What’s on Our Delegates Minds?
I have just finished a round of eight half day CPD sessions on sustainable construction for the RIBA around the UK and noticed some common themes arising from audience comments: everyone has now accepted that climate change is a reality, everyone (with one notable exception) agrees that human activity contributes to CO2 emissions and that the construction industry can do a lot to help reduce CO2 emissions. What was less clear is how this will be achieved. Most people who expressed an opinion stated that they thought unless it was legislated, few people will build sustainably even if there are costs savings (particularly for commercial developers who have no long term interest in the building).
Another area of general agreement is that despite the best intentions, EPC’s (Energy Performance Certificates) were not working, did not give any incentive to make energy efficient improvements and need to be able to be customised to reflect the conditions of the building under assessment more accurately.
There still is a quite a bit of confusion about some of the technologies available and their efficacy in terms of carbon and financial savings but The Green Register’s courses are providing some solutions to this.
And having taken 21 train trips in the last 6 weeks I can report that the service is excellent, only one train was a little bit late and it beats me why anyone would drive if a train service is available.
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