The biggest change I observed from attending the first year was the transition from ‘this is the scale of the problem’ to ‘this is what we are doing to address the problem’.

We’re still far from where we should be, but the collective effort and energy is inspiring to see.

I heard a similar message across a few talks – early collaboration is key: whether by presenting evidence to insurers during early design stages in the XYLO timber framed office building, to bringing contractor discussions forward to eliminate future site wastage using the Construction Waste Portal.

The focus now has to be on long term thinking. Anna Lisa McSweeney from White Arkitekter explained that we need to ‘be a good ancestor’, which not only means leaving the site in a better way than it was found, but passing on good records about the building fabric and its disassembly to ensure that future generations have the information they need for adaptation and reuse.

It was encouraging to see an enhanced focus on people centred design, with Timothy Clement from Morgan Sindall Construction advocating that ‘capital expenditure and social value’ should not be separated, and that purpose is more important than process.

The great work done by the UK NZC Buildings Standard is further enhanced by the additional research being undertaken with the extension of the Offices Sector Group, who have worked hard to collate benchmark data for Cat B office fit-outs, an area which will hugely benefit from this additional focus. I’ll be keeping an eye out on Overbury's page for the white paper coming out in June.

It was great to catch up with some familiar faces and meet some new ones. See you at FOOTPRINT+ next year!

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By Adriana Keast 

Senior Architect and Sustainability Champion,

Jestico + Whiles