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We bring the smartest minds in the property carbon-reduction world to FOOTPRINT, so we think it’s only right for us to disseminate all this experience and knowledge freely. Most of what you hear here won’t have been spoken about before; it’s all hot-off-the-press! If you were at FOOTPRINT+ 2025, you can hear all the talks you couldn’t get to while you were in another of our 6 theatres; and if you weren’t, now is your chance to learn why you need to be at FOOTPRINT+ 2026 (and it’s all CPD-approved).
We bring the smartest minds in the property carbon-reduction world to FOOTPRINT, so we think it’s only right for us to disseminate all this experience and knowledge freely. Most of what you hear here won’t have been spoken about before; it’s all hot-off-the-press! If you were at FOOTPRINT+ 2025, you can hear all the talks you couldn’t get to while you were in another of our 6 theatres; and if you weren’t, now is your chance to learn why you need to be at FOOTPRINT+ 2026 (and it’s all CPD-approved).
Episodes

Thursday Aug 21, 2025
PACER: Planning Application Carbon Evaluation and Reduction Platform
Thursday Aug 21, 2025
Thursday Aug 21, 2025
When awarding the PACER initiative funding the UKRI declared that ’the majority of the UK’s national emissions budget will be used in the Built Environment’. Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) are increasingly the only gatekeepers to lower whole life carbon in the built environment with the ability to set targets and decide which projects are permitted. PACER is a software tool designed to be operated by LPAs to assess the carbon documentation submitted with applications and to guide officers in the analysis of those proposals.
Aiming to make the decision-making transparent and democratically sound, PACER has been tested since its launch early 2025 during the assessment of a range of proposed projects. The panel will discuss how it works, the characteristics of the submission requirements and early outcomes found by its development partner Westminster City Council. In aiming to implement Retrofit First policies, how have the planning authority explored these digital tools and could this be a mechanism adopted by authorities around the UK?
The panel will feature Hrabrina Nikolova, Principal Sustainability Officer at Westminster City Council, alongside representatives from Preoptima and developers who have taken part in the pilot applications, who will discuss PACER’s potential as a nationwide mechanism for carbon assessment.


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