As World Green Building Week comes to an end, we wanted to look back on the amazing events held across some of our global offices. To align with this year’s theme of #BuildingTheTransition, our events explored what climate resilience means for the built environment, along with ways we can futureproof our assets to combat the impact of change and protect lives and livelihoods.
In Manchester we held our ‘Sustainnovation - Materials that matter’ exhibition, showcasing a range of innovative and sustainable materials that can change the way we design. Our engineers selected some of the best products relating to our disciplines, with the aim of sparking a conversation about material selection, circularity and pushing past traditional materials. Many engaging conversations were had with our key clients that prove we are moving in the right direction.
In Birmingham, Paul Chatwin and Glen Irwin, Associate Directors, discussed how we can design for resilience, retrofit for lower energy demand, and address climate risk. We then demonstrated how these ideas have been applied to our projects such as Three Chamberlain Square, Eden, GenZero and more. The event concluded with a roundtable discussion about the three essential transitions for a sustainable environment including The Energy Transition, The Regenerative Transition and The Just Transition. We will soon be releasing a blog on this topic so keep an eye on our website.
Our Newcastle office partnered with Newcastle Gateshead Initiative for a fantastic panel discussion . Dr Oliver Jones, Associate Director, led the discussion with speakers from Karbon Homes, Net Zero North East, Ryder Architecture and Newcastle Airport. The panelists not only outlined the challenges they have faced on the journey to net zero but also shared their success stories and insights. As an industry, we have spent years talking about what we need to do, but it’s now time for action.
John Dobbin, Architect at Shay Cleary Architects, presented an entertaining and well-researched study to our Dublin audience on the opportunity for conversion of Dublin Mark I office typologies. This included a brilliant demonstration of how design thinking can address the housing shortage, revitalise our urban centers and release the pressure on greenfield sites - while achieving low carbon homes. David Feighery, Associate, highlighted the importance of putting a figure on sustainability, pointing out the benefits of using soft landing tools like NABERS to identify and close the performance gap. Derry Kearney, Partner, recommended modeling your building as it is expected to operate, not just SBEM (Simplified Building Energy Model) compliance. Engineers should keep a relationship with their offspring, in their early years to see what went right, and what needs improving.
Our Australia event focused on the link between resilience and holistic systems in addressing environmental, social and governance factors and ensuring that all members of the community, including the most disadvantaged, are considered. For built environment professionals including engineers, asset developers and contractors, there is an ethical imperative also to recognise that if the buildings we create or own and operate do not protect people from climate impacts, we have not met our professional obligations. Because impacts are already being experienced including extreme heat, flooding and bushfire, there is also a need to retrofit existing buildings and communities in ways that will improve human safety during extreme events.
Overall, we learnt the importance of accelerating the transition to secure an energy efficient, regenerative and just future for us all.
We still have more events to come in London, Dubai, Warsaw, Doha and Hong Kong so keep an eye out on our events page for more info.
