FOOTPRINT+ podcasts

According to the Local Government Association, nearly 700,000 direct jobs could be created in the low-carbon and renewable energy economy in England alone by 2030, rising to more than 1.18 million by 2050. The large scale rollout of retrofit and other construction activities necessary to deliver low-carbon real estate is dependant on the development of a skilled workforce. How do we encourage peop...

Achieving a net zero economy by 2050 is a significant challenge for the UK. This Breakfast Briefing will delve into the potential benefits of adopting a retrofit-first strategy and its role in advancing our journey towards net zero.  Retrofitting holds the promise of reducing carbon emissions, energy consumption and utility expenses, but what are the actual reductions being achieved? A successful...

The UK has the oldest housing stock in Europe with up to 40% homes built before 1946. Decarbonisation of the sector is progressing much slower than on much of the continent. Across the UK 70% of homes are owner occupied, 18% are in some kind of social rent and 12% in private rent. What solutions work for our older housing stock? Retrofit Balsall Heath is a project overcoming these hurdles, where 6...

Lightweight timber extensions can achieve large increases of accommodation with lower embodied energy and utilising existing foundations. Engaging a design team to appraise your portfolio for extensions opportunities can be time consuming and costly.  A new free, open access digital tool is being developed to enable property owners and asset managers to do this for themselves. Hear from the design...

In Scotland timber-framing accounts for 83% of the market and in England it is 23% and growing (1). Setting out to bust myths around the difficulty of delivering timber-framed volume housebuilding developers and consultants delivering this will answer: What are the factors that have expanded the use of timber-framing for housing in Scotland? Are they replicable throughout the UK? What are the impl...

From extraction to use, stone is a low environmental impact material. Ready to use, affordable, plentiful and easily adapted for reuse, stone is more relevant than ever. At the heart of stone construction there is a very low carbon footprint, with no heating/cooking process required, very little water needed, with a nose to tail approach including all the wonky bits for a 100% yield of the extract...

According to the Local Government Association, nearly 700,000 direct jobs could be created in the low-carbon and renewable energy economy in England alone by 2030, rising to more than 1.18 million by 2050. The large scale rollout of retrofit and other construction activities necessary to deliver low-carbon real estate is dependant on the development of a skilled workforce. How do we encourage peop...

In a climate of economic insecurity, is regenerative thinking yet another industry buzzword, or can it materialise into meaningful financial, environmental and social value? Regenerative thinking goes beyond merely lessening the harm of new development; it strives to leverage design and construction as positive forces that repair natural and human systems. This means transitioning from the traditi...

A key part of this project’s development was to look carefully at how Passivhaus can be achieved sympathetically within a sensitive historic context, striking a balance between conservation principles and energy performance. The project provides high quality accommodation for 128 students with a mixture of new construction, refurbishment, and upgrades to the two Grade II Listed buildings on the si...

Climate change resilience is therefore a recurring theme within all global new and emerging ESG disclosure frameworks, including the SFDR and EU Taxonomy. Born off the back of the insurance industry’s recent losses due to the physical impacts of climate change, there is a growing emphasis on mitigation and evaluation of physical risks to individual assets and portfolios. It is expected that all bu...

  Mayfield School's Health & Wellbeing Centre integrates natural materials such as stone and timber in an innovative and sustainable way, with a special focus on the revolutionary use of low-carbon stone brick. Addressing not only the physical and psychological needs of students the building serves as an educational tool on sustainability. Spatial and material considerations result in a design...

3 Sheldon Square sits in British Land & GIC's Paddington Central campus, adjacent to Paddington Station. 3 Sheldon Square was originally constructed c2000, and with all office tenants vacating in 2022, British Land explored a multitude of development and refurbishment options.  Retention and reposition of the existing building was the preferred scheme option taken forward, and the project achi...

Late in 2023, a dedicated cross-sector research group was set up to better understand the upfront carbon emissions associated with Cat B Office fit out projects. Created as an extension of the Offices Sector Group for the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard, the team sought to obtain data on the current industry performance level of Cat B office fit outs. This information is intended to be used...

Facades are the skin of a building playing a role in thermal efficiency, daylighting and aesthetics etc. Improving the external envelope of buildings can be one of the most effective ways to alter a potentially stranded asset and give it a long term future, saving the embodied carbon within the existing building. What considerations should be foremost in the project team’s mind? This session will...

The Environment Bill has created obligations for developers that can have unintended consequences, not least the provisions for offsite gain or payments to local authorities in lieu of on-site provision. A tight urban site can seem to offer few opportunities to increase biodiversity and support nature. In this practical session addressing the challenges of delivery BNG within the red line boundary...

Real estate businesses, funds and assets with a robust understanding of how to leverage ESG benefits through their activities place themselves at a strategic advantage in the market - minimising risk and enhancing future resilience – so it’s more important than ever to understand this trend for long term commercial success. Join Workplace Futures Group, Modus and Lifeproven to debate the influence...

Xylo, the largest consented all-timber office building in the UK, is a 9-storey, glulam and CLT framed office building in Clerkenwell. Designed as a kit of parts, it proposes a new typology of sustainable office building based around the future adaptability and the wellbeing of its occupants. This whole building approach to sustainability demonstrates that when retrofit isn’t an option, Mass Timbe...

GLA Whole life carbon and Circular Economy policies have transformed development in London. Councils, such as Westminster City and City of London, have developed borough-specific policies that go one BIG step further developing specific planning targets to prevent demolition and being to set limits to embodied carbon emissions.  What is the future for planning policy in evaluating retrofit and new...

Bloom Camberwell is one of the first logistics facilities in the UK able to demonstrate true alignment with the Paris Agreement commitments on climate change through the UK ESG Taxonomies. Sustainable investment funds require project teams to show compliance throughout the project lifecycle so assessments needed from Stage 2 have included: Climate Vulnerability and Risk Assessment Disassembly and...

The integration of the contractor within the design team and process is standard practice for some building types and sectors. For decarbonisation projects it can bring specific beneficial outcomes. In this session the contractor and developer will show how ECI gets projects on site with more cost and programme security and with less risk discussing: the incorporation of specialist knowledge in th...

The British Property Federation's recent Towards Net Zero research asked investors, developers, managers, owners and occupiers about the challenges they were facing in their path towards net zero. Senior leaders from 45 different organisations identified that the biggest challenge they or their clients/tenants faced in the transition to net zero carbon was access to sufficient energy consumption d...

The majority of construction glass goes to landfill because the industry has not established the knowledge and procedures to divert this precious and carbon-intensive commodity back into the supply chain. As with all materials, the journey to reuse starts with identifying the glass within a building to understand what can be accepted as cullet back into the float manufacturers' furnaces. The panel...

Some novel nature-based materials have been around for millennia but have fallen out of mainstream use, while others are entirely new and innovative. The regenerative capability of new nature-based construction materials may be well-documented but it doesn’t automatically follow that a regenerative product can be brought into the supply chain. How do we identify and overcome the stumbling blocks i...

Metropolis is the deep retrofit of the Woolworth’s HQ building designed by Richard Seifert. Designed to be net zero in operation the project has also saved an estimated 25,000 tonnes of embodied carbon through building retention, mass timber extension and fossil-free fuel in operation.  Delivering an exceptional product to future occupiers, the design incorporates around 15% amenity space includin...

In 2019 New York City adopted a unique piece of legislation called Local Law 97 setting out operational GHG emission limits for all buildings in the city, both new and existing.  A first of its kind internationally, the standard sets maximum emission levels by building program and type, which become progressively stricter until 2050, and sets fines for non-compliant owners. As the law comes into e...