If you are interested in continuing the debate 'Heritage & Net Zero - A wicked problem?', please do so through the Bcause platform, developed by a team from the OU.  You can sign up and add your ideas at the following link: https://bcause.app/discuss/debate/-NE1XlQht8qDqbnrZESU “. 

We plan to let the discussion develop over the next 2-3 weeks in the first instance, and to work with the OU to bring out the key points and messages. At this stage, of course we can predict what will emerge from the exercise, but we will review the consolidated material to see how best this can be used to encourage the right actions by key stakeholders. 

[If you would like to take a look at the Bcause platform, you can access it at: https://bcause.app/discuss/landing Alternatively, you can watch the following video Bcause.short video]

 In England alone there are over 400,000 listed buildings as well as many hundreds of thousands more in over 10,000 conservation areas and areas identified as being of particular national and local significance. Many of these buildings are not iconic individual properties but homes and business premises in private or housing association ownership. They are often in locations where property values are relatively low and like all other buildings they need to be thermally upgraded if the UK is to meet its 2050 net zero target

Buildings in heritage settings face significant additional costs and constraints compared with the rest of the UK’s building stock, yet making good use of such buildings is essential from an embodied carbon as well as a cultural perspective. This won’t happen if they become unaffordable to either heat or improve.

Do the priorities of development and decarbonisation of such buildings need to be adjusted in the light of the climate emergency, the need for more homes and rising fuel costs and fuel poverty? Are we being too restrictive in the nature and extent of improvement works allowed on ordinary homes and business premises in heritage settings, especially works aimed at improving their energy and environmental performance?

In particular:

·       Inconsistent application of planning policy and conservation guidance means that improvement proposals meet with widely different and unpredictable responses in addition to delays caused by the strained planning system.

·       Buildings that are not on a net zero pathway are in danger of being down valued by finance providers facing their own targets for financed emission reductions.

·       Cost of upgrades, which are always higher for properties in a heritage setting, are unaffordable for individual owners in low wage, low property value areas.

Chair:               Steven Bee, Consultant and former chair of The Academy of Urbanism

Speakers :       Paul Norman, Clarion Housing Group

             Esther Robinson Wild, Robinson Wilde Consulting

             Crispin Edwards, Historic England

             Peter A. Cox, Carrig Conservation International

                        Anna Beckett, Symmetrys

                        Chris Jofeh, Consultant to Arup and Chair of the independent Decarbonisation of Homes in Wales Advisory Group

Online:                    Zoom

Timing:              17th October 2022, 17.00 – 18.30

Debate notes:

• EDGE 135 Heritage+NetZero notes

Presentations (downloads):

• Paul Norman

• Esther Robinson Wild

• Crispin Edwards

• Peter Cox

• Anna Beckett

• Chris Jofeh

• + Debate Questions & Comments

Further reading:

• Sustainable Past and Future Guide - RIBA, November 2021

• Addressing the Challenge of the Back-to-Backs in Leeds, Re’new, November 2008

• Port Sunlight - Local Listed Building Consent Order (LLBCO)

Links from the discussion:

• Heritage Declares

• Building & Cities - on personal comfort

• Conservation Area Toolkit with Islington

• HIstoric England - Energy efficiency advide for historic buildings /

• Or Historic Environment Scotland

• ACE

• Agenda 21

• Retrofit to regeneration - STBA

• Fit for the Future

• Circular Economy for re-use of Buildings

In 2021 in collaboration with Taylor Wessing and UCEM, the Edge published City 2040: an investigation into the future of UK cities. The City 2040 report was itself the result of intensive soundings conducted over 6 evidence-taking sessions,. On October 6th, a much delayed launch was held for the report with a session chaired by Philip Georgiadis of the Financial Times.

A panel of sector experts discussed how the report's findings apply to some of the biggest challenges of today., addressing how the pressures of climate change are impacting upon the nature of development and the tensions between refurbishment and demolition, whether our planning system is fit for purpose, and the need to create healthy and vibrant city and town centres.

