Highlights
A few highlights we found at futurebuild 2020 in London last week to keep an eye out for:
- New Building Regulations are due this year for Part L (energy efficiency) & Part F (ventilation)
- Consensus is we have just 10 years left to get Co2 emissions on a downward trend to keep climate change manageable – to date globally we haven’t even slowed the increase rate of emissions. In the UK we have made progress but we too are off target – particularly for heating our buildings and for transport.
- We have 27 million existing buildings to upgrade to operate as carbon zero by 2050. This means (excluding Sundays) around 3000 buildings a day, everyday, for 30 years, need to complete being upgraded
- Research is being carried out into the potential for replacing Natural Gas heating with Hydrogen heating in our homes – see: Worcester-Bosch
Our Future
Representatives from key Institutes participated in talks – including but not limited to: CIAT; CIWEM; ICE; LI; RIBA; RICS; RTPI
More so than any year previous (including under the former ‘Ecobuild‘ branding) the conference focused on what we need to do right now to minimise the impact of climate change before it gets more damaging.
In a closing session Eddie Weir, CIAT President, stated : “To achieve net zero carbon by 2030, a provision of regulations and standards are required as a matter of urgency. These standards are not just for the environmentally conscious but we are advocating them to all our clients now.”
As citizens we all need to consider how to do our bit to plan for our future, small steps by every person will drive big positive change. Starting steps may be simple measures to try out:
- Have you ever planted a tree?
- Do you need the heating on quite as long per day?
- Is there a draft in your home which needs addressing to keep the heat in?
- When did you last take the bus for a day?
- Can your mobile phone do what you need for another year without upgrading?
- Is your loft very well insulated?
Some steps some can save you money, many have health benefits! Bigger steps can follow on with ease.