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Engaging, Inspiring and Informing our Communities about the Future of Building
Welcome to ‘Building Sustainable Communities’, Bradfords' event series designed to engage, inspire and inform about building for the future.
At Bradfords we understand the journey we all have to go on, and the scale of the transformation to the way in which we build to meet targets on decarbonisation, biodiversity, and environmental impact whilst making sure that what we do build is fit for communities into the future.
We plan to hold two events per year bringing together speakers and building materials manufacturers who are leading the conversation. We’re lucky to have a supply chain that is very supportive of this initiative.
Do join us at the events, even if not in person, then online or watch them at your convenience afterwards and we hope that they engage, inspire and inform.
Giles Bradford, Head of Sustainability
Building Sustainable Communities: 26/05/2021
If you missed out on previous Building Sustainable Communities Events, don’t worry, the recordings of the presentations are all here for you to be inspired by in your own time.
Bradfords
At Bradfords we want to be the first and only place our customers need to come to get advice and the building materials they need to build sustainably. Find out more about what we are doing to achieve this goal as explained by our Head of Sustainability, Giles Bradford, and the work going on to support our teams, customers and communities gearing up for the future of building.
Marshalls
Marshalls landscaping products have been developed with sustainability in mind over the past 20 years. Chris Griffiths, their head of product sustainability explains the context, and the importance of proper comparison between products when looking at their environmental impact.
SE3 Design
With offices in the South West, SE3 Design specialise in PassivHaus. Watch this video to be taken on the journey as to why we need to focus urgently on a fabric first approach, and see the scalability of the PassivHaus philosophy as a solution to mass retrofit.
TrustMark
TrustMark is the Government Endorsed Quality Scheme covering work a consumer chooses to have carried out in or around their home. This includes all energy efficiency retrofit activities, and provides reassurance to those having work done that it will be conducted to appropriate standards.
Check out CEO Simon Ayers presentation for the latest updates on government grant schemes and routes to access them, updates on trade accreditation requirements and how they’re looking at supporting SME trades to be able to carry out retrofit work, and the direction that finance needs to take to support retrofit for homeowners.
National Custom and Self-Build Association
CEO of NaCSBA, Andrew Baddely-Chappell redefines self-build and talks about the work going on to support self-build projects in terms of mortgages, tax relief and more.
HSBC
Find out HSBC's stance on green finance for both developers and homeowners. How are financial institutions and the banks gearing up to support a move to the low carbon built-environment from the perspective of both loans for businesses and developers as well as to improve properties’ EPCs in line with forthcoming government milestones set out in the Heat and Buildings Strategy?
Galion Homes
Somerset-based Galion homes prides itself on its holistic approach to sustainability: from sourcing materials as locally as possible, to putting in place systems to minimise the through life carbon footprint of a home, and a robust approach to making sure that waste is managed in the most sustainable way. Find out more about the practises which trades, housebuilders and developers can adopt and include in their projects to move towards more sustainable building.
Building Sustainable Communities: 04/09/2021
If you missed out on previous Building Sustainable Communities Events, don’t worry, the recordings of the presentations are all here for you to be inspired by in your own time.
Phil Mason, Head of Regulatory Engagement at Trustmark
TrustMark is the Government Endorsed Quality Scheme covering work a consumer chooses to have carried out in or around their home. This includes all energy efficiency retrofit activities, and provides reassurance to those having work done that it will be conducted to appropriate standards. Phil will open with a short presentation to bring us up to speed on the government’s heat and buildings strategy and what that means for you – whether you’re a local authority, housing association, developer or tradesperson. In the wake of the close of COP 26, he’ll also highlight any key outtakes from the conference which affect us. Finally, he’ll outline the national retrofit strategy – the plan to improve the energy efficiency of some 28 million existing homes across the UK by 2040.
SERO (Optimised Retrofit Wales)
Optimised Retrofit is the organisation leading the charge across the border in Wales to deliver over 1700 retrofitted homes as a pathfinder scheme to understand the challenge better, and work in collaboration with over 60 partners to trial and refine the digital tools required to enable the decarbonisation of homes across Wales, as well as help build the skills and training needed to underpin this. Optimised Retrofit lead the way in the UK in this regard. Andy will give us insight into the project, highlighting the challenges and learnings which we can all learn from as we look to build greener and be part of the South West’s retrofit programme.
Chris Woodfield, Future Plymouth 2030/Low Carbon Devon
Future Plymouth 2030 provides a forum focussed on the built environment aspiration for Plymouth in 2030. Regular webinars cover topics ranging from the practical skills and technologies required to design and build better performing new buildings, how to tackle retrofitting existing buildings, biodiversity and carbon sequestration to behaviour change required to achieve any of this. Low Carbon Devon is a Sustainable Earth Institute project designed to support Devon based organisations around the low carbon agenda. Organisations can access research and business support to support the aim for low carbon economic growth. Chris will present on the challenges that Devon, and specifically Plymouth, see regarding achieving a lower carbon built environment for the city and beyond by 2030, the approaches being taken to mitigate these, and provide insight into how developers will be part of this.
Tom Carr, Verto Homes
Verto Homes is a Truro-based developer who have spent 10 years honing their use of sustainable technology and materials to deliver zero carbon homes without harming the environment. Leaders in the UK of managing to scale this beyond bespoke one-off designs, their approach is catching the attention of national housebuilders as they begin to face the reality of achieving this at even greater scale. Tom will talk about how they incorporate low carbon into every aspect of their build and how this makes sense from not only an environmental perspective, but commercial too. Tom aims to dispel the fear around the barriers which stop people embracing a low carbon approach.