Building Sustainably in Cornwall Conference Report

Cornwall Sustainable Building Trust, in partnership with Cornwall County Council and the Eden Project held a well attended and successful conference “Building Sustainably in Cornwall” on 24th November 2005 at New County Hall, Truro.

Over 130 delegates attended the one day conference and exhibition, including planners, architects, developers, Housing Associations, councillors, construction firms, developers and material and service suppliers.

There was an exhibition area, with exhibits from

• Cornwall Environmental Consultants
• Ellerslee Ltd
• Cornwall Sustainable Energy Partnership
• Kerrier District Council
• Cornish Lime
• M J Robinson and Co
• Cornwall Sustainable Building Trust
• Ecodrive

Along with an Associates gallery where CSBT Associates could display photos of their work.  Plans and drawings of the Rural Zed were displayed with Bill Dunster of BDA Zedfactory and Paul Bright of CSBT on hand to answer questions.  An outdoor exhibitor was Eco-drive demonstrating an electric car in the car park; this attracted a lot of interest from delegates as well as a queue of people waiting for a ride!

The conference set out to encourage debate about the need to build sustainably, what is involved, and how to take steps towards more sustainable building across Cornwall, to make it happen. 

This was achieved through structuring the day into three main sessions with each session being followed by a facilitated discussion to reach a consensus on what we all need to do to build sustainably, with conclusions and guiding principles being drawn together in the final facilitated discussion session.

The first session explored the need for building sustainably and why a change to the way we build is necessary due to climate change.  

The second session went on to look at the possibilities - covering design considerations for sustainable buildings and some examples of existing buildings built in a more sustainable way.

The third session covered positive steps including latest exciting developments at Cornwall Sustainable Building Trust including news on the Rural Zed and an update on the 2004 ANSAS competition.

The conclusions and guiding principles from the discussion sessions were as below.  A summary of all the speakers’ presentations can be found at the end of this report.

Conclusions and Guiding Principles from the discussion sessions

Session one discussion raised issue with the cost of local suppliers for instance Cornish Granite compared to Chinese.  It was decided that there are hidden costs with not buying local:

• The carbon cost of transport embodied energy
• The cultural cost of loss of identity
• Knock on costs from community disengagement

Climate Change & US It was accepted as a reality and delegates agreed that individuals have to accept some responsibility and understand that we all make things happen.

Conference agreed the need for a new vernacular meeting the needs of both the 21st century and future generations.

By following responsible development principles and learning from our mistakes, the delegates agreed that integrity was the key to progress. This could be assisted by tax incentives rewarding people for going Beyond Compliance.

Finally we need to listen to and learn from and support local suppliers.

Session two discussed the way to achieve sustainable developments.

On the subject of building integrated Microgeneration, a delegate raised the question of additional and maybe prohibitive costs.

This was answered by the proposal for either lease purchase of an energy mortgage paid for from the savings in energy bills.

What are sustainable communities?

Conference wanted a distinction made between the Government definition and truly sustainable communities; It was decided to avoid the term altogether at present.

Discussion then went to the costs of Green Building generally; i.e. does it need to cost more? Is there value added and therefore market premium and if so can this also become a barrier to affordability?

The conclusion was to keep it simple.

Session three dealt with ways to make building sustainably in Cornwall happen. Delegates recommended that we should contact District Councils and pass on the consensus of the conference.

One delegate suggested that in his view sustainable construction was akin to pre-industrial building, which was thought to be too restrictive by most who recognized the need to live in the present with lessons from the past and respect for the future.

Another delegate commented that we could start saving CO2 by opening the blinds and switching out the lights.

Carbon awareness should be an integral part of the National curriculum i.e. part of our World’s History.

It was reiterated that the issue was now personal and that each of us should carefully explain to at least two others how we can all reduce our impact (carbon footprint). If we do that properly so that two more people subsequently follow suit, we will have started to make a Major Difference.

To reduce our impact from attending the conference it was suggested that we each plant another tree, ecologists say native deciduous, builders say softwood crop species as good for reducing carbon.

We have now reached Peak Oil, so alternatives are now essential not optional.

Delegates highlighted the barriers of acquiring sites for any building of affordable homes. It was suggested that Local Authorities had the ability to provide sites utilizing council tax from second homes, and there were other models such as co housing hat need further investigating. CSBT is also keen to locate a site where it can lead a co-housing development and redefine Sustainable Community.

Another delegate recommended the film: People and surburbia

Feedback

Feedback from delegates after the conference was very positive, with 83% of delegates rating the speakers as good, and 100% of the delegates rating the conference as being of benefit to them.

