ECOBUILD CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
can’t leave it to unfortunate future generations to solve, we have to get half way there in 17 years’ time. Most of what we need to know we know now, it’s how we drive take up.’ To hit the 2050 target, domestic properties
need to reach zero carbon, and industry needs methodologies for buildings that aren’t worth treating, added Morrell. Speaking of the delayed government announcement on Part L of the Building Regulations 2013, Neil Jefferson, chief executive of the Zero Carbon Hub, said: ‘If we are going to see change [in the domestic sector] in 2013 we need to know about it soon if we are going to implement it in October.’ Mark Clare, chief executive of Barratt, told delegates that, in the end, the customer will have far greater infl uence on what industry builds than regulation ever will. But Dr Brenda Boardman, Emeritus Fellow, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, said the real key to lowering emissions was through demand reduction. Morrell even suggested a need to live/work in cooler indoor temperatures and lower levels of light. But, he stressed, ‘there’s no point in saving money on our heating bills if we go off on holiday with the savings. Something has to happen.’
The future is green Panellists agreed that a green economy promotes growth during a ‘Green for growth – reality check’ seminar, with Michael Fallon MP stating they are ‘two sides of the same coin’. Rhian Kelly, director for business environment at the CBI, agreed, but said waiting on government policy was damaging confi dence – particularly in a year when the key vision and strategies showing how the sector can grow to 2025 are awaited. She added it was now clear the Green Deal
was not going to be a ‘big boon’ for the sector. Chris Gorse, Professor of construction management and director of the Centre for Knowledge Exchange, Leeds Metropolitan University, identifi ed £200bn worth of retrofi t opportunities, but stressed industry has a lot to do in terms of performance. His research team has found that buildings
perform up to twice as badly as expected and that their thermal performance is missing their target by up to 200 times. In other cases performance is ‘somewhere close’. He said: ‘We’re never going to achieve
what we expect when we have no tolerance. Anything that’s 20% worse than expected at the moment is probably a very good building.’ During a packed Ecobuild debate on
the role of legislation in bridging the performance gap Bill Bordass, said that
www.cibsejournal.com April 2013 CIBSE Journal 23
THE GREEN INVESTMENT KNIGHTS
The appearance of investment fi rm Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL) stirred up plenty of interest. Partner Gil Levy revealed that SDCL had a £450m pot for energy effi cient projects in the UK. SDCL would carry the investment risk of buildings failing to meet energy targets, said Levy, and would benefi t from the subsequent reduction in energy bills, along with the client.
SDCL would set up a special vehicle company to manage the project and draw up energy performance contracts with contractors to ensure predicted energy savings were achieved. ‘This is by far the greatest opportunity to make savings, and hedge against energy price increases in the UK,’ said Levy.
We can’t look at the regulations in isolation – we need tough love to help them deliver this stuff Pete Halsall
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