In the early weeks of the recent lockdown, there were numerous reports of wildlife moving back into our usually busy villages, towns and cities and many people told of how they felt re-connected to nature. More than ever, there will be demands that we plan, design and build developments where people and the natural world can thrive together.

The seminar will:

• Set out strategy and policy for construction with respect to biodiversity
• Explore design considerations and standards to build better for people and wildlife
• Showcase case studies for ecological success in the built environment
• Provide delegates with the tools to create their own action plan

Programme:

9:00  Welcome from the Chair – Mike Roberts, Good Homes Alliance and Vertigo Regenerative Development Consultants 

Part 1 - Strategic overview
9:10  Strategic overview by Melanie Hughes, Sustainable Development Programme Director, Natural England
9.30  Declaring an ecological emergency in Bristol – Ian Barrett, Chief Executive, Avon Wildlife Trust
9:50  Integrating green infrastructure within building developments: An introduction to the Building with Nature standard – Professor Peter Madden, Chair, Building with Nature

10:10    Break

Part 2 – Implementation
10:20  Building design and specifications for enhanced biodiversity – Brian Murphy, Director, Green Building Encyclopaedia
10.40  Biodiversity and built environment case studies – Stacey Cougill, Director, Eight Associates
11.00  Panel discussion, audience discussion, final Q&A
11:30  Close

Who is this session for?

All built environment professionals, including:

• Planners
• Architects
• Landscape Architects
• Developers
• Ecologists
• Public Health Practitioners

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The Speakers

Melanie Hughes, Sustainable Development Programme Director, Natural England

Melanie Hughes is Sustainable Development Programme Director in Natural England ( NE, an arms length body in the Defra group). This programme provides significant opportunities to deliver the 25 Year Environment Plan ambitions in a place through more effective use of NE’s planning advice and species licensing levers. Over the next five years she is responsible for driving more effectively planned, high environmental quality development and infrastructure at a local level; supporting the shaping of net gain policy and implementation to deliver ambitions on the Nature Recovery Network; embedding Green infrastructure and Natural Capital Planning and reforming species licensing to better reflect outcomes for conservation. Melanie has worked across Natural England and its founding bodies as Area Manager, in Marine casework and Delivery of Agri-environment schemes. She started her career in crop protection following a master’s degree and international research and spent 5 years breeding bumble bees commercially for pollination in Holland. She is an international disaster relief volunteer, on call to assess the needs for emergency shelter in natural disasters.

Ian Barrett, Chief Executive, Avon Wildlife Trust

Ian Barrett has been Chief Executive of Avon Wildlife Trust since 2016. He leads a team of 45 people working to bring wildlife back to the Bristol and Bath city-region and inspire people with a love of nature. In February 2020, Ian and the Mayor of Bristol declared an ecological emergency for Bristol, making it the first UK city to do so. Before joining the Trust, Ian was England South Director at Sustrans where he led work to enable people to travel in ways that are better for their health and the environment. His background includes twelve years working for Defra on a range of environmental policy areas including ecosystems, marine biodiversity, green infrastructure, forestry, water quality, flooding, landscape and outdoor recreation. Ian is a keen proponent of partnership working and established both The Big Tree Plant and the Green Infrastructure Partnership during his time at Defra. He is a board member of the West of England Nature Partnership, Natural History Consortium and Bristol City Funds and a non-Executive Director of the Bristol Green Capital Partnership, a partnership of over 950 organisations seeking to create “a sustainable city with a high quality of life for all”. He is passionate about creating better places for people and wildlife and loves exploring nature, visiting reserves, climbing and canoeing with his wife and two children.

Brian Murphy, Founder, Green Building Encyclopaedia

Brian Murphy first met Bat Conservation Trust’s Dr Carol Williams at EcoBuild 2008 and started a long standing relationship which lead to attendance and presentations to BCT Annual Conferences where he challenged BCT to write tertiary documents to support Planning & Building Development Control. RIBA, RSPB & BCT came together to write that book and Brian illustrated it with 10 future-facing construction methods incorporating Bat and Bird Boxes without compromising their integrity. The book was updated and has been copied in a Belgium government website and translated into Spanish. We continue to seek opportunities to make the 3rd edition.

Brian will discuss the ambitions of the book and present extracts from its pages. Brian will also present a recent case study of a Planning Application that went terribly wrong for Biodiversity, with lessons learned and follow up actions.

Stacey Cougill, Director, Eight Associates

Stacey is a Director at Eight Associates; she is qualified BREEAM Assessor and Suitably Qualified Ecologist (SQE). Stacey specialises in ecology services development and delivery, ecology conservation and enhancement, sustainability strategy and environmental assessment. Delivering projects of all scales, she has expertise in business strategy, partnership creation, stakeholder engagement and sustainability planning and policy.

Stacey has a wide range of sustainability experience gained over many years working within consultancy, local authority, charity and educational sectors. She has experience of managing large scale complex projects, with technical knowledge of completing ecological surveys offering advice and guidance throughout the development process.

She is an expert at looking at the ecological big picture which requires a fundamental understanding of trade-offs that exist in conservation. She is also a passionate advocate of ‘thinking beyond the red boundary line’ and ensuring that any site is thought of as a node in an ecological network instead of an island unto itself. Stacey has implemented varied habitat creation projects and subsequently compiled management plans. She has experience writing wildlife policy and advising on the ecological aspects of planning applications from both an officer and an applicant aspect.

Stacey holds a BSc in Environmental Science and an MSc in Conservation Biology from Manchester Metropolitan University. Stacey previously worked as Biodiversity Manager within the planning department of the City of Westminster. She is a full member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM).

Professor Peter Madden, Chair, Building with Nature

Professor Peter Madden, OBE, is Chair of Building with Nature, Professor of Practice in City Futures at Cardiff University, Founder Director of Ecovivid, and sits on the Boards of the Crown Estate and Bristol Energy, and the Advisory Boards of Igloo Regeneration and Trane Technologies. Previously he was CEO of Future Cities Catapult, of Forum for the Future, and of Green Alliance.

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