Climate change,
global warming, a climate crisis - there’s no question that action needs to be
taken today to create a sustainable future.
Against this
backdrop, Futurebuild has announced details of it’s ecobuild conference
programme which sets out to highlight the critical issues facing the built
environment and create an action plan for change.
Sponsored by ACO and
available on-demand at Colab, the three-day Time for Action programme (05-07
March) brings together an unrivalled collection of industry leaders,
disruptors, pioneers and rebels to encourage debate and discussion around 13
challenges, with the ultimate aim of driving radical and fast-track action.
To find out more
about the ecobuild conference and to register for your free place click here.
High profile
speakers such as the Rt Hon Claire Perry MP and Chair of the Environment
Agency, Emma Howard Boyd, will address issues including the Climate Change
Challenge and the Commitment Challenge.
Martin Hurn,
managing director of Futurebuild Events, commented: “If you speak to any
industry professional, they’ll tell you that there are serious issues facing
our long-term survival, not just from a business perspective, but also from an
environmental one. We’ve been trapped in a cycle of inadequate responses for
too long and that simply must change, and it must change now.
“There’s no denying
that this is a huge undertaking and will require positive collaboration with a
common understanding and commitment. This conference is about changing mindsets
across the board when it comes to business, growth and profit and putting the
environment at the centre of our thinking. We know we can’t solve this alone,
but by addressing these challenges through the ecobuild conference, we can
shine a light on the most pressing issues and demonstrate ways that people can
go about making changes or improvements across their sphere of influence. This
isn’t about fear, it’s about empowering people to take action.”
The ecobuild
conference opens with a focus on the fast-approaching deadline of 2030 and how
the UN Sustainable Development Goals and UK government commitments are going to
be met.
Led by Aldersgate
Group chair and former MP Joan Walley, the panel includes UCL’s Professor Simon
Lewis, Bioregional’s Julia Hawkins, Mott MacDonald’s Davide Stronati and Lord
Jack McConnell, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the UN SDGs. It will
ask how individuals and groups are coming together to deliver these vital
commitments.
Central to the
three-day programme is the challenge of how to achieve a healthy environment.
The Government’s draft Environment Bill requires all of us to take an interest
in this issue, not just those deemed “environmentalists”. With this in mind, on
day two (06 March), Eloise Scotford, Professor of Environmental Law at
University College London, will chair a session asking how environmental
protections can and should be strengthened and enhanced in post-Brexit Britain.
The recent IPCC
report on the need to limit temperature rises to 1.5°c will provide a
framework for climate change discussions on day three (07 March). Futurebuild
is delighted to welcome the report’s co-ordinating lead author Myles Allen to
the panel tackling the Climate Change Challenge. This session will include a
keynote from Claire Perry MP, Minister of State at the Department of Business
Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Myles Allen said:
“While there are huge opportunities for reducing emissions from UK buildings,
making our built environment consistent with net zero carbon dioxide emissions
will be hard: this may be one area where continued use of some fossil fuels combined
with carbon dioxide capture and disposal and using hydrogen for energy delivery
may be the only viable option, so we need to start thinking now about how that
can be delivered on the necessary scale.”
How we reduce our
carbon usage across the built environment is another key issue the conference
programme will highlight. This will be tackled across a number of sessions from
the Retrofit Challenge for Housing (05 March) chaired by Arup’s Chris Jofeh to
the Urban Challenge (06 March) led by Rachel Cooper OBE, Distinguished
Professor of Design Management and Policy at the University of Lancaster.
At a societal level,
Paul Chatterton, Professor of Urban Futures at the University of Leeds, is one
of a number of speakers who will explore the Housing Challenge (06 March). This
will look at how to deliver more equitable societies which are proven to work
better for everyone involved.
All sessions will be
available on demand at Colab following
Futurebuild. Peter Ridgway, Brand Development Director at ACO, said: “We’re
delighted to sponsor the ecobuild conference. To be able to unite so many
forward-thinkers under one roof to collaborate on a plan for the future is an
incredible achievement.
"We want to
make sure that the content from the conference lives on and continues to
inspire people to take action. By making the sessions available through our
online CPD platform, Colab, we can ensure this reaches the widest audience of
professionals dedicated to changing our world for the better.”