Welcome: Adam Marks, Partner, Taylor Wessing

Introduction: Simon Foxell, the Edge

Chair: Philip Georgiadis, The Financial Times

Panel: Dr. Katherine Gunderson, CEO, Grand Bequest Ltd

Ojay McDonald, CEO, Association of Town and City Management

Sarah Allan, Head of Architecture, Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities

Alistair Watson, Partner and UK Head of Planning & Environment, Taylor Wessing

Are new entrants to built environment courses adequately informed and prepared for the climate and ecological challenges that they will be dealing with in both their training and careers?

Those entering the built environment professions today will be expected to rapidly develop the skills and ability to ensure that the projects they deliver have net zero carbon emissions and increased levels of biodiversity. In all likelihood achieving these two goals will be the primary focus and undertaking of their future careers. To accomplish this, new entrants to built environment courses need to arrive with the right knowledge and mind-sets, and schools need to ensure that they have prepared potential entrants by the end of sixth form with the attributes they require to succeed in their subsequent technical and professional training.

To reach this point environmental education needs to start in the earliest years, building up awareness of the twin challenges of climate and ecological breakdown and a positive approach to and belief in what can be done to tackle them. Only in the later stages will courses need to deliver more specialised content aimed at students applying to built environment courses.

Universities and colleges have the capacity to set the standards of awareness, understanding and skills they expect to be demonstrated by potential entrants to their courses and this should apply across built environment undergraduate courses from as early as 2022 or 2023 at the latest. But in the event that the school curriculum is not able to move at the pace needed, it may be necessary for them to offer pre-degree foundation courses to provide the required climate and ecological education as a ‘catch-up’ for new entrants.

As Professor Tim Ibell of the University of Bath has identified: “It would help enormously were education in schools repositioned to tackle the cultural changes needed over the coming decades to look differently at how we use our resources.

If every schoolkid knew intrinsically, for instance, that the ordering to achieve net zero was USE LESS STUFF, then SPECIFY LOW-CARBON STUFF and finally OFFSET to just sneak us over the net-zero line, we would have a start in changing things radically for the better.”

How can this be put into practice? The Edge’s Education Round Table will explore the issues.

Chair: 

Jane Davidson, Pro Vice-Chancellor Emeritus, University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Round table presenters:

• The challenge to the industry and recruitment - Jon Bootland, Director Sustainable Development Foundation

• The need for well informed and motivated entrants to BE courses (including expected standards) - James Norman - Professor of Sustainable Design. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol

• Ensuring the school curriculum delivers - Dr Lizzie Rushton, Associate Professor and Research Lead, UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education

• Teach the Future’s programme/demands - Josh Tregale, Mechanical Engineering Student and Climate Activist

• Student expectations and the future - Jamie Agombar, Executive Director of Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK)

• The financial consequences of inaction for climate and ecological education - Emma Crichton, Head of Engineering at Engineers Without Borders

Round table participants:

• Laura Webb, Director of Membership, Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE)

• Andrew Close, Director of Education and Profession, Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)

• Séan Harris, Director of Membership, Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)

• Alex Whitcroft, The Climate Framework and Director, KIN

• Aled Williams, Executive Director: Innovation and Partnerships, University College of Estate Management (UCEM)

• Juliet Upton, Head of Education and Skills Policy, Royal Academy of Engineering

• ·Julia Stevens, CEO, Constructionarium

• Nick Ford, Design Engineer, Pipsqueak Developments

• Mike Cook, Chair, Climate Emergency Task Group, the Institution of Structural Engineers

Downloads:   

Edge notes and references following the Roundtable

We have been set the goals – energy efficiency improvements to all buildings by 2030 and net zero carbon emissions by 2050, requiring a 12% reduction in heat demand every year to 2050. 

We also know the measures to take, but do we have an industry ready to deliver? How can our industry be transformed to achieve the task – it is a challenge equivalent to nationwide wartime retooling – do we have the outline of a plan?