Comments about the speakers ranged from “Good range of speakers and topics”, “Thought provoking and stimulating, a range of presentation levels”, “Excellent variety of speakers”, “Good range of topics”,.

Comments as to the benefits of the conference overall to delegates and their organisation included “Lots of food for thought – a good catalyst”, with suggestions for improvement including “Need to get the ideas to a wider audience”, and “Speakers could be more available for buttonholing…”.

More general comments included “…could do with making better use of csbt network and offer experience on sustainable projects small or large…”, “Provide some training and education to planners but especially (and more so) elected members who often will hold back a development because it is different. Bedzed/ruralzed isn’t exactly in keeping with local vernacular, but is surely the way forward”.

Summary of presentations

Following an introduction from Dr Jan Pentreath as CSBT Chairman, the first session, Understanding the Need was opened by a presentation from Jeremy Rowe, as recently appointed Member Champion for sustainable energy.  He considered three key questions in relation to sustainability – these being

• What forces us to act?
• So what are we doing?
• So what more can we do?

Jeremy spoke of the motivational factors on which Cornwall County Council needs to act, then went on to highlight current County Council work to demonstrate what is being done now, including  developing a Climate Change Strategy and maintaining or increasing the use of green energy (currently at 25%). 

With regard to what more can be done, these included Cornwall County Council being a major campaigning organization for sustainable building, to speak loudly about achievements, but also to be honest and blunt about any shortcomings.  He stressed the importance of pursuing a long term vision, concluding that there is much to do, and much still to learn, but if we wait till the solutions are perfect it will be far too late.

Bert Biscoe’s presentation was passionate and inspiring considering building sustainably in Cornwall and its relationship with the Cornish ethos and landscape, under the theme of the Zen of Dreckly.  This included such observations as “A culture which is not founded upon the basic tenets of sustainability will not survive the storm” and included a plea to the architectural community “to explore the zen of dreckly - look at what you have to do; look at the world around you; aspire to enrich the place and to make your buildings contribute to the future of our aesthetic dialect - please don't be afraid to be Cornish.”

Although much has changed since the days of Trevithick, Bert observed that some considerations have not changed, “We have functions to slide into buildings; we aspire to zero-emission, to energy efficiency, to sustainability and to an absorbing and enriching relationship with nature - we have different things to do than Dick Trevithick, but we share the need to speak in our own tongue, to express our own spiritual insight and aspiration, to reconcile structure with landscape, to inspire, to comfort, to challenge and to nurture.

Peter Sandover’s presentation entitled Sustainability: Theory and Practice, looked at the Design Statement in a sustainability context - focusing on the quality of design and consultation process and how that directly impacts on the sustainability of a project. 

Peter ran through the aims objectives of the design statement, before going on to consider the statement in a Cornwall context. 

Peter argued that it is important to understand the context before designing a building, and the design should always be tailored to the site, considering both the natural environment and the human environment.

He cited several sustainable design objectives for Cornwall including the need to protect and enhance biodiversity, conserve and enhance the historic built environment, site planning to make the most of passive energy systems, adopting  low energy approaches in building as well as involving local people.

To conclude, Peter used Eden’s Core building as an example of considerations needed, and talked through his involvement in the project.

Tony Norton gave a thought provoking  presentation entitled “Building Sustainably - How far have we got and where are we going?” considering current and future housing design, in particular looking at energy in buildings, in the context of climate change and rising energy prices.  Tony explained that a different approach is needed - to provide a low or zero energy building offering features such as careful orientation, layout and window placement for solar control and good day-lighting, good choice of materials with right thermal mass, super insulation, well designed and controlled ventilation, warm outgoing air heating cool incoming air and making use of appliance, lighting and body heat.

Tony looked at some examples of low or zero energy builds including Landskrona, Sweden, Hockington and BedZed and Tony explained that building design must respond to the changing climate, the energy mix can change quickly.  He concluded by stating that exemplar low carbon buildings have demonstrated what can be done with building design and energy technology, and now its time to bring these changes to main stream

Following a facilitated discussion and coffee Bill Dunster took to the floor to start the second session for the day Recognising the possibilities, expanding upon the themes introduced in the first sessions and considering how we reduce our environmental impact whilst increasing our quality of life.

Bill illustrated all the design considerations, economic factors and practicalities of zed builds including BedZed and RuralZed giving numerous examples of practical Zed build solutions.

He provided food for thought by explaining that we only need 3% of the UK new homes to be built to the ZEDspec to be cost neutral with current building regulations minimum specification, at an average density of 80 homes / ha.  If all 162,000 new homes were built to ZED specification at ZEDdensities only 2025 ha would be required, thereby saving two thirds of the increase in urban sprawl, and still providing every home with a garden.

