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In collaboration with Sano and Atelier One, the Sano Bamboo project is constructing a demonstration house to trial bamboo as a sustainable structural alternative for UK home building, with the aim of setting a new benchmark for healthier homes that align with wellbeing and environmental responsibility.

Bamboo is a rapidly renewable, high-performance material with exceptional strength-to-weight qualities, which can be grown in large quantities and at a rapid rate in the UK. Its cultivation and use in structural systems provide construction and property companies with a practical solution for carbon offsetting while championing circular, regenerative design. Bamboo is a clear alternative to traditional timber for residential homes.

This collaborative project will showcase how Britain can utilise home-grown materials while measuring the environmental performance, embodied carbon, indoor air quality, and resident health outcomes. Above all, the demonstration house will become a proof of concept that can be scaled across the industry.

Despite its significance, the building presents a familiar condition: long-term, relatively benign neglect. While upper floors had fallen out of use, they retain an extraordinary completeness, with original panelling and later historic fabric largely intact. This “frozen” character offers both an opportunity and a challenge how to upgrade performance, accessibility, and services without eroding the building’s authenticity.

Demonstrating how careful, fabric-first interventions can significantly reduce carbon impact and secure a historic building’s long-term future, it also highlights the role of a determined and experienced client in navigating complex statutory approvals, where consent at the highest level is required. The panel will argue that even the most sensitive heritage assets can accommodate meaningful environmental and functional improvements. 

The range of low-carbon and circular concrete solutions is growing rapidly  from novel binders and recycled aggregates to new design and specification approaches. Yet adoption on live projects often lags behind technical feasibility.

This session explores how developers, designers and contractors can bridge that gap and accelerate real-world delivery. Drawing on practical project experience, we will explore how guidance, carbon targets, collaborative risk-sharing and a strategic approach to innovation are helping to bring novel solutions into mainstream use.

As ESG commitments move from aspiration to obligation, real estate investors face growing scrutiny around governance, disclosure and accountability. This session examines: 

• the evolving legal landscape of ESG compliance 

• the risks associated with inaccurate disclosure, inadequate oversight and poorly defined transition plans 

• director-level liability for ESG and transition planning and expectation of the  

• board oversight of delivery rather than just intent 

• the extent to which greenwashing claims are being pursued, particularly where transition plans are overstated or unsupported 

• whether enforcement is driving meaningful change across the sector 

Bringing together legal, investment and ESG expertise, the discussion will provide practical insight into how robust governance, transparent disclosure and defensible transition plans can help manage risk, ensure compliance and maintain investor confidence in an increasingly regulated market. 

Heat networks are moving from niche infrastructure to a core component of the UK’s heat decarbonisation strategy. With new regulations now in force – and more to come, including on technical standards and heat network zoning—the implications for real estate developers and operators are immediate and significant.

This session provides an overview of the key regulatory changes and explores what these mean in practice for real estate investors and owners. It will examine when heat networks are appropriate, how they can be integrated into new and existing developments, and the commercial, technical, legal and operational considerations that shape successful delivery.

Investor approaches to greening real assets span a wide spectrum—from doing the bare minimum to comply with regulation, to deep retrofits designed to meaningfully reduce climate impact. This session explores what truly matters to investors across this range of ambition and how differing priorities shape capital allocation, asset design, and operational decisions. We examine how owners, developers, lenders, and asset managers weigh cost, risk, return, and reputation when assessing sustainability strategies, and how these considerations translate into real-world outcomes for the built environment.  

The discussion will also tackle: 

•  Has political fatigue dampened sustainability momentum or simply reshaped it?  
• The sentiment divide differences across Europe, UK and US capital?  
•  How occupier demand, leasing behaviour, and willingness to pay influence investment decisions and long-term asset value? 

UKGBC’s Regenerative Places programme aims to shift built environment practice towards more regenerative, place-based outcomes. Focusing on both retrofit and housing-led regeneration, the emerging Framework considers the pathways, actions and stakeholders needed to realise the long-term potential of regenerative approaches, and support healthier, more fulfilling, and resilient places for all. 

• How does thinking through the context of “place” support regenerative outcomes?

• How can communities, local councils and industry work together to realise interconnected benefits across health, wellbeing, economic vitality, and biodiversity?

• How do we create the enabling conditions that ensure every project fosters long-term, positive outcomes for people, planet, and place.

In shallow and illiquid markets, developers face a distinct challenge: how to future-proof existing assets while protecting returns and maintaining flexibility in the business plan. This session explores how targeted retrofitting strategies can unlock value in standing buildings, aligning environmental performance with commercial outcomes rather than treating sustainability as a cost centre. 

Focusing on practical interventions, the discussion will examine how energy efficiency upgrades, fabric improvements, and smart building systems can be phased to remain accretive to a developer’s business plan enhancing income resilience, reducing operational risk, and supporting exit value in markets with limited depth.  

