Ar C.J. Walsh – Registered Architect, Fire Engineer & Independent Technical Controller …… International Expert on Accessibility for All (including Fire Safety) + 'Real' Sustainability Implementation !
2024-03-22:The United Nation’s 4th Global e-Waste Monitor (#GEM) Report has revealed that the world’s generation of Electronic Waste is rising five times faster than documented e-Waste Recycling.
The 62 Million Tonnes of e-Waste generated in 2022 would fill 1.55 million 40-tonne trucks, roughly enough trucks to form a bumper-to-bumper chain encircling the equator.
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Colour Photograph showing various types of e-Waste … a typical scene at a Recycling Centre. Not every Centre is properly managed. And there are many parts of the world where there are no Centres at all, and e-Waste goes straight to landfill causing serious health and environmental problems for local communities. Click to enlarge.
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Less than one quarter (22.3%) of the year’s e-Waste Mass was documented as having been properly collected and recycled in 2022, leaving over Euro €57 Billion worth of recoverable natural resources unaccounted for, and increasing pollution risks to local communities. Worldwide, the annual generation of e-Waste is rising by 2.6 Million Tonnes annually, on track to reach 82 Million Tonnes by 2030, a further 33% increase from the 2022 figure.
E-waste, any discarded product with a plug or battery, is a health and environmental hazard, containing toxic additives or hazardous substances such as mercury, which can damage the human brain and co-ordination system.
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Colour Image showing the Title Page of the United Nation’s 4th Global e-Waste Monitor (GEM) Report. Click to enlarge.
The Report foresees a drop in the documented collection and recycling rate from 22.3% in 2022 to 20% by 2030 due to the widening difference in recycling efforts relative to the staggering growth of e-Waste generation worldwide. Challenges contributing to the widening gap include technological progress, higher consumption, limited repair options, shorter product life cycles, society’s growing ‘smartness’, design shortcomings, and inadequate e-Waste management infrastructure.
The Report also notes that the world ‘remains stunningly dependent’ on a few countries for rare earth elements, despite their unique properties crucial for future technologies, including renewable energy generation and e-Mobility.
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Colour Image showing the e-Waste Status of Africa in 2022. Click to enlarge.
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31 Million Tonnes … Estimated weight of metals embedded in e-Waste in 2022, along with 17 Million Tonnes of plastics and 14 Million Tonnes of other materials (minerals, glass, composite materials, etc.)
17.6 Kg … Per Capita e-Waste generation in Europe, followed by Oceania (16.1 kg) and the Americas (14.1 kg)
5.1 Million Tonnes (8.2% of Global Total) … e-Waste shipped across borders in 2022, of which approximately 3.3 Million Tonnes (65%) was shipped from high-income to middle/low-income countries through uncontrolled, undocumented movements
NOTE: Cross national border ‘exporting’ of e-Waste – ANY Waste – Is NOT Recycling !
33% (20.4 Million Tonnes) … Proportion of e-waste made up of small devices (e.g. toys, microwave ovens, vacuum cleaners, e-cigarettes), of which 12% are recycled
Sustainability Impact Assessment (#SIA): A continual evaluation and optimization process – informing initial decision-making, design, shaping activity / product / service realization, useful life, and termination or final disposal – of the interrelated positive and negative social, environmental, economic, institutional, political and legal impacts on balanced and equitable implementation of Sustainable Human & Social Development.
2024-03-22: In this balanced documentary, October 7 … Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) carried out a forensic analysis of the extreme events on 7 October 2023 … a day which transformed politics throughout the Eastern Mediterranean Region. By examining hours of footage from Closed Circuit TV (CCTV), dash-cams, personal phones and the head-cams of dead Hamas fighters, and listening to the testimonies of hundreds of survivors … the I-Unit reveals human rights abuses by Hamas fighters, and Gazan civilians who later followed after the early morning co-ordinated and multi-pronged attacks into Israel. But the investigation also found that many of the horrific stories presented by Israeli individuals and authorities in the weeks following the attacks were glaringly false.
