COP26 Built Environment Day: We’re Listening
Thursday 11th November is the Cities, Regions & Built Environment Day at COP26. At The Building Society we’ll be taking the time to listen, and coming together to watch and discuss some of the extensive programme of events and negotiations taking place across our industry, from both Glasgow and the wider COP26 fringes.
Here’s what we’ll be streaming in our Academy Space. If you’re not able to join us in person, you can click on the titles to go straight to the live streams:
09:30 – 10:30: How buildings will play a role in fighting climate change. The right decision today, means a better tomorrow.
Bringing together a world class panel of experts on high performance construction, this event will showcase the New Erne Campus, in Northern Ireland; the first building in the UK, and the first education building in the world, to achieve both Passive House Premium and BREEAM Outstanding accreditations. Speakers will discuss tangible solutions for the climate emergency and uncover the future skills required to support a decade of innovation that will drive irreversible cultural change across the construction industry as it strives to meet its obligations on climate targets.
11:00 – 12:30 Call to Action: Retrofit Revolution
Action on Empty Homes is launching a Call to Action on the whole-house retrofitting of empty homes to tackle the climate and housing emergencies. The event will be taking place online and will feature input from the Architects Climate Action Network, The Scottish Empty Homes Partnership and The Welsh School of Architecture.
13:00 – 13:45 Full Circle to Reuse: 1. Business as Usual
The first in this series of three talks led by Penny Gowler, Director and Head of Sustainability at Elliott Wood Partnership, is based on ‘Full Circle to Reuse’, Elliott Wood’s 12-step guide for making reuse the norm for the construction industry, to address the global climate crisis. The guide, which is mapped against the RIBA Plan of Work 2020, sets out an actionable framework to help architects, developers, construction, contractor and demolition firms take steps to implement reuse on their schemes.
1. Business as Usual
In the first session, we break down the issues with how construction materials are currently specified, sourced, used and reclaimed; and discuss the ways in which our thinking needs to change when it comes to designing for material reuse.
14:00 – 15:30 Fix the economy to fix climate change: the role of the circular economy
We cannot fix climate change unless we transform the whole economy. The circular economy is a key part of the solution to tackle climate change and to fulfil the objectives set out in the Paris Agreement. This session, led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, will:
• Explore how businesses can integrate the circular economy into their overall strategy and specifically their climate strategies, and showcase leading examples of this in practice.
• Hear directly from leaders in the food and mobility sectors about how to pilot and scale up circular economy activities and stimulate cross value-chain collaboration.
• Connect these examples and experiences with opportunities for policymakers to accelerate the circular economy transition through policies and investment.
15:30 – 17:30 UK Green Building Council Launch of Whole Life Carbon Roadmap for the Built Environment [delayed stream from the live launch event which takes place at 11:30am]
The UK Green Building Council has convened over 70 organisations to co-create a Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Roadmap for the UK built environment, consisting of a net zero trajectory, a set of policy recommendations, and stakeholder actions needed for the UK built environment to reach net zero by 2050. This event will launch the UKGBC Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Roadmap for the UK built environment industry, inviting responses from panellists on how it can be realised.