He talked through the Rural Zed explaining the features and benefits before running through the UK targets for the Rural ZED concept for meeting the energy demands through renewable technologies.  Delegates learned that the total annual consumed fuels costs per year on a 3 bed ZEDstandards home can be as little as £160, and this combined with other ZED features and benefits created a lot of interest from delegates in the RuralZED and its importance in Cornwall.

Peter Woodford followed Bill, and gave delegates the local authority perspective of sustainable building in Cornwall.  Despite a wide range of initiatives to minimise energy consumption and maintenance costs including energy management ceilings and insulation, Peter recognised that the vast majority of the existing building stock fails to offer much in the way of making a contribution to reducing the effects of global warming and climate change.

He went on to say that in recent years Cornwall County Council has established an ‘over-arching’ policy for Sustainable Development and cited several examples of recent, more sustainable builds.

He recognised that regulation is tightening and raising standards, client and planning expectations are higher and tougher standards need to be set within the Authority and the sustainable profile of a project needs to be established at briefing stage.

Caron Thompson from the Eden Project then took delegates through sustainable build considerations and the sustainable construction targets for the Core, Eden’s new education building.  After explaining the now legendary Eden PANTs test, Caron explained the targets for the design, construction and occupation phases of the Core. 

Caron explained that the design was all important – the client Brief was that the building had to be iconic – an exemplar of sustainability – to be a tree.

Caron reinforced the fact that construction input was fundamental, and joint partnership working with a number of key partners including McAlpine as main contractor was critical. 

Following lunch and much networking, Dean Millar started the third and final session of the day Making it Happen.  Dean started his presentation by citing 24th November as Peak Oil Day when production is at a peak, this was a good lead in to the necessity for a solution…and fast!  This led neatly into the CSBT ANSAS challenge – the design of a home for rural contexts that is sustainable and affordable.  The winning design was the Rural Zed and Dean updated the audience as to recent developments of the Rural Zed and CSBT including design improvements, cost engineering, business plan development and a new development vehicle - Sustain Cornwall Ltd.  A Rural Zed licence pack was being launched at the conference by Sustain Cornwall Ltd and BDAzedfactory. 

Dean went on to consider the Rural Zed in Cornwall in the context of the National Affordable Housing Programme, citing that the RuralZed could be affordable through Social Homebuy and New Build Homebuy and also Open Market Homebuy.  In closing Dean described Peak Oil Day as “The day of the sunset on the oil age and the sunrise of sustainability”

Paul Bright then spoke of developments at CSBT, including a look back on achievements to date and a look forward to the many developments and new projects being planned or undertaken.  The current 2005 work included:

• Advising NHS Partnership- food project
• Working with Cornwall County Council on local quarries & stone
• Duchy of Cornwall local materials research
• Local skills database
• Preparing local materials & trades info
• Sustainability consulting with developers

Looking forward to 2006, Paul ran through the key activities which included:

• continue STAKES training & BSC rollout
• commence Microgen project
• seek sites for Developing Sustainably proposal for zed co-housing scheme
• launch ansas 2 at spring event
• autumn ansas sustainable solutions expo

Paul’s presentation took the audience visually through the 2005 highlights including many photos of the ansas site, the Rural Zed demonstration build, the Robinsons shaft training site, training courses in progess, the Royal Cornwall Show, and the successful summer school.  Paul concluded that all the work so far was “The end of the beginning” so for both CSBT and Sustain Cornwall Ltd be sure to watch this space!!

Lesley Seymour presented on the Future Foundations Charter – the South West Regions sustainable construction charter.  Lesley explained the Mission of Future Foundations and the 17 principles of the Charter before talking through the construction process.  Lesley then went on to consider taking action – looking at the 5 steps to change; starting from looking at “what is it all about?”,  through “what can we and others do about it” ….to “have we got plan to change” and “are we monitoring our progress?”.  Lesley concluded by directing delegates to the Charter itself and further information.

The final presentation of the day was from Alan Mossman from Constructing Excellence South West.  Alan posed the question of setting up a Constructing Excellence Club in Cornwall and explained what Constructing Excellence is all about, what a CE Club does, what’s involved in setting one up and the possibility of setting up a club in Cornwall.  Interested parties were invited to pass their business cards to Alan and there was healthy interest and keenness from delegates on the day to have a Club in Cornwall.

Following Alan’s presentation, the final discussion of the day took place and any remaining delegate questions were answered, before the Chairman gave his summary and closed the conference.

a catalyst for change

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