Also revealed are the severe Israeli intelligence and military failures, and the callous implementation of the Hannibal Directive.
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Colour Image – a screen grab from the Al Jazeera Documentary: ‘October7’ – showing the 10 breach points in the eastern and northern high-walled security barrier which separates the Occupied Gaza Ghetto from Israel. These Hamas attacks took place on 7 October 2023. Click to enlarge.
October 7 is a detailed examination of events which led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people … the significance of which will reverberate, in the Arab world and the Global South, for decades to come.
[ Approved and proposed for signature, and ratification or accession, by U.N. General Assembly Resolution 260 A (III) of 9 December 1948. Entry into force: 12 January 1951, in accordance with article XIII. ]
The Contracting Parties,
Having considered the declaration made by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its Resolution 96 (I), dated 11 December 1946, that Genocide is a crime under international law, contrary to the spirit and aims of the United Nations and condemned by the civilized world,
Recognizing that at all periods of history, Genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity, and
Being convinced that, in order to liberate mankind from such an odious scourge, international co-operation is required,
Hereby agree as hereinafter provided:
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Article I
The Contracting Parties confirm that Genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.
Article II
In the present Convention, Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group ;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group ;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part ;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group ;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Article III
The following acts shall be punishable:
(a) Genocide ;
(b) Conspiracy to commit Genocide ;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit Genocide ;
(d) Attempt to commit Genocide ;
(e) Complicity in Genocide.
Article IV
Persons committing Genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.
Article V
The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention, and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of Genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III.
Article VI
Persons charged with Genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.
Article VII
Genocide and the other acts enumerated in article III shall not be considered as political crimes for the purpose of extradition.
The Contracting Parties pledge themselves in such cases to grant extradition in accordance with their laws and treaties in force.
Article VIII
Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of Genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III.
Article IX
Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for Genocide or for any of the other acts enumerated in article III, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.
Article X
The present Convention, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall bear the date of 9 December 1948.
Article XI
The present Convention shall be open until 31 December 1949 for signature on behalf of any Member of the United Nations and of any non-member State to which an invitation to sign has been addressed by the General Assembly.
The present Convention shall be ratified, and the instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
After 1 January 1950, the present Convention may be acceded to on behalf of any Member of the United Nations and of any non-member State which has received an invitation as aforesaid.
Instruments of accession shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Article XII
Any Contracting Party may at any time, by notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, extend the application of the present Convention to all or any of the territories for the conduct of whose foreign relations that Contracting Party is responsible.
Article XIII
On the day when the first twenty instruments of ratification or accession have been deposited, the Secretary-General shall draw up a procès-verbal, and transmit a copy thereof to each Member of the United Nations and to each of the non-member States contemplated in article XI.
The present Convention shall come into force on the ninetieth day following the date of deposit of the twentieth instrument of ratification or accession.
Any ratification or accession effected subsequent to the latter date shall become effective on the ninetieth day following the deposit of the instrument of ratification or accession.
Article XIV
The present Convention shall remain in effect for a period of ten years as from the date of its coming into force.
It shall thereafter remain in force for successive periods of five years for such Contracting Parties as have not denounced it at least six months before the expiration of the current period.
Denunciation shall be effected by a written notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Article XV
If, as a result of denunciations, the number of Parties to the present Convention should become less than sixteen, the Convention shall cease to be in force as from the date on which the last of these denunciations shall become effective.
Article XVI
A request for the revision of the present Convention may be made at any time by any Contracting Party by means of a notification in writing addressed to the Secretary-General.
The General Assembly shall decide upon the steps, if any, to be taken in respect of such request.
Article XVII
The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall notify all Members of the United Nations and the non-member States contemplated in article XI of the following:
(a) Signatures, ratifications and accessions received in accordance with article XI ;
(b) Notifications received in accordance with article XII ;
(c) The date upon which the present Convention comes into force in accordance with article XIII ;
(d) Denunciations received in accordance with article XIV ;
(e) The abrogation of the Convention in accordance with article XV ;
(f) Notifications received in accordance with article XVI.
