I was asked to speak at a green building event at Ada University in Baku at the launch of the Azerbaijan Green Building Council. I reminded the audience of technically focused green professionals of the need to design for the ultimate user, the consumer -whether…
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I was recently asked to present the World Green Building Council's new report - The Business Case for Green Building - on behalf of the Russian Green Building Council at Mosbuild, a major construction sector event in Moscow. As an early advocate of green thinking in this…
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Tough times inevitably create new descriptions and disciplines for old problems. In the real estate sector many companies are becoming active in dealing with poor performing developments – the increasingly ubiquitous phenomena of ‘distressed assets’. The financial crisis exposed first the obvious bad investments and…
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As a jury member asked to judge latest office concepts for Office Next, a major office event in Moscow recently, I had a unique insight into latest trends and concepts in the Russian market. Workplaces are in the state of change. Everyone it seems wants…
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We all talk about brands.We wear them, drive them, eat them, admire them. Everything we do and experience today is a ‘brand experience’ it seems.Sectors and activities have embraced the concept of branding at different rates.FMCG led the way when brands were typically products on…
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While the ‘b’ word, branding, is now more frequently heard at real estate conferences, there is still the attitude that this is simply about marketing activity and corporate identity usage. The concept of shopping centres or business centres as destination brands with their own distinctive…
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Warnings of less brand-besotted customers and a growing cynicism towards the opportunist green-washing of retailers (reported in Shopping Centre, 14 November 2007) at the recent BCSC conference in Gateshead should not come as a surprise to those in the front line of retail. As brand…
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