The PFI Sustainability Evaluation Tool: A methodology for evaluating of sustainability within PFI housing projects

In the UK there is a need to provide more housing in order to meet increased demand. The problem is particularly acute in the social housing sector. There is also a drive to reduce CO2 emissions from housing, whilst addressing issues of social sustainability. Accordingly governments have sought to combine the goals of sustainable development with housing policy in order to provide not just more housing, but more sustainable housing. In a time of public sector expenditure restraint the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) has been used as a means to procure social housing using private money, however sustainability within PFI housing projects has received little attention. This paper introduces a methodology for evaluating sustainability within PFI bids. Developed and tested during the procurement stage of a large PFI housing project in the North East of England, results suggest that the introduction of clear, transparent and robust evaluation criteria can enhance sustainability

"Simulated Consulting": A Win-Win Experience in Transport Engineering Education

Students undertaking a final year elective subject in Transportation Planning at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, were given the opportunity to work on a practical project for which there was an interested outside ‘client’. From the student’s perspective, this was essentially a ‘simulated’ consulting project which focussed on transport planning issues faced by the City of Port Phillip, an inner metropolitan municipality in Melbourne. The overall experience, from everybody’s perspective, proved to be so positive that the model for the project will be used in the course in future years. This paper has been written to inform other engineering educators of how the project was implemented and to highlight some of the educational issues which this type of experience raised. Of particular interest to educators are issues associated with the functioning of some of the student groups in the project and the opportunities provided by projects of this nature to establish strong industry links

Attitude and Travel Behaviour Change Using Survey Feedback: Insight from Dutch and Australian Experience

Travel demand management (TDM) addresses the problems of energy consumption and pollution associated with increased motor vehicle use through strategies focused on improving asset utilisation, physical restraint, pricing, and urban and social changes. This paper concerns the last of these areas and examines programs aimed at changing attitudes and subsequently travel behaviour through individual measurement and personalised information. While Australian research results reviewed here are encouraging, results from the Netherlands highlight psychological processes which can reduce the effectiveness of these programs. This research area has important implications for the development of information campaigns designed to influence travel behaviour

Climate change and variability, energy and disaster management: produced risks without produced solutions: rethinking the approach

Accelerated climate change and increasing climate variability is the single largest threat to the international goals of sustainable development, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and disaster risk reduction. Global discourses recognise the need for effective and sustainable responses tso produced climate risks. The risk types likely to occur are known, but only in broad terms - their scale, severity, longevity and frequency are not known. The challenge for policymakers is developing an effective framework within which sustainable responses can be formulated. To address the problems of produced risks a comprehensive approach to risk management is necessary. The mechanisms within the climate change, sustainable development and disaster risk reduction discourses are not sufficiently effective or integrated to respond to this challenge. Fundamental reform to current modes of risk reduction is needed, but this can only be achieved through a shift in the dominant perspective on formulating sustainable responses. This requires a shift to an enabling policy framework that encourages bottom-up resilient responses. Resilience is argued as a tool for policy development that can enhance adaptive capacity to current climate risks and shape energy policy to respond to mitigate future climate risks

Travel Demand Management and its Application at Australian University Campuses

This paper provides an example of how TDM could be applied in Australia with particular reference to university campuses. After considering the different characteristics of Australian university campuses in general, three Melbourne campuses were chosen as representative case studies. These consisted of a inner city campus (University of Melbourne), a inner suburban campus (Swinburne University) and an outer suburban campus (Monash University). Structured interviews were carried out with student and staff representatives involved with transport on campus. The interviews revealed a lack of consideration given to transport as an issue (as opposed to parking) at the three campuses. A subsequent survey was conducted of university administration representatives from campuses around Australia. That larger survey confirmed that Australian university campuses do not have any defined policies or decision making processes focused on campus transport issues. A model campus TDM program is developed based on the review of the available literature and the information on university travel characteristics collected from the three detailed case studies. Although the program is simple, it provides a basis on which individual campuses can establish a TDM program and then develop it further to complement their specific conditions. This paper is to be presented at the 19th ARRB TR Conference to be held in Sydney, 6-11 December 1998