Article XVIII
The original of the present Convention shall be deposited in the archives of the United Nations.
A certified copy of the Convention shall be transmitted to each Member of the United Nations and to each of the non-member States contemplated in article XI.
Article XIX
The present Convention shall be registered by the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the date of its coming into force.
1.Previously known as the International Community … before the #USA #NATO #UK #EU / #Ukraine / #Russia #ProxyWar … now known as the ‘West’, the ‘Hegemons’, the ‘War Mongers’, the ‘Ex-Colonial Powers’ (Footnote A), the ‘Slave Masters’, the ‘Climate Disruptors’ … and that tiny little speck in the Persian Gulf Region is #Israel (an Apartheid, Criminal State in blatant breach of so many United Nations Resolutions).
[ 2023-10-31: Right now, when unified and concerted global action on Climate Disruption is urgently required … this fracture in the ‘International Community’ is becoming more serious as a result of Israel’s Barbaric and Sadistic War Crimes in the Gaza Ghetto. ]
[ 2023-12-15: The #GlobalSouth, as well as general populations in the ‘West’, are witnessing irreparable damage being caused to the ‘Social and International Order’, referred to in Article 28 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (#UDHR), by the actions of Israel and its criminal accessories USA and UK. ]
[ 2024-02-22: Nada Tarbush Speech at U.N. Meeting of the Arms Trade Treaty, in Geneva | Western Support for Israel is Underpinned by #Racism … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDh1VBlhoSs ]
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Home Truths From Afar …
2015 University of Chicago Lecture by Prof. John J. Mearsheimer, Political Scientist & International Relations Scholar: The Causes & Consequences of the Ukraine Crisis … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMiSQAGOS4&t=1034s
Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits & 1936 Montreux Convention …
During this War in Ukraine, Türkiye has the right to block passage of Warships and Military-Aid Vessels.
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2.Expansion of the BRICS Group of Emerging Economies … Brazil, Russia, India (Bhārat), China & South Africa …
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3.Global Competition With China’s 2013 Belt & Road Initiative …
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4.Europe After Brexit … a complex extrication process which has caused significant disruption to neighbouring countries … and considerable bad feeling among an even wider group of European Union Member States.
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5.African Countries finally throwing off the Yoke of France (and Emperor Macron) … and telling both of them to take their Military Bases back home …
2019-04-08: A much needed ‘quickie’ for these worrisome times … a reminder for spineless politicians and an introduction for mindless citizens !
This is the United Nations …
Colour photograph showing the Headquarters Building of the United Nations, in New York City. Click to enlarge.
And these are Articles 13, 14 and 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights … a fundamental constitutive document of the United Nations … which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly, on 10 December 1948:
Article 13
Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.
Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his/her own, and to return to his/her country.
Article 14
Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15
Everyone has the right to a nationality.
No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his/her nationality, nor denied the right to change his/her nationality.
2014-04-21: Notwithstanding the, by now, well-established existence of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), International Standard ISO 21542: ‘Building Construction – Accessibility & Usability of the Built Environment’, a host of other national accessibility standards, and a plethora of accessibility design guidance materials … not every ‘real’ site, or building, or built environment, situation is covered. It would be physically impossible.
Unless it is fixed in your mind … or, more importantly, in the ‘group-thinking’ of an organization … that Accessibility-for-All should be, for example, both independent (i.e. it is not necessary for a person to have an assistant) and inclusive (i.e. friends can do things together and no special deal is made about accessibility for one person) … it can be very difficult to emerge from beneath the weight of those documents referred to above … and to apply important disability-related principles flexibly and adaptively in the real world.
At a recent meeting with some teachers in an Irish school (which shall remain nameless) … I advised that a very good and positive start can be made by discussing together and agreeing on a Disability Policy Statement, which will help to guide future actions. More steps are required, of course, but those will come later.
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Model Disability Policy Statement for Educational Establishments
Insofar as it relates to the educational activities of
Name of School/College/University/Institute
and its relationships in the wider local community …
We recognise and respect the rights of people with activity limitations:
to lead a fulfilling life – autonomously, independently, and with dignity ;
to integrate into the civil, political, economic, social, cultural and educational mainstream ; and
to participate in the general life of the wider local community on a basis of equal opportunity with everyone else.
Good Education is an Important Key to Social Inclusion
In order to ensure your autonomy and independence, your civil, political, economic, social, cultural and educational integration, and your active participation in the general life of the wider local community – the principle of equal opportunity shall not prevent the adoption or maintenance of services, systems and policies providing for your support or assistance within this establishment.
[ Discussed and Agreed by the School/College/University/Institute Management Board on …… ]
2013-05-23: The U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, announced the launch of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) on 9 August 2012.
UN SDSN is structured around 12 Thematic Groups of scientific and technical experts – from academia, civil society, and the private sector – who work in support ofSustainable Development Problem Solving at local, national, and global scales … and to identify and highlight best practices. They also provide technical support to the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
The world has changed profoundly since the year 2000, when the UN Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) were adopted by the United Nations. Four critical shifts make the coming fifteen-year period, 2015-2030, different from the MDG period, 2000-2015: (i) a drastically higher human impact on the physical Earth; (ii) rapid technological change; (iii) increasing inequality; and (iv) a growing diffusion and complexity of governance.
These problems will expand, dangerously beyond our control, without an urgent and radical transformation in how we organize society. The world now needs an operational Sustainable Development Framework which can mobilize all key actors (national & local governments, civil society, business, science and academia) in every country to move away from the Business-as-Usual (BaU) Trajectory towards a Sustainable Development (SD) Path. This Framework and the SDG’s identify the main objectives and strategies needed to transform from BaU to SD.
The purpose of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) is to help translate global aspirations into practical actions. In this regard, SDSN has subscribed to the ‘Rio+20’ Agreement that the SDG’s should be ‘action-oriented, concise and easy to communicate, limited in number, aspirational, global in nature and universally applicable to all countries while taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of development, and respecting national policies and priorities’.
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SDI’s Comments on the Draft ‘Action Agenda for Sustainable Development & Sustainable Development Goals’ …
[ Submitted by e-mail, yesterday (2013-05-22), to the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network.]
1.The problems with this Draft Document, dated 7 May 2013, are fundamental and profound. Our Organization will be happy to assist the Network (SDSN) in improving the text.
2. At this time, however, we would like to bring to your attention some urgent overarching issues:
Amend the Title … refer directly to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). See above.
As drafted, the text does not show that … or explain how … there is a robust Interdependence between the different Sustainable Development Goals.
Indeed, the scale and immediacy of the Sustainable Development Challenges are unprecedented. The Network (SDSN) must now, therefore, take the brave and difficult step of placing the Sustainable Development Goals in order of priority. Do not allow yourselves to be shackled by the approach taken in the earlier Millennium Development Goals !
In this Document, All of the texts dealing with ‘Governance’ are ambiguous, weak and embarrassingly inadequate. References to the Institutional, Political, Legal and Judicial Aspects of ‘Governance’ are both necessary, and required.
The word ‘access’ is used very often and very generally in the Document. BUT … in order for People with Activity Limitations (2001 WHO ICF) to ‘access’ facilities and services in the Built (including Virtual), Social and Economic Environments, and to be included and participate fully in their local communities … it is an ESSENTIAL prerequisite that those Environments are effectively ACCESSIBLE-FOR-ALL ! This concept is not mentioned once in the Document … a very serious omission.
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Updates: 2013-06-07 & 2013-07-22 …
The SDSN Final Report is Fundamentally and Profoundly INADEQUATE !
Immediately below that … see Extracts from the Letter of Navanethem Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, dated 6 June 2013 … addressed to All Permanent Missions in New York and Geneva.
Click the Link Above to read and/or download PDF File (1.91 MB)
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” Twenty years ago this June, the World Conference on Human Rights convened at Vienna to forge a new vision for our world, one founded on a recognition of the fundamental interdependence between democracy, development and human rights. In the tail of a blood-stained and deprived century, the whispered call was for dignity, equality, justice, rights. And what began as a murmur in Vienna grew in volume and force with each global conference: Copenhagen and Beijing in 1995, Durban in 2001, New York in 2005 and again in 2010, and Rio in 2012. In recent years, the murmur has become a roar, echoing across societies on all continents, from victims denied redress, older persons denied respect, youth denied hope, and activists demanding a better way. From this call, we have learned much about the imperatives of sustainable development. There will be no development without equality, no progress without freedom, no peace without justice, no sustainability without human rights.”
“All that is required is the political will to move beyond the failed approaches of the past, to chart a fresh course, and to embrace a new paradigm of development built on the foundation of human rights, equality and sustainability.”
1.The Post-2015 Agenda must be built on a human rights-based approach, in both process and substance.
2.The new agenda must address both sides of the development challenge – that is freedom from both fear and want.
3.The imperative of equality must underpin the entire framework.
4.Marginalized, disempowered and excluded groups, previously locked out of development, must have a place in the new agenda.
5.We must commit to ending poverty.
6.The new framework must advance a healthy environment, as an underlying determinant of internationally guaranteed human rights.
7.The Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees the right to an international order in which human rights can be fully realized. Similarly, the UN Declaration on the Right to Development mandates international reform to ensure human rights-based policy coherence at the international level. In the wake of the global financial, food, climate and energy crises, and in the context of growing disparities and historic governance failures at all levels, the credibility and effectiveness of the Post-2015 Agenda will therefore depend also on the degree to which it addresses this pressing need for human rights-based reforms at international level.
8.The Post-2015 Agenda should be universally applicable.
9.The Post-2015 Agenda must include a strong accountability framework.
10.In the wake of the devastating global financial crisis, and revelations of abusive business practices in all regions, it is clear that responsibility for human rights-based development in the Post-2015 period must extend to actors in the private sector, as well.
2013-03-14: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was adopted on 13 December 2006 at the U.N. Headquarters Building in New York. The Convention was opened for signature on 30 March 2007, when there were 82 Signatories to the Convention, 44 Signatories to its Optional Protocol, and 1 Ratification. Historically, this is the highest number of signatories to a U.N. Convention on its opening day. It is the first comprehensive Human Rights Treaty of the 21st Century. It is also the first Human Rights Convention to be open for signature by regional integration organizations, e.g. the European Union (EU). The Convention entered into force, as an International Legal Instrument, on 3 May 2008.
According to the United Nations … this Convention is intended as a Human Rights Instrument with an explicit social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities, and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. It clarifies and qualifies how all categories of rights apply to persons with disabilities and identifies areas where adaptations have to be made for persons with disabilities to effectively exercise their rights and areas where their rights have been violated, and where protection of rights must be reinforced.
I say … that most of the rights specified in this Convention are already contained in other long-established International Human Rights Instruments, e.g. rights to shelter, free movement, education, employment, voting, etc. The critical issue for people with activity limitations has always been, and remains to this day …Lack of Accessibility … which prevents them from effectively and independently exercising their basic rights and fundamental freedoms as individual human beings.
Substantively … this is a United Nations Accessibility for All Rights Convention.
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The World Map below illustrates the situation, in October 2012, with regard to the very large numbers of States Parties to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) …
154 Signatories to the Convention ;
90 Signatories to the Optional Protocol ;
124 Ratifications and Accessions to the Convention ;
74 Ratifications and Accessions to the Optional Protocol.
Using the Map, it is simple to identify those ‘other’ countries (nudge-nudge-wink-wink) …
Image size 2.64 MB – Click to enlarge.
Since October 2012 …
Singapore signed the Convention on 30 November 2012
Cambodia ratified the Convention on 20 December 2012
Albania ratified the Convention on 11 February 2013
Barbados ratified the Convention on 27 February 2013
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HOWEVER … far too many individuals and organizations seem to be content to just settle back and end this good news story at Ratification. They fail to understand that this is only the beginning !
