Day 2 looks at what can be done to deliver change. 2024 is an election year. What policies for net zero and nature recovery should industry put forward to move the dial from talking to doing?
Edge Debate #158: 10.45-11.45
Delivering net zero buildings in reality
Forward thinking clients are demanding net zero buildings in line with their ESG obligations but often lack a detailed understanding of how to achieve this in practice.
An important first step is the agreement of a consistent global definition of net zero and that delivering net zero should be a required professional duty.
The industry already has the knowledge and skills to ensure that any new buildings and the reuse of existing buildings achieve net zero carbon both in development and in operation. Professionals must step forward and work with clients and across project teams to ensure net zero outcomes at the scale needed.
The most successful schemes champion sustainability from the outset all the way through to post-completion management. This means getting the brief right, tracking progress throughout and monitoring actual performance in use once a project is complete.
Chair:
Jamie Quinn, Sustainability Director, Argent Related
Speakers:
The client’s Net Zero Carbon strategy for newbuild and retrofit
Richard Tetlow, Associate Sustainability Consultant, Buro Happold
Creating the right brief for net zero buildings and operations
Alexi Marmot, Founding Director, Alexi Marmot Associates – AMA and Founding Director, Global Centre for Learning Environments, Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, UCL
Designing for net zero carbon – leading a collaborative team
Peter Fisher, Director, Bennetts Associates
Operating ‘net zero carbon’ buildings
Stephen Hill, Associate Director – Sustainability Consultant, Arup
Edge Debate #159: 12.00 – 12.45
Call for action - Delivering Nature 2030
The UK’s extractive approach to natural resources has made it one of the most nature- deprived countries in the world. The irony of the outcry over the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree at Hadrian’s Wall is that the tree, while located in a visually bucolic setting, sits in a denuded landscape with limited biodiversity.
The Nature 2030 Campaign, developed by the Wildlife and Countryside Link coalition of over 80 environmental organisations, has put forward five key policies for nature recovery:
A pay rise for farmers, doubling the support for farmers to make sure that they can deliver nature-friendly farming and nature restoration
Making polluters pay, ensuring that businesses have nature and climate plans in place and setting new duties to drive private investment in species and habitats recovery.
Making more space for nature, restoring more protected sites and landscapes by 2030, and creating a Public Nature Estate across England with the support of local and national partners.
Creating more green jobs, delivering widescale habitat restoration and creating green jobs in urban, rural and coastal habitats and in species recovery through a National Nature Service.
A Right to a Healthy Environment, establishing a human right to clean air and water and access to nature.
The Environmental Principles Duty, set out in the Environment Act 2021, came into force on 1 November 2023 and requires all ministers and policymakers to consider the environmental impact of new policies.
Four Prospective Parliamentary Candidates will set out their policy proposals.
Chair:
Richard Benwell, Chief Executive, Wildlife and Countryside Link
Speakers:
John Cope, Conservative Prospective Party Parliamentary Candidate for Esher and Walton
Carla Denyer, Green Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bristol Central
Polly Billington, Labour Prospective Candidate Parliamentary Candidate for South Thanet
Pippa Heylings, Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for South Cambridgeshire
Edge Debate #160: 13.00-14.00
Planning: mending the system
Planning plays a crucial role in shaping the future of both our built and natural environment and never more so than in this time of climate and ecological breakdown. What is the optimal planning framework to deliver a more equitable, climate responsive, nature-positive world?
Planning reform has been repeatedly in the news in 2023 with numerous calls to better align the planning system with net zero goals by setting specific guidance and more ambitious targets for carbon reduction. Schemes must be scrutinised for net zero delivery in practice. This will only be possible by upskilling officers and councillors so they are well equipped to assess schemes in a timely manner.
Policies, regulations, spatial plans, local plans: what have we got and what do we need?
Chair:
Helen Fadipe MBE, MRTPI, Managing Director, FPP Associates Ltd, Founder and Chair BAME Planners Network and Vice President, RTPI
Speakers:
What policies do we need for real zero?
Paul Ekins, Professor of Resources and Environment Policy, Institute for Sustainable Resources, University College London (UCL)
What should the planning response to the climate crisis be?
Hugh Ellis, Policy Director, TCPA
What policies, regulations and land use planning do we need for nature recovery?
Sue Young, Head of Land Use Planning, The Wildlife Trusts
Doughnut Economics in the Council’s decision-making revisited
Jane Cox, Council Strategy and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager, Cornwall Council
Edge Debate #161: 15.00-16.00
Water – one of our most critical infrastructure challenges
The world has a water crisis and the UK is no exception. The National Audit Office has forecast that by 2034 total demand for water will exceed supply.
Water has been undervalued as a resource as has the true cost of managing sewerage and storm water. The effective management of our water and sewerage is relevant for all working in the built and natural environment.
Since privatisation, water companies have paid dividends in place of investing in new infrastructure and maintenance. Reports of leaks, blocked drains, increased flooding due to changing weather patterns and polluted rivers are increasingly common.
The water challenge does not stand alone. Access to sufficient water impacts land use and many supply and waste solutions require an energy network to deliver it where it is needed.
Should we continue to build where water supply is most challenged? How do we balance water use between people and agriculture? To what level must we reduce personal water use? How can we ensure that sewerage management stops polluting our rivers?
Chair:
Catherine Wenger, UK, India, Middle East and Africa Water Business Lead, Arup
Speakers:
The extent of the crisis
Tim Smedley, environmental journalist and author of The Last Drop
Why we need to build resilience
Nikki van Dijk, Technical Director, Climate Resilience, Mott Macdonald
The water-energy nexus - two sides of the same coin
Andrea Gysin, Service Line Director, Water Strategic Advisory, WSP
Protecting our rivers and environment
Erica Popplewell, Campaigns Manager, River Action UK