“Strong walls make good neighbours” is a line from Robert Frost’s The Mending Wall. The poem goes on to the make the case against boundaries:

… Before I built a wall I’d ask to know, What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall…

Fuelled by recent articles in the building press that ask questions about the function, purpose and number of institutions, boundaries are suddenly back in focus again. This Edge debate is about how we need them and how they can get in the way. It is the ‘collaborate and compete’ dilemma. What do we need do to lift our game?

Boundaries are the things that control us. They limit our action and frequently need to be crossed if we are to move forward and yet few like their boundaries assailed. The question is whether this is something that can be managed. We live in the age of the creative economy and ideas are the currency. They need to be shared but also protected. This debate is to explore how we do this, do we understand the processes and are we able to take the long view?

Topicality demands that we begin the debate by talking about the institutions, and it is certainly a starting point for many of us, but the debate is much, much wider that this. The intention is to start in our own backyard, range far and then come back with some practical observations on whether boundaries are holding us back or are, in fact, the means of taking us forward.

The debate was chaired by Sir Peter Gershon, Former Chief Executive of the Office of Government Commerce and architect of the Gershon Review.

Paper 1 - Strong Walls make Good Neighbours? (pdf)

Mark Whitby - Director of +Whitby, champion for carbon counting and an ICE past President.

Paper 2 - Boundaries (pdf)

Peter Guthrie - Former ICE Vice President and now Professor of Sustainability at Cambridge

Paper 3 - Architectural Boundaries

Dr Frank Duffy - Co-founder of DEGW, co-founder of the Edge (with Peter Guthrie) past president of the RIBA and long-time commentator on the future of the professional and their responsibilities.

Notes from the debate

Energy certification of non-domestic buildings - will proposed changes to the building regulations do the trick?

The debate was chaired by Ian Coull, Chief Executive, Slough Estates and Chair of the Sustainability Forum.

Paper 1: Building energy certification and the EU Directive - an introduction (pdf)

Bill Bordass, William Bordass Associates and the Usable Building Trust

Paper 2: Building energy certification - the property market’s perspective (pdf)

Paul McNamara, Research Director, Prudential Investment Managers Ltd, and Honorary President of the Society of Property Researchers, and Vice-chair of the Investment Property Forum

Paper 3: Sticks and carrots are for donkeys- engage people and raise aspirations

Peter Martin , CarbonSense

Downloads

Notes from the debate

Debate invitation

nCRISP workshop invitation and background information

Corporate Social Responsibility — menace or means to a sustainable (construction) industry?

CSR is the ‘hot topic’ just now. Each week, mention of CSR is made in newspapers, with headlines such as “No hiding place for the irresponsible business”, “Social Concerns Edge into the Mainstream”, “Good Governance will benefit the business community”, “Increasing pressures [for companies] to act responsibly” and so on.

Indicators of CSR have been produced by the organisation Business in the Community (BitC). The FTSE4Good indices identify companies that meet set standards. The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices includes companies that are judged to be the most sustainable in their sector. Additionally, there is the Global Reporting Initiative.

The DTI will shortly produce guidelines that will require companies to disclose in their annual report any social, environmental or other issues that materially affect their business. The ABI (Association of British Insurers) has just published a report Risks, Returns and Responsibility which attempts to detail how effective management of corporate responsibility could lead to improved business performance.

And yet, some influential voices are cautioning against CSR. For example, it has been said that, when companies sign up publicly to CSR, they ‘open a can of worms’. Every business decision, every investment or closure, can immediately be subjected to the CSR test. Alternatively that there is no substantial or ideological critique of capitalism contained in CSR — merely a vague notion that business ought to behave better.

It has also been said that CSR greatly oversimplifies issues, problems and choices. And that business is about maximising returns for shareholders, not ‘trying to put right the ills of society in which it operates’.

The debate was chaired by Paul Morrell, Partner Davis Langdon; Senior Vice President, British Council for Offices; Chairman, Sustainability Group - British Property Federation; CABE Commissioner.

Short position statements were made by:

Martin Batt, HBOS Environment @ Sustainability Manager

Bryan Cress, CSR Policy Advisor, CBI

John Hale, Manager of Investment Affairs, Association of British Insurers

Professor David Henderson, Visiting Professor Westminster Business School, former head of Economics and Statistics - OECD

Notes from the debate