Reducing Car Travel Through an ‘Individual Action’ Programme

This paper outlines a new approach to reducing car use in order to address environmental concerns. The individual action programme, known as travel blending, aims to encourage individuals to choose a mixture, or blend, of travel choices over time to satisfy their travel needs rather than being a captive of the private car. Participating households are sent a series of four kits, containing information booklets and travel diaries, over a nine week period. The travel diaries and vehicle log books are analysed and a summary of the household’s travel patterns, and the emissions produced by their vehicles, is sent back in a subsequent kit along with suggestions explaining how they could introduce travel blending into their travel patterns. Households complete another set of diaries and vehicle log books after four weeks and these are analysed so that a comparative summary can be returned to the household with the final kit. The paper describes results from a pilot study, involving about 50 individuals, undertaken in Sydney, Australia. The encouraging results from the pilot have resulted in preparations being made for a larger trial involving about 300 individuals

Ecodrive Training Delivers Substantial Fuel Savings for Heavy Vehicle Drivers

A small group of heavy vehicle drivers underwent an ecodrive training course. Their driving was assessed for various ecodrive variables as they completed an 18 mile circuit in normal traffic immediately after the course and again 6 and 12 weeks later. Compared to pre-course measures, these drivers reduced their fuel consumption by an average of 27%, the number of gear changes by 29%, and the number of brake applications by 41%, though not all differences were statistically significant due to the size of this pilot and large driver variability. Importantly, the improvements were not offset by increases in the time taken to complete the circuit. At the 6 week point a control group was also assessed, and they used more fuel and more gear changes, and applied their brakes more often than the control group. Safety variables were inconclusive. A larger, in-service trial is warranted

Placental growth factor (alone or in combination with soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1) as an aid to the assessment of women with suspected pre-eclampsia: systematic review and economic analysis

Background: Pre-eclampsia (PE) prediction based on blood pressure, presence of protein in the urine, symptoms and laboratory test abnormalities can result in false-positive diagnoses. This may lead to unnecessary antenatal admissions and preterm delivery. Blood tests that measure placental growth factor (PlGF) or the ratio of soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt-1) to PlGF could aid prediction of PE if either were added to routine clinical assessment or used as a replacement for proteinuria testing.Objectives: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and cost-effectiveness of PlGF-based tests for patients referred to secondary care with suspected PE in weeks 20–37 of pregnancy.Design: Systematic reviews and an economic analysis.Data sources: Bibliographic databases including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science and The Cochrane Library and Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects were searched up to July 2015 for English-language references. Conferences, websites, systematic reviews and confidential company submissions were also accessed.Review methods: Systematic reviews of test accuracy and economic studies were conducted to inform an economic analysis. Test accuracy studies were required to include women with suspected PE and report quantitatively the accuracy of PlGF-based tests; their risk of bias was assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS) criteria. The economic studies review had broad eligibility criteria to capture any types of economic analysis; critical appraisal employed standard checklists consistent with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence criteria. Study selection, critical appraisal and data extraction in both reviews were performed by two reviewers.Economic analysis: An independent economic analysis was conducted based on a decision tree model, using the best evidence available. The model evaluates costs (2014, GBP) from a NHS and Personal Social Services perspective. Given the short analysis time horizon, no discounting was undertaken.Results: Four studies were included in the systematic review of test accuracy: two on Alere’s Triage® PlGF test (Alere, Inc., San Diego, CA, USA) for predicting PE requiring delivery within a specified time and two on Roche Diagnostics’ Elecsys® sFlt-1 to PlGF ratio test (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany) for predicting PE within a specified time. Three studies were included in the systematic review of economic studies, and two confidential company economic analyses were assessed separately. Study heterogeneity precluded meta-analyses of test accuracy or cost-analysis outcomes, so narrative syntheses were conductedto inform the independent economic model. The model predicts that, when supplementing routine clinical assessment for rule-out and rule-in of PE, the two tests would be cost-saving in weeks 20–35 of gestation, and marginally cost-saving in weeks 35–37, but with minuscule impact on quality of life. Length of neonatal intensive care unit stay was the most influential parameter in sensitivity analyses. All othersensitivity analyses had negligible effects on results.Limitations: No head-to-head comparisons of the tests were identified. No studies investigated accuracy of PlGF-based tests when used as a replacement for proteinuria testing. Test accuracy studies were found to be at high risk of clinical review bias.Conclusions: The Triage and Elecsys tests would save money if added to routine clinical assessment for PE. The magnitude of savings is uncertain, but the tests remain cost-saving under worst-case assumptions. Further research is required to clarify how the test results would be interpreted and applied in clinical practice.Study registration: This study is registered as PROSPERO CRD42015017670.Funding: The National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme