Footprint+

A quick lookahead to next week in Brighton

I’ll be in Brighton at Footprint+ on Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th June. I am speaking about low carbon and reuse of steel, as part of an excellent panel (Tom Webster, Gary Elliott and Roy Fishwick).

Footprint+ will gather representatives from every sector of the UK property market to discuss, discover and about state of the art methods to achieve Net Zero in real estate.

3,000 attendees

150+ speakers

100+ exhibitors

I’m heading to Footprint+ to talk about steel in particular, however I’m looking forward to hearing what others in the industry are doing. Key for me will be how all the different aspects of ‘sustainable design’ are being balanced, and if the industry is improving the way we can make informed decisions. For example, we often talk about embodied and operational carbon (sometimes they seem to compete with each other), but what about many other factors such as packaging, locally sourced, waste, circularity, longevity, robustness, maintenance.

I know we appreciate these factors and more, but I will be on the lookout to see how joined up the thinking is - my sense is that we are still struggling to bring all these factors together in much of our day-to-day decision making, especially when you sit them against the challenge of cost and project viability.

What’s On

There’s a full programme available here, but I thought I’d pick out some standout sessions that I might target. Even this shortlist looks like a lot to get through!

Tuesday

10:15-11:05 Defining zero carbon. Sounds a good starting place!

11:30-12:20 A whole systems approach. Perhaps the answer to what I mentioned above?

12:00-12:50 1 Triton Square. Embracing the refurb.

12:15-13:05 Hydrogen. After my recent article on this, let’s see what they have to say.

14:00-14:50 Meridian Water. 25-year regeneration programme.

15:30-16:20 Whole lifecycle carbon. Do we use this enough in decision making?

Wednesday

08:30-10:00 Decarbonisation of steelmaking. Our need for steel isn’t going away.

10:00-10:50 Decarbonising your estate. A colleague of mine (Vicky) is speaking.

12:00-12:50 Virgin Steel. More on how to manufacture with lower carbon.

12:30-13:15 Graphene-enriched concrete. Stronger and lower cement content.

14:00-14:50 Low Carbon Steel. My session on reusing existing steel.

16:30-17:20 Concrete is dead! Long live (low carbon) concrete.

Thursday

10:00-10:50 Embedding Zero Carbon into design. Set the brief early.

11:15-12:05 Offsetting. Where to do it?

13:30-14:10 Waste heat the city scale. Harnessing the urban heat island.

15:15-16:05 Revitalising commercial assets. If your property doesn’t hit the mark.

16:00-16:50 Circularity in Construction. A look at supply chains.

I look forward to seeing some of you in Brighton!