Footprint

Over 250 delegates attended this year's event

The Zero Carbon Hub annual conference took place last week at King’s Place in London. Over 250 delegates attended, primarily housebuilders,  contractors and product suppliers, as well as a few local authority employees and a handful of architects. Architects attending included PRP, PCKO, Edward Cullinan Architects, HTA, PTE, Rickaby Thompson Associates, Richards Partington Architects, Sheppard Robson, and SustainablebyDesign.

The event timely coincided with the release of Part L consultation. There were three sessions to the day, with an address from Rt. Hon. Grant Shapps MP, MInister for Housing and Local Government, amongst others.

The day’s three sessions covered:

• Zero Carbon homes and the wider policy context
• Focus on the consumer
• Focus on delivery

The morning session emphasised a consumer focus as the top priority in defining the way forward. Don Leiper, head of E.ON Energy Solutions said that the focus should be on ‘helping customers understand energy better’. Zero Carbon Hub chief executive Neil Jefferson urged for further investment in SAP, also citing the consumer as a top priority.

The second session was chaired by Imtiaz Farookhi, chief executive of NHBC, who announced they will be releasing a report in partnership with DCLG in the coming weeks, giving insight into occupants, housing associations and builders. Carolanne Dieleman, director of group marketing and communications at the Stewart Milne Group, noted that householders need to hear less jargon and less preoccupation with green gadgets and that better communication is vital. Elizabeth Ness of Crest Nicholson suggested the transition must be comfortable for consumers; the transition to a lower carbon footprint must be ‘easy, normal and natural’ to ease, particularly as the source of emissions will change on the timeline to 2016.

In the third and final session, Ray Morgan of Woking Borough Council advised everyone ‘to get on with it’, as it was ‘easy’. His message accompanied by examples of ‘zero carbon homes’ that people have been designing for centuries. A more serious point was considering place as fundamental to any zero carbon home, ‘adapt solutions to place’.

Richard Partington summarised the day, identifying ‘performance gaps’ between those involved in the procurement and construction process in an adapted diagram of the London underground map, noting that some only pass by the process before and after construction, such as building regulations assessments. He highlighted NF 28 (part L) and NF 37 (part F), ’where-to-start’ documents he has authored collaboratively with NHBC and CLG respectively, as guidance references.

He also presented Derwenthorpe, a housing project in York for the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust; the first phase was completed in 2010 and designed by his practice, Richard Partington Architects. Through this example Richard highlighted the role of design in delivering zero carbon homes.

Site wide district heating lines are where scaffolding needs to be; this can cause delays and needs to be thought of in advance.

Richard noted that critical path is key, and new technologies require adjustment to conventional practice.

Sequencing of construction must be carefully considered.

Site testing of U-values with variation depending on orientation.

Discrepancies between on site and lab testing must be reconciled.

Read Rory Bergin’s account of the day here.

by Ruth Dreyer, AJ sustainability intern

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