Seminar A
Planning for Nationally Significant Infrastructure
Sponsored by: RPS
Presented by: Geoff Bullock - Director, Planning
Geoff is a Director of RPS Planning and Development and is based in the London office. He has been with RPS for nearly 10 years during which he has worked on a wide range of projects. More recently he has led the planning on two major LNG projects at the Isle of Grain (Phase 1 and 2) and Canvey Island and is currently working on the Bains Gas Storage project in the East Irish Sea.
Critical to the development of new ‘nationally significant’ infrastructure projects is the impact and interpretation of the new Planning Act of 2008, which introduces National Policy Statements and a new Infrastructure Planning Commission to determine such development
This seminar will outline implications of the new regime by considering the following key areas:
- National Policy Statements
- Projects to be dealt with by the IPC
- Procedures and timescales
- Consenting regime and challenges to decisions
Seminar B
Delivering Sustainable Development – Need it be an inconvenient afterthought?
Sponsored by Hyder Consulting
Presented by: Stephanie Wray - Managing Director
Stephanie is Hyder Consulting UK’s Managing Director for Environment and has recently been appointed to Hyder’s Professional Board as Global Environment Leader, where she also advises the Executive Board on matters relating to sustainability and corporate responsibility.
Let’s face it – in any project development it is the vision of the bright new future that is being created that grabs the headlines. Consideration of more humdrum things like utility supply, waste management and meeting ever tighter building design codes nearly always come later and have to shoehorn into the grand design. The result is compromise, cost and lost opportunity.
But is doesn’t have to be like this. The drive for increased sustainability is creating new approaches that build in efficiency from the outset by concentrating on managing the way that energy and resources flow around the whole development. This creates more opportunity for lower costs and lower carbon emissions compared with just concentrating ‘sustainability’ activities on the buildings that will be created. This is a real win-win situation.
So how can we achieve this outcome? The key is to plan the development around the consideration of the local opportunities so that they can be built in from the outset.
To facilitate the delivery of this integrated approach Hyder Consulting has developed a practical toolkit that is designed to support the whole development process from early concept through masterplanning and into construction. This brings together and intimately combines the processes of efficient design at the development and building scale, local assessment of renewable energy opportunities, water supply, waste management, etc with the practical considerations around utility supply and management. We can balance all other elements of social and environmental sustainability using this approach as well. By operating our toolkit as a single process in this way, development costs will be lower and the levels of sustainability achieved will be higher. This presentation will demonstrate our toolkit in action.
Seminar C
UK Government’s Timber procurement policy and embedding best practice in the supply chain
Sponsored by: The Paper Company LTD
Presented by: Veronica Heaven - Corporate Responsibilty Director
Veronica is Corporate Responsibility Director for PaperCo and responsible for the strategic development of the company’s corporate responsibility and environmental affairs including implementing initiatives which enhance the products, services and advice given to public and private sector customers.
For ten years Veronica has worked for PaperCo, one of the first UK paper merchants to be awarded both Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) Chain of Custody certifications. She was also instrumental in PaperCo becoming an approved supplier to central government under the Recycled Printing Paper Framework Agreement PPAD 09/034/023. She has run and continues to be involved with a number of seminars relating to recycled papers, Chain of Custody accreditation and the implementation of new procurement laws relating to timber derived products.
Veronica has a Bachelor of Arts degree in business and marketing and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
More than 18% of CO2 emissions are caused by deforestation highlighting the importance of the timber procurement policy to encourage legal and long term sustainable sourcing of timber and forest products.
From 1st April 2009 new government policy will mean that only timber and timber derived products (including pulp and paper) originating either from independently verified legal and sustainable sources or from a licensed Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) partner will be required by Government bodies and public sector buyers.
PaperCo and The Central Point of Expertise on Timber procurement (CPET) – a Defra funded body ― will together outline how to comply with policy, understand the evidence required and how to embed best practice in the supply chain.
PaperCo is an approved supplier to government and plays a leading role in the understanding and implementation of environmental standards in the paper sector.
Seminar D
The benefits to the economy and the environment from investing in offshore renewable energy technologies
Sponsored by: NaREC (New and Renewable Energy Centre)
Presented by: Andrew Mill - Chief Executive
Andrew is the Chief Executive of NaREC, and has been involved in the energy industry for most of his career. He joined NaREC from the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney where he was Managing Director, and has taken the business from its build phase to a fully operational R&D and test facility.
NaREC has rapidly gained a strong reputation as a multi-disciplined facility specialising in wind, marine, electrical networks, photovoltaics and distributed energy technologies, and the company is now embarking on a major growth strategy seeking to build on its role as a bridge between innovation and commercialisation.
Andrew is a chartered engineer and a member of the UK DBERR’s Renewables Advisory Board chairing the marine sub-group; he sits on the board of a number of companies involved in renewable energy; and is active in assisting the spin out of a number of technologies in the energy field.
Offshore wind is earmarked to deliver 30% of all our energy from renewable sources by 2020, with scope for 5000 – 7000 more turbines, scaling up generating capacity from 590 megawatts (MW) last year to around 33 gigawatts (GW). In addition, The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) estimate that we should also see 2,000 marine renewable devices employed by this time around the UK, and that the combined market for new wind, wave and tidal power will be worth £50 bn .
The pace and efficiency of the installation that will be required to meet these targets provides massive opportunities for UK industry, but also a major rethink in the technologies used to get there. Investment is needed now to develop these clean energy technologies here in the UK; to meet our environmental obligations; to provide a secure and affordable energy supply for future generations; and to maximise the economic benefits to be had from a new 'industrial revolution' which utilises our abundant wind, wave and tidal resource.
Seminar E
The Power of IT
Sponsored by: IBM
Presented by: Steve Bowden - Chief Technology Office
Steve is Chief Technology Officer for Green Computing at IBM, with a remit to promote sustainable, cost-effective, energy-efficient IT across Northern Europe. Drawing on his 20 years’ industry experience as a Senior Consultant for IBM, he combines sharp insight into the business challenges that drive IT with a deep understanding of the underlying technology. In the course of his work worldwide with companies of all sizes and across all industry verticals – from financial services to local government – He has tackled every aspect of the IT infrastructure, always with a clear focus on how to make it produce tangible business benefits.
In his role as CTO for Green Computing, Steve continues to develop new ideas about the optimal use of technology for business, and remains in close contact with businesses around the world, gaining valuable feedback for product development initiatives within IBM. He believes firmly that Green Computing should be viewed not as an unpleasant obligation but rather as an opportunity to make dramatic improvements in the efficiency, quality and cost-effectiveness of the IT infrastructure, while simultaneously enabling faster time-to-market for new products and services
IT is pervasive, touching nearly every aspect of economic and human activity. This has two consequences:
Firstly, the carbon footprint of IT is substantial and so it has to be tightly managed. Secondly, IT itself can be a powerful enabler and transformer of carbon reduction, throughout the rest of any organisations carbon footprint.The more carbon efficient IT is, the more effective it becomes as an enabler.
This session will look at energy efficient IT and the role of IT as an enabler of carbon reduction, drawing on practical examples from the private and public sector.