CPD on Better Building Sustainability
How Many CPD Events or Seminars Do You Get to Attend With a Stunning View Like This?
It was my enormous pleasure last week to deliver a CPD on better building sustainability from a seminar room on the 24th floor of The Shard, London!
Having smoothly passed through the high security measures to enter the building (Did you know you need to have photographic ID to enter the Shard?), our delegates enjoyed some lively networking over tea and coffee with delicious, handmade, cupcakes. Lots of talk about the impressive view and buildings too.
For the first session we considered three key points of building sustainability compliance. These were explained and discussed through existing and current project case studies.
- It’s not simply a question of Pass or fail for Part L?
- It’s not one compliance for all.
- Know your project’s footprint before you start and its relevance to compliance for refurbishments and refits.
This was followed by a Q & A session with our team of EAL Consult experts, where delegates had the opportunity to pick the brains of the panel. One interesting question was posed by Gregory Martinez de Riquelme of Arquinaut on Pasivhaus building in the UK. Is this a contradiction in terms?
The level of craftsmanship required to achieve this level of fabric first, airtight, build is exceedingly high. In countries such as Germany, the building trade is respected and taught as a higher education professional skill. This is not the case in the UK and it is a challenge to find the right team of builders for such projects. UK house builders are also finding that many young people in the UK are acquiring different types of building skills such as design and engineering. The knock on effect of this is the growing trend for modular buildings. Barrett Homes have turned to this option especially in the light of the UK’s housing shortage and the demanding targets set for delivering new homes.
Other interesting questions posed to our experts were about 3D software programmes…Revit? Archicad? Rhino?…decisions, decisions. We can work with all of them. What about renewables in the refit market, how easy is it to install them and are specialists required? Who does the design and install? “Go to the manufacturers we cried!” They will do it all. Mitsubishi for the heat pumps, Skyline Solar for solar and PV panels, just some examples.
We were delighted to be able to share our knowledge with leading professionals on the above topics and the feedback forms have shown that over 87% of delegates would highly recommend others to attend our events. Attendees also requested further information on additional aspects of the industry including Right of Light, Home Quality Mark, the sustainability impact on Section 106 and Sustainability and Real Estate. We will therefore be focusing on these aspects in future CPD events starting with Sustainability and Real Estate on the 21 April in Oxford. If you are interested in attending, please email me at Monique@ealconsult.com for further details
Gregory Martinez de Riquelme of Arquinaut and Darren Jeff were the lucky winners of the Fortnum & Mason hampers from our prize draw. Hope you enjoy the contents gents!
A big thank you also goes out to Michael Cuschieri of mc square marketing, who was the perfect MC for the event and helped us navigate our audience through the many pitfalls of Sustainability and how to tread the Energy efficiency minefield. I also look forward to sharing some highlights that were expertly video by Steve Hampshire of Stephen Hampshire Photography.
On to ECO build. It’s this week and is a great opportunity to learn ourselves, gain more industry knowledge and hear about the latest design successes and challenges. I’m also looking forward to catching up with some national and international contacts. They are expert BREEAM colleague Katie McGregor, Mike Barker, Arboriculturist and Pantelis Levantis who is the President of the Board of Directors of the Sustainable Building Council Greece. By the afternoon I will certainly be ready for the drinks receptions at the Austrian Pavilion where they will be launching the UK Passivhaus Awards 2016!
Look out for my next blog on the show!
By Monique Simons – EAL Consult
