WMCCE hosted its third West Midlands Sustainable Built Environment Forum on 20^th July 2010. The Forum lived up to its reputation for thought provoking and leading edge thinking on Sustainable Construction issues.

The debate was begun by Phil Wilson, WMCCE Executive Director who outlined the challenges the construction industry is currently facing with the recent Government cuts in public spending.  Phil went on to explain, WMCCE would seek to demonstrate the real benefits of sustainability in delivering future construction projects through its partnership with leaders in Sustainable Construction.

WMCCE has also jointly funded a Scoping Study for Housing Retrofit Delivery and Finance and Jon Morris of Encraft/Localise took the Forum through its key recommendation.  Jon emphasised that local leadership is more critical than ever and that new institutions and structures will be needed to deliver this in the future.  

John Cave the Sustainable Materials Manager for E H Smith gave a thought provoking presentation on the fundamental changes his organisation has made to pursue the principles of Sustainable Development.  John emphasised the importance of working in partnership with all parts of the supply chain to maximise the take up of these materials and to embed them in the construction industry.

An important principle of Sustainable Construction is Passivhaus which has the fundamental benefit of reducing energy demand from new and retrofit projects.  John Barnham the Head of Asset Management at Orbit Hearth of England described the first Passivhaus certified social housing scheme in the Midlands.  He pointed out the importance of social housing being low energy housing with the primary objective of tacking fuel poverty and the additional benefit of CO₂ reduction.  

Finally, John Sharpe the WMCCE Sustainability Advisor led a lively debate on the way in which sustainability should be presented in the new political and economic climate.  The Forum agreed that it was important to cover all aspects of sustainability, economic, environmental, social and the prudent use of resources  The debate developed to review if and how this could be led by an emphasis on Low Carbon Construction.  John used the debate to confirm that WMCCE would be ensuring that all aspects of Sustainability were covered in its activities and illustrated by reference to the Climate Change in Schools Project and WMCCE sister programme with the Sustainable Housing Action Partnership (SHAP).

Presentations can be downloaded by clicking here

For further information please contact John Sharpe, Sustainability Advisor sustainability@wmcce.org