• What is the role of growing sustainability-linked loans? 

• How do credible retrofit pathways and measurable performance targets improve financing terms and strengthen lender confidence? 

With market-facing insight into investor and occupier expectations in shallow markets, we ask how whole-lifecycle carbon assessments and embodied and operational carbon analysis can inform retrofit decisions, prioritise spend, and evidence impact. The speakers will explore how a robust carbon-led strategy can support financing, de-risk assets, and deliver long-term value.  

ROOT to Market is a dynamic procurement marketplace designed to help the property sector deliver projects with greater transparency, impact and long-term value. Unlike traditional, one-off tendering models, ROOT to Market is a perpetually open and flexible platform aligned with the RIBA Plan of Work enabling commissioners and project teams to engage trusted, pre-approved supply chain partners at every stage of a project  from inception through to delivery.

The platform curates experienced organisations committed to circular and regenerative materials, ethical sourcing and measurable community benefit. This supports faster, more confident procurement decisions while maintaining robust standards for quality, sustainability and social value.

This session explores how procurement can shift from purely cost-driven transactions to value-led collaboration. ROOT to Market brings best practice principles to reality by drawing on real-world project experience to help clients contract for regenerative outcomes from the outset, rather than retrospectively. The session demonstrates how a marketplace approach can diversify supply chains, unlock innovation and embed environmental and social outcomes into project delivery.

Solar power is becoming a central pillar of the UK’s decarbonisation and clean energy strategies, with Government committed to trebling solar capacity by 2030. For commercial real estate investors and developers, this creates a significant opportunity. Falling costs, improving performance and rapid innovation from high-efficiency panels to on-site storage and smart energy management are changing how solar can be integrated into buildings and portfolios. 

This session explores how solar power can support the real estate sector in reducing operational carbon and energy costs while helping the wider economy transition to a low-carbon future. It will explore practical considerations for new and existing developments, including design integration, grid connections, ownership and funding models, and interactions with evolving policy and regulation.

Since its introduction, the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) has had a profound impact on how sustainability is defined, measured and reported across the property sector. Five years on, this session will reflect on what SFDR has realistically achieved in driving better environmental and social outcomes, and where it has fallen short. With the publication of the 2025 consultation, the panel will explore whether the original objectives of SFDR have shifted, how expectations of market participants are evolving, and whether the principle of “do no significant harm” remains fit for purpose in today’s regulatory and investment landscape.  

Speakers will examine how property strategies have adapted in response to Article 6, 8 and 9 classifications, and the practical challenges of implementation and disclosure. The discussion will also assess which certifications and frameworks are most relevant for investors seeking to evidence compliance and manage risk. Bringing together legal experts, developers and sustainability consultants, the session will offer a balanced, forward-looking view on the future direction of SFDR in real estate. 

As market conditions tighten and buyer scrutiny increases, preparing a real estate asset for exit has become more complex than timing alone. This session explores how liquidity is now shaped not just by location and income, but by sustainability credentials and future readiness. We will examine whether ESG performance is a decisive factor in pricing and deal velocity, or simply a threshold requirement to access core capital. 

The discussion will focus on how owners can future-proof assets when capital for major works is constrained. What signals matter most to buyers? How are sustainability risks and opportunities being measured today, and how consistent are those metrics across markets? We will also look at how core and core-plus investors view transition risk, stranded assets, and the credibility of forward plans. 

Finally, the session will explore whether mapping the next buyer’s ESG journey, even without immediate capex, can itself add value and improve exit outcomes. 

Version 1 of the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard (the Standard) was published in March. It lays the groundwork for formal, independent verification that will go live in Q2 2026, allowing buildings to undergo rigorous assessment and formally demonstrate Net Zero Carbon Alignment. 

Updates to the Standard include new Annexes covering landlord- and tenant-only routes to verification, and an optional verified check at Practical Completion to determine whether a building is on track. 

This session will cover:

• Recap of the Standard and its journey to date 
• Introduction to the verification process
• Industry perspective on the value of achieving verification, and how the Standard is being embedded within workflows
• Embedding the Standard into ESG workstreams and legal contracts
• An update on plans to weave the Standard into sustainable finance and insurer dialogues with development partners

Much to the annoyance of linguists, Will Arnold argues that regenerative design is a verb, not a noun. It's a process we can all follow - on any project - to move us closer to the goal of doing more good with construction, rather than just minimising harm. 

In this keynote, Will will share a simple process he has developed to anchor all the amazing innovations, processes and mindsets that exist in industry today, and draw them together into a regenerative approach to building design and construction. 

Learning from examples taken from across the industry, see how his three pillars of systems thinking - place, time and influence - can be combined to create buildings that heal our planet.