to USA on March 3, 1960. Asked what are his next plans he answered that he was going to sing futher, play in movies and perform with Frank Sinatra himself. Sinatra offered $ 150 000 for two songs sang by Presley in his TV show. Parker's plan worked out pefectly - once for all he finished with rebel young Presley - giving in return a righteous citizen willing to help in many social actions.



Before Army episode he managed to record a massive hit - Love Me Tender. Curiosity - originally movie accompanied to this song was titled The Reno Brothers but after a song success 20th Century Fox decided to change it after the song title. On 1957 another legendary song was recorded - Jailhouse Rock. And others like King Creole or Don't | I beg you.



Have you known that Elvis was in army? And before that he already was a superstar? Now that's was interesting!