Make a note in your calendar – Ecobuild, the world’s biggest event for sustainable design, construction and the built environment is back at London’s ExCeL on Tuesday 20 – Thursday 22 March.
And it’s bigger than ever. Over 1,500 suppliers will be exhibiting, creating the biggest showcase of sustainable construction products you’ll see anywhere. From big names such as Saint-Gobain, BASF Construction Chemicals, Kingspan, Vaillant, and Worcester Bosch, to up and comers in Ecobuild’s Green shoots entrepreneurs’ zone, you’ll be able to see the latest and best in everything from building materials to micro-renewables, from rainwater harvesting systems to interiors.
There’ll be hundreds of new product launches including Ecovane’s new Envergate Vertical Axis Wind Turbine, CoolSky’s solar thermal control system, two new eye-catching flooring products from nora flooring systems UK Ltd, Schueco UK’s new ERC 50 Renovation Façade, NIBE’s new F1345 ground source heat pump, and a number of new domestic heating and hot water products from Worcester Bosch Group….plus many, many more.
Ecobuild puts all these innovative products in context through its vast information programme, making a visit exceptionally good use of time. There’s the three-day, three-stream conference, sponsored by the UK Green Building Council, that tackles macro themes such as: ‘Beyond construction: achieving a sustainable future’, ‘Making sustainable construction happen’ and ‘Design, architecture & sustainability’ with renowned commentators including: Sir John Beddington, Monty Don, Janet Street Porter, Greg Dyke, Tony Juniper and Angela Brady, covering topics as diverse as ‘Growing out of trouble – how social enterprise can help restore society’, ‘People and the planet’ and ‘Collaborative consumption.’
A topical addition to the programme for 2012 is an ‘Olympics special’ hosted jointly by the Construction Products Association and BRE in which Construction Minister, Mark Prisk and Peter Bonfield, Adviser to the Olympic Delivery Authority on materials procurement consider how, having delivered ‘the greenest games ever’, the learning from the development of the Olympic Park can be put to use in other developments.
Later, Chief Construction Adviser, Paul Morrell, UKTI CEO, Nick Baird and Atkins CEO, Uwe Krueger discuss the platform the Olympics legacy will create for UK businesses to apply this learning to international projects, and build further the UK’s world-leading reputation in sustainable design and construction.
More applied is Ecobuild’s seminar programme which delivers practical advice from experienced practitioners through over 130 sessions including ‘Energy & innovation in buildings,’ ‘Better through BIM,’ ‘Buildings in use, Future energy and Sustainable by design.’
Visitors looking to get their hands dirty can do so at a dozen or more live attractions – literally in the case of Ecobuild’s Natural, traditional sustainable which demonstrates cob wall building alongside straw bale construction and carpentry techniques.
Elsewhere on the exhibition floor Renewable Heat Focus, sponsored by Vaillant, gives daily talks and one-to-one advice on how best to benefit from the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) plus a showcase and working models of the latest technology including solar thermal, biomass and heat pumps.
Renew, sponsored by Knauf Insulation, provides practical advice on achieving one of the most important aspects of achieving an energy efficient building – a highly insulated, air-tight building envelope – through daily live demonstrations covering making hard to treat buildings more energy efficient, solid wall insulation, internal wall insulation, insulating lofts and floors, party wall insulation and cavity wall upgrades.
Ecobuild’s Solar hub, sponsored by Solarcentury, demonstrates how the installation of solar PV still offers attractive rates of return via the UK Feed-in Tariff, despite adjustments to the Government’s incentive scheme through a series of talks and presentations, plus one-to-one advice.
Visitors will get practical guidance on how to specify the most appropriate system for the best results, maximise the return on investment, reduce carbon emissions and mitigate rising energy costs as well as being able to see a range of solar innovative systems from on-roof, to semi-integrated to fully roof-integrated products, and feature the latest technologies from leading modules manufacturers.
Bill Dunster’s ZEDfactory will use Ecobuild to reveal its most ambitious project yet – ZEDlife, a carbon-free, solar-powered lifestyle, in which both buildings and transport solutions meet their annual total energy demand from sunlight. Combining their existing RuralZED and StramitZED housing solutions with the latest ZEDfactory innovations – the HiminZED energy roof system, the free-standing solar tree capable of powering homes, businesses or transport, ForeverZED solar-powered transport and, most ambitious of all, ParkZED, a zero carbon, zero waste, high density mixed use development with integrated zero carbon transport solutions.
In addition to the main programme, Ecobuild’s exhibitors and partners will be offering a variety of events including the TRADA timber tours, the BREEAM awards, sessions from UKTI on international opportunties, and a programme of sessions in the UK-GBC’s ‘big tent’ on the exhibition floor.
E.ON’s will present its own Sustainable City at Ecobuild, an holistic approach to lowering carbon – from Smart metering and electric motoring, to community-scale district heating technologies. Visitors will be able to walk through E.ON’s Sustainable City model, complete with a life-sized energy-efficient home and commercial space, and interact with the tools, technology and innovations that can make sustainable cities a reality today.
As well as previewing their latest sustainable innovations in high performance flooring, Gerflor will be showcasing an original drawing by Stephen Wiltshire depicting the London 2012 Olympic Park in every detail. After Ecobuild, the drawing will be auctioned to raise funds for The Boparan Charitable Trust.
And, new for Ecobuild 2012, amongst the myriad activities taking place in the ‘RIBA village’, visitors are invited to their BITESized auditorium for a series of short and snappy topical talks, each lasting 15 minutes, and a daily Pecha Kucha 20 x 20 hour.
For the first time, the RIBA will also be hosting CPD sessions at Ecobuild – a great opportunity to get up to the minute knowledge from RIBA’s CPD Providers Network, as well as earn CPD points.
Ecobuild’s chosen charity, CRASH – the construction and property industry’s charity for homeless people – will be back in the Ecobuild boulevard with their photo booth, inviting you to find out about the work they do and the projects they support, and to ‘get snapped with CRASH’ and take away a photographic memento of your time at the event.
Spend a day at Ecobuild. Even better, spend two or three. With so much to see, learn and experience, it’s a super-efficient way to make contacts and get up to speed with the latest issues and products.
It’s all free to attend when you register at www.ecobuild.co.uk where you can also create your own itinerary using Ecobuild’s online planner.