The real challenge ahead will be to ensure that the Convention is Properly Implemented.
The Target before every State Party is … Effective Accessibility for All !!
2012-11-30: Related specifically to my 2 Previous Posts on 27 November 2012 & 28 November 2012 … this is how we would like to help you … whether you are an individual, or an organization … whether you are located in Ireland, Italy or Turkey … some other part of Europe, the Arab Gulf Region, India, Japan, China … or wherever !
And … we can, if requested or necessary, work in collaboration with local partners in those different geographical regions.
Introduction
For many Weak and Vulnerable People, today’s Complex Human Environment is inaccessible and unsafe … a hostile ‘reality’ which prevents independent functioning and participation in a local community; it is a blatant denial of their human rights.
Restrictions on Social Participation, e.g. physical barriers, sloppy user-unfriendly management procedures, discrimination, stigma, etc … also limit the Use Potential of buildings, transportation systems, public spaces and other facilities … shortening product life cycles.
These factors impose a large, negative cost burden on society generally … and on you, as an individual … or as an organization, whether private or public. It is bad business !
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Colour photograph showing a main circulation route at a Railway Station in Kyoto, Japan … with combined staircase and elevators. Notice, in particular, the dual height staircase handrails, for adults and children … the strong contrast of the floor tactile information (a ‘directional’ indicator leading to a ‘hazard’ indicator, at the top of the staircase) compared to the rest of the floor, with its broad non-slip strips … and, finally, arrows used to control staircase circulation flows at peak periods (down to the right, up on the left). Photograph taken by CJ Walsh. 2010-04-27. Click to enlarge.
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SDI’s Commitment to You
As a necessary response to the New Paradigm of ‘Accessibility’ mandated by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and elaborated in greater detail by International Standard ISO 21542 : 2011 –
WE are committed to … the implementation of a Sustainable Human Environment which is Effectively Accessible for All … through the use of innovative, person-centred and reliability-based sustainable design practices and procedures.
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Colour photograph showing a Large Tactile Floor Plan at one of the entrances to the terminal building at Ciampino Airport in Rome, Italy. Notice, in particular, the use of an easily understandable type font combined with the high contrast between white characters and blue background … the presentation of information in three different languages: Italian, English and Braille … and, finally, the panel is mounted at a convenient height and angle. Photograph taken by CJ Walsh. 2011-10-26. Click to enlarge.
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SDI’s Accessibility Services
WE will advise you on Accessibility Policy, Accessibility Strategy Development, Accessibility Implementation … and, whether you are within or from outside the European Union, on CE Marking of Accessibility Related Construction Products ;
WE understand the process of Design, particularly the new language of Sustainable Design … and we will produce Creative Accessibility Solutions for Your Project ;
WE are thoroughly familiar with the intricacies of Building Sites … and we will verify and/or validate Design Compliance during construction, and at project completion … and, if requested or necessary, as a completely Independent Technical Controller ;
WE communicate easily and effectively with other Professional Design Disciplines, including fire engineers … and we will act as fully participating members of Your Project Design & Construction Team ;
Are adapted to Local Geography, Climate/Climate Change, Social Need, Culture, Economy … and Severe Events (e.g. earthquakes and flooding) ;
Are ‘Person-Centred’, i.e. that design process which places ‘real’ people at the centre of creative endeavours and gives due consideration to their responsible needs, and their health, safety, welfare and security in the Human Environment ;
Are ‘Reliability-Based’, i.e. that design process based on practical experience, competence and an examination of real extreme events, e.g. 2001 WTC 9-11 & 2008 Mumbai Attacks, and 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Incident … rather than theory alone.
It is there, not here, that we define Sustainable Human & Social Development … and describe how our Practice is responding to this open, intricate, dynamic, and still evolving concept. The resulting transformation in how frontline services are provided to our Clients/Client Organizations ensures a much more comfortable ‘fit’ to their needs … and a greater level of protection, safety and security for society !
