FOOTPRINT podcasts

Zero Carbon development embraces the circular economy

Castleforge’s redevelopment in Golden Lane reimagines a heritage asset at the heart of the city.  Sustainability has been a key driver for the client with a variety of certifications undertaken and a desire to get the project recognized as Net Zero in Operation and Construction within the current UKGBC framework.

Using Circular Economy principles has been key to minimising embodied carbon; there have been challenges and successes. A low-carbon timber extension would have significantly increased embodied emissions due to the fire protection measures necessary and over-cladding existing facades was unviable due to the poor structural condition. However, successes have included salvaging steel from the original building, enabling the addition of four storeys without any foundation strengthening and a thorough deconstruction process ensured 96% of the existing structure is retained along with other elements.

Uno also demonstrates the challenge to resolve the demands of NABERS accreditation alongside TM54 and TM65 within a heritage building.  Ultimately these analyses result in an improved building through:

• striking a balance with the thermal upgrade to the envelope
• reduced energy in-use
• increased user comfort 

In this session we demonstrate how measuring carbon emissions at each design stage ensures that decisions are taken in an informed manner for the lowest carbon project overall.

Chairperson

 

Praneet Bhullar, Architect - Hawkins Brown

Speakers

Oliver Vickerage, Senior Development Manager - Castleforge

Arthur Coates, Associate - London Structures Lab

Julia Galves, Sustainability Designer - Hawkins Brown

Rhona Sampson, Associate - Arup

Transformation challenge for Higher Education estates

Buildings and campus identity are a big consideration for students deciding where to study. Frequently new buildings are proposed, with designers selected through competition competing to develop modern state-of-the-art facilities.

Higher Education is moving on from that model to give existing buildings and campuses a new lease of life. This approach retains and enhances the character of its campuses for generations to come making best use of existing buildings, saving demolition and the embodied carbon burden that entails.

Chairperson

Richard Fletcher, Director - IES

Speakers

Russell Brown, Founding Partner - Hawkins Brown

Duncan Campbell, Director - Atelier Ten

Tammy Armstrong, Head of Sustainability - London School of Economics

Enhancing community through biodiversity improvements

Communities are coming together to change the places where they live for the better and to develop their skills, build their confidence and make new friendships. Enabling businesses to put their corporate responsibility strategies into action helps connect them with communities and helping them build social value into their services.

In this session we hear from the groups, organisations, businesses and landowners creating and developing landscapes and green spaces that boost wellbeing, increase resilience and bring a bit of happiness and joy to those that use them, whilst also delivering biodiversity improvement and help to combat climate change.

Pete Swift, Co-Founder - Planit

Sarah Reece-Mills, Director of Partnerships - Groundwork

Alan Carter, CEO - The Land Trust

Bringing Nature into the City: The benefits of living with nature

Eden is an 11-storey office building in Manchester with a host of sustainability goals. This session will focus on the benefits of its living wall. Featuring 350,000 plants and 32 different species the system replaces regular cladding at a reasonable cost. Attracting birds, bees and bugs, it will provide a huge increase in biodiversity. The plants also remove air pollutants, reduce urban temperatures, and ultimately capture carbon. The team behind it will present:

• how and where it can be installed
• what needs to be done to maintain it
• as a soil-based system how it compares to other living wall solutions
• what are the benefits for carbon sequestration and a host of other sustainability metrics

Chairperson

Angeli Ganoo-Fletcher, Landscape Director - PRP

Speakers

Chris Scott, Development Director - Muse Places

Steve McIntyre, Principal Environmental Consultant - Viritopia

Carolin Gohler, President-Elect - Landscape Institute

Investing in Natural Capital: Benefits and challenges

Our economies depend on the resources given to them for ‘free’ by nature and the environment. Construction activities are highly dependent on these resources. Increasingly, the international community is recognising the vital role of nature and biodiversity in tackling the climate challenge in a way that enables communities to thrive. This growing international focus on preserving and restoring natural landscapes is creating new alternative asset classes based on nature itself.

How can we ensure that the complex ecosystems on which life depends are not depleted? How can construction businesses invest in natural capital and what are the some of positive outcomes?

Chairperson

Emily Day, Technical Director - FOOTPRINT+

Speakers

Graham Edgell, Director of Procurement and Sustainability - Morgan Sindall

Mike Allcock, Chairman - FW Thorpe

Andrew Sowerby, Director - Pryor & Rickett Silviculture

Exploring Regenerative Construction: Socio-Economic Impacts and Innovations

Regenerative construction is an approach to planning, design and construction that aims to create sustainable, resilient, and thriving communities. It goes beyond traditional sustainable development, beyond recycling and reuse, by focusing on restoring and replenishing ecosystems, enhancing social well-being, and fostering economic vitality. Success in regenerative construction is reliant on the value chain working together.

This session will focus on the findings of a novel digital project completed by Morgan Sindall Construction and their partners to re-consider how a secondary school that they completed in 2021 could be re-imagined as a regenerative asset. The project specifically identified the socio-economic impacts arising from renewable processes and products. What are the implications for supply chain, communities, government and individuals?

Chairperson

Simon Corbey, Director - ASBP

Speakers

Gary Newman, Chief Executive - Woodknowledge Wales Ltd

Orla Whelan, Customer Solutions & Portfolio Development Director - Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland

Liz Allen, Partner - The Connectives

Timothy Clement, Head of Carbon & Environment - Morgan Sindall

The role of procurement in driving change

Construction projects have an immense capacity to drive change. As our sector’s interdependency with nature becomes more pronounced, how do we harness that capacity through procurement techniques? We hear from public sector construction stakeholders, who are involved in billions of pounds of construction output, how they use the procurement of construction activities to support the development of nature-based solutions.

Chairperson

Ian Heptonstall, Director - Action Sustainability

Speakers

Fergus Harradence, Deputy Director, Construction - Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Peter Holbrook, Chief Executive - Social Enterprise UK

Green skills: The workforce of the future

According to the Local Government Association, nearly 700,000 direct jobs could be created in the low-carbon and renewable energy economy in England alone by 2030, rising to more than 1.18 million by 2050. The large scale rollout of retrofit and other construction activities necessary to deliver low-carbon real estate is dependant on the development of a skilled workforce. How do we encourage people to train for these roles and what will be needed to make these dreams become reality?

Speakers

Mark Richardson, Partner - Troup Bywater + Anders LLP

Nathan Fall, Woodland Manager - Nicholsons Forestry & Landscapes

Richard Bull, Deputy Dean - Nottingham Trent University

Tabitha Binding, Timber Knowledge, Skills and Training

Duncan Brown, Assistant Director of Regeneration & Economic Recovery - Royal Borough of Kingston Council