Introduction: Robin Nicholson, Convenor of the Edge

Chair: Chair: Keith Clarke, Chair Constructionarium and the Active Building Centre

Speakers:

• Advising on Change – leadership and behaviour - Clare Shine, Director & CEO at Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)

• Planning for change - Emma Davies, Principal Sustainability Consultant at Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service

• Investing for change - Alexandra Notay, Placemaking and Investment Director, PfP Capital

• A changing industry - Mark Farmer, CEO, Cast

Questions coordinator: Simon Foxell, The Architects Practice and the Edge

Climate and ecological breakdown are intertwined and leading to an emerging crisis for human health across the planet with the physical impacts of heatwaves, food insecurity, reduced soil fertility, water shortages, extreme weather events, wildfires, the spread of diseases through mosquitoes which will be more prevalent in the UK as the result of climate change etc; the social and economic impacts of climate migration, economic breakdown all impacting on human physical and mental health. There are synergistic interactions between climate change and health and these are likely to be felt more intensely in urban areas in the UK, especially in those of social and economic deprivation with of course the global threat to rural workers, agricultural and food supply chains that will affect us all.

Our professional institutions, local authorities et al have declared “a climate and ecological emergency”. That is step one. Step two is taking action and this must be taken at all levels – personal and professional. Dr Hugh Montgomery will explain why climate change is the greatest threat to global health and set the scene for a conversation on how built environment professionals can and should respond as now is the time for positive responses, with no time for despair. There is much that built environment professionals can do to meet this emergency.

Introduction: Robin Nicholson, Convenor of the Edge

Chair: Kristen Guida, Urban Resilience Team, Greater London Authority

Keynote: Climate change is the biggest threat to human health of the 21st century 

Professor Hugh Montgomery OBE,  Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, UCL and Director, UCL Institute for Human Health and Performance

 Responses: 

Maria Dunn, MRTPI  |Head of Development Policy| Planning and Development | Inclusive Growth, Birmingham City Council  

Ann Marie Aguilar, Senior Vice President EMEA and IWBI

Questions co-ordinator: Julie Godefroy, Julie Godefroy Sustainability and the Edge

We cannot achieve net-zero construction without net-zero construction materials, but, while materials producers say they have committed to carbon-zero targets, these rely heavily on carbon capture by others rather than committing to investment in new materials technologies. So, the rate of development of suitable materials is moving too slowly, with the government continuing to rely on market forces, while the markets are showing no signs of recognising the problem – let alone fixing it at the scale required. So, the ‘material challenge’ is central to our declared carbon goals, but the tendency is for us to ignore it.

• What can drive the change?

• Are there success stories that we can learn from?

• How should each of the key players – consultants, contractors, developers – respond and give the investors/funders the confidence to have something in which they can invest that will manage the climate risks of construction?

This session will examine the issues and seek solutions.

Introduction: Robin Nicholson, Convenor of the Edge

Chair: Louise Ellison, CCO, Longevity Partners

Speakers:

• Graham Dodd, Director Materials and Manufacturing, Arup

• Will Arnold, Head of Climate Action, the Institution of Structural Engineer

• John Downes, Global Head of Facade Supply Chain, Lendlease

• Alison Vipond, Sustainability Lead, Ecology Building Society

An exploratory discussion between an award-winning architect and engineer on how building design can and must respond to the climate and ecological emergency.

Chair: Hattie Hartman, Sustainability Editor, Architects Journal

Peter Clegg, Senior Partner, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

Hanif Kara OBE, Co-founder and Design Director, AKT II and Professor in Practice of Architectural Technology - Harvard GSD

Having recognised in time that our future as a species depends on the health and viability of the only planet that we can live on, we took George Monbiot’s advice and stopped putting our various wicked problems into boxes marked ‘‘climate’, ‘biodiversity’, ‘pollution’, ‘deforestation’, ‘soil loss’, ‘overfishing’, ‘drought, ‘flood’, ‘fires’ because we understood that “all these boxes contain aspects of one crisis”. We recognised that maintaining human health and wellbeing depended on a healthy ecosystem along with our economy and all the resources that sustain life. We acknowledged that we needed to control consumption so that we could all have resilient and sustainable life support systems. So, having put the restoration of our natural environment at the top of our ‘to do’ list with immediate and effective action taken by all including planners, designers and developers, we find ourselves in a ‘Nature Positive’ UK in 2030.

Chair:  Matt Browne, Advocacy Lead, Wildlife & Countryside Link 

Panel:

•  Our connected networks for wildlife dispersal and movement - Matt Shardlow, Chief Executive, Buglife

•  How we reclaimed engagement with nature for our children - Ellen Bradley, Communications and Outreach, Curlew Action

•  Living in a Nature Positive UK in 2030 - Dr Ruth Waters, Director of Evidence, Natural England, lead scientist on the Dasgupta Review and co-author of Nature Positive 2030

We successfully decarbonised our energy supply by 2035 and reached net zero by 2050.

In 2021 a YouGov poll indicated that two thirds of the British public supported a transition to 100% clean electricity and it was with their support we solved the critical issues of the supply of zero carbon energy, matched availability with demand and overcame the problem of excessive peak heat, a demand driven by the state of the UK’s poor building stock, that frequently increased energy use six-fold in the winter months.

In 2020 the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) select committee launched an inquiry into ‘Decarbonising heat in homes’  - “Domestic heat accounts for 13% of the UK’s annual emissions footprint…less than 5% of the heat used across the UK’s 29 million homes is from low-carbon sources…It is expected that 20,000 homes will need to be upgraded every week between 2025 and 2050. At the current rate, it would take over 700 years to reach the 19 million heat pumps that the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) suggests are needed.”

 Our ‘energy transition’ also made much greater demands on renewable, decarbonised energy for other uses, including transport. We faced issues such as energy security and the balance between the UK and overseas suppliers. Yet, we did it and in far fewer than 700 years.

What did our transition plan look like? How did we reduce demand? We improved the energy performance of our existing buildings and especially our housing, and vastly exceeded the ambitions of the Government’s 2021 Heat and Buildings Strategy. We implemented the Construction Leadership Council’s National Retrofit Plan (part of its CO2nstructZero strategy) and then redoubled our efforts again and then again. We changed our own behaviour and overcame our reluctance to limit our demand, and both carbon rationing and carbon pricing had an important, but unexpected, part to play in our achievement.

This session will explore our journey.

Chair: Gillian Charlesworth, Chief Executive, Building Research Establishment (BRE)

Panel:

• How we decarbonised our energy supply and know how much energy we have - Tadj Oreszczyn, Professor of Energy and Environment, UCL Energy Institute.

• How we retrofitted our existing housing stock and the role of building renovation passports - Lynne Sullivan, OBE, Member, Green Construction Board and Chair, Good Homes Alliance (GHA)

We must nurture a talent for excellence throughout our industry to act on the wicked problems we have to resolve. The Climate Change Committee’s 3rd Risk Assessment (CCRA 3 - 2021) made it very clear that there is no time to delay. What is the new vision and mission for our industry leaders and their organisations? How can we move towards requiring benefits, not profit for profit’s sake, as an outcome? How can we engage more widely and move from following orders to being more influential - starting with clients, briefs, design outcomes and confirming that we will deliver net zero in all our projects as part of our contract with clients?

Our speakers will each give us five minutes on raising aspirations to introduce a wider discussion.

Chair: Bea Natzler, Senior Analyst Business and Buildings, Climate Change Committee

Panellists:

• LETI – providing guidance to support competence and delivery - Jennifer Elias, Principal Building Performance Engineer, Building Engineering, AECOM and member of LETI

• ACAN - taking action to address the twin crises of climate and ecological breakdown - Sara Edmonds, Director, Studio seARCH, Coordinator, Architects Climate Action Network

• Black Professionals in Construction Network (BPICN) – spreading careers awareness - Amos Simbo, Managing Director, Black Professionals in Construction Network (BPICN) and Member, CIC 2050 Group and Managing Director, Winway Services

• Thinking circular for sustainability in engineering - Penny Gowler, Director and Head of Sustainability, Elliott Wood  

• Built Environment Declares - Ed Clark,  Director, Arup, Chair of Engineering Leadership Group IStructE, Chair of Structural Engineers Declaration Steering Group 

• Landscape Architects respond to the Climate and Biodiversity Emergency - Luke Engleback,  Owner, Studio Engleback

• The challenge for developers - Sue Riddlestone OBE, Chief Executive, Bioregional

In a recent paper, Professor Danny Dorling, University of Oxford, described the “human geography of the UK is a very unlevel playing field – more akin to a mountain range than a field. Inequalities vary greatly. Parts that you might not think of as especially unequal are in fact sometimes the most jagged of the socioeconomic mountains “. In turn the UK is one of the most unequal countries in Europe. “Inequality” covers a wide range of disparities including health and life expectancy, the quality of life, education, income, employment and transport access to work, as well as childcare and other elements of social infrastructure. We also need to recognise that the need to ‘level up’ is a problem for the whole of the UK

In a keynote speech on ‘levelling up’ delivered on 15th July 2021, the Prime Minister described the catalytic role that government needed to play and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has been renamed the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), under the leadership of Michael Gove, with the task of delivering on this agenda.

This session will explore what making levelling up should and could be in practice and what role those in the built environment should contribute.

Chair: Rose Grayston, Co-author of the report of the No Places Left Behind Commission

Panel:

• What are the social equality strategies that we need to ‘level up’? - Dr Fran Darlington-Pollock, Chair, The Equality Trust and an NGO Research Advisor 

• What are the economic strategies that we need to ‘level up’? - Sarah Longlands, Chief Executive, Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES)

• How can regional and local government respond to the challenge? - John Wrathmell, Director, Strategy, Research & Economy, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA)

• What does ‘levelling up’ mean for planning? - Richard Blyth, Head of Policy Practice and Research, Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)

At the request of Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the National Engineering Policy Centre set up a Commission to review the actions needed to make infrastructure more resilient to infection. This identified the most critical issues as: (1) working to establish what good and bad ventilation in buildings look like, with clear guidance on the amount of fresh air required; (2) Highlighting the vital role ventilation plays in controlling infection spread and how can we raise the knowledge and skills levels for those managing non-domestic buildings and (3) for most buildings, domestic and non-domestic, the skill level of the people responsible for managing ventilation doesn’t lead to good decision-making and effective control. Who will promote the policies required to ensure that both existing and new buildings are infection resilient environments?

Chair: Professor Peter Guthrie OBE FREng, Commission Chair

Panel:

Professor Catherine Noakes OBE FIMechE, FIHEEM, University of Leeds

Dr Shaun Fitzgerald OBE, FRENG, University of Cambridge

Dr Hywel Davies, Technical Director, Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers

We cannot hide from the science telling us that we are fast approaching dangerous tipping points for the earth’s systems. This is a problem for all of us, affecting all aspects of our lives and not one to leave solely to government, business or individuals to solve. As Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, spelled out clearly: “We need bankers as well as activists – we have 10 years to cut emissions by half.”

●      What is the nature of the new political economy that can take us back from the brink and create a resilient, low climate risk future for all?

●      What is the practical financial infrastructure for green finance?

●      How should the banking system change to respond?

●      What are the impacts of climate-related financial disclosures and nature-related financial disclosures on decision-making?

●      How do we address these critical issues and what does it mean for built and natural environment professionals in their work?

This session explores the risks and solutions around these questions.

Chair: Nick Molho, Chief Executive Officer, Aldersgate Group

Panel:

• The challenge of establishing a greener tax system - Andrew Simms, Coordinator, Rapid Transition Alliance, author, co-director of the New Weather Institute and Assistant Director, Scientists for Global Responsibility, Research Associate, University of Sussex

• The challenge to establish a real, practice financial infrastructure and banking system for green finance. - Tony Greenham, Executive Director, South West Mutual, former Director of Economics, Royal Society of Arts and Founding member,  Financing A Just Transition Alliance

• The challenge for investment and the risk of stranded asset - Sarah Ratcliffe, Chief Executive, Better Buildings Partnership

• The challenge for planning - Cllr Katie Thornborrow, Cambridge City Council

We would like to see an industry with appropriate education at all levels, the necessary skills to deliver and perform in all areas all with a diverse, equitable and inclusive working environment. This is fundamental to achieving (net) zero carbon as well as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Putting forward proposals for COP 26, the Edge focused on people – raising aspirations, developing skills, providing support, integrating climate and ecological education as a requirement in all built environment education and continuing professional development (CPD) courses and improving employment conditions by moving from outsourcing of labour to employee contracts that provide job security, in-service training and a career path that will attract and retain good people.

People are the key to delivering our long-term sustainability agenda.

Chair: Robin Nicholson CBE, Fellow Cullinan Studio and Convenor of the Edge

Panel:

Julie Godefroy, Head of Sustainability, CIBSE

Keith Clarke CBE, Chair, Constructionarium

We need to use fewer resources and ‘close the loop’ so that ‘thinking circular’ influences all our decision making on this finite and increasingly resource-challenged planet. This session explores three key areas where thinking circular can have significant impact:

Think water: water is not an infinite resource (World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risk Report 2020) and water crises are among the top global risks. Think materials: reduce materials and focus on low carbon materials - engineering and construction are some of the worlds’ largest consumers of raw materials. Think waste: this should be considered as part of the material economy. Are the new buildings and infrastructure designed for reuse actually reused? Finally, do we have the skills and knowledge needed and sufficient understanding about partnership working to deliver a circular economy?

The session explored the following issues.

Chair: Professor David Greenfield, Managing Director, Soenecs and  RAEng Visiting Professor of Circular Economy, University of Brighton (confirmed)

Panel:

• Closing the Loop - Kate Young, Senior Public Affairs Officer, Aldersgate Group

•  Why we must decarbonise materials  - Dr Cyrille Dunant, Senior Research Associate in Material Efficiency in Construction, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge and member, the Use Less Group

•  Droughts and floods, why a circular approach is critical - Siraj Tahir, Senior Engineer, Circular Water Economy Lead, Arup

•  Why waste is part of the material economy - Judith Sykes, Director, Expedition Engineering

This session will look into the future where embodied carbon has already been effectively regulated and the outcomes are being put into practice. We will discuss the impact this regulation will have had on the UK’s pathway to net zero, the ways in which we design, build and retrofit buildings will have changed and what it will have meant for building users, clients and developers.

Chair:  Rt. Hon. Philip Dunne, MP, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee

Panel:

Will Arnold, Part Z author and Head of Climate Action, Institution of Structural Engineers

Louisa Bowles, Partner and Head of Sustainability, Hawkins\Brown

Josie C-Thornewill, Sustainability Director, Thakeham

COP 26 has been the key focus for 2021, a year when the world would come together to agree and affirm its collective actions to limit the impact of climate change. In 2022 the many pressures on us to act now are still with us. The physical impacts of climate change that we are already experiencing highlight the need for developing long-term resilience at the same time as reducing emissions, restoring natural resources and biodiversity, ensuring a sustainable food supply and recognising the impacts of climate change on human health and wellbeing. While the COP has agreed global targets and actions, we also need to act locally and put our own house in order.

This session will focus on the actions that the UK construction industry will be taking – starting now.

Chair: Shaun Spiers, Executive Director, Green Alliance

Panel:
Hannah Vickers, Co2nstructZero, Construction Leadership Council and Chief of Staff, Mace Group
Rachel Skinner, CBE, Past-President, Institution of Civil Engineers and Executive Director, WSP
Simon Foxell, Construction Industry Council Climate Change Panel, The Architects Practice and the Edge
Sunand Prasad, Chair, UK Green Building Council, Co-founder Penoyre Prasad Architects and Past-President, Royal Institute of British Architects