6TH OCTOBER 2016
On Thursday 6th October we hosted our first Creating Sustainable Cities Conference at Europe House, Westminster where our focus was on providing our attendees the opportunity to see how the UK's cities and towns can benefit from embedding sustainability at the centre of their 'smart city' vision. We were fortunate to have some of the UK's leading figures on the Agenda and will be looking to build on that lineup for the 2017 Conference.
SUSTAINABLE CITIES OVERVIEW
Session One
Session One explored how sustainable considerations can be embedded into a city or town's 'smart city' vision, looking at the many benefits and opportunities that this presents for the UK's urban environments. We were delighted to welcome four fantastic speakers:
Goran Strbac, Professor of Energy Systems at Imperial College London.
Zoe Green, Manager at PwC, Cities and Urbanisation.
Jeremy Martin, Energy and Sustainability Manager at Southend Borough Council.
Gyorgyi Galik, Design Researcher at Future Cities Catapult.
A LOW CARBON FUTURE
Session Two
Our second session aimed to provide attendees with an overview on how they could approach a low carbon future, identifying how improving the energy performance of buildings can deliver substantial benefits to those undertaking their delivery:
Zoe Young, Project Manager in the Property Plan A Team, Marks & Spencer.
Martin Hunt, Built Environment Specialist at Forum for the Future.
Goran Strbac, Professor of Energy Systems at Imperial College London.
Tom Randall, Director of Development at Demand Logic.
URBAN NATURE
Session Three
Session Three was designed to deliver some exciting case studies of how the UK's cities and towns were starting to deploy green infrastructure across their urban landscapes - highlighting how it can help the UK better adapt to the future impacts of climate change:
Daniel Raven-Ellison, Founder of the National Park City initiative.
Katy Thompson, UK LIFE National Contact at the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
Rich Howorth, Biosphere Programme Manager, Brighton & Hove City Council.
DRIVING INNOVATION IN CITIES
Session Four
The penultimate session focussed on innovation and how the UK's urban landscapes can benefit from new technologies, services and products. Session Four was hosted by Ashden, one of the UK's leading environmental NGOs, and had four fantastic speakers:
Tim Armitage, Associate Director at Arup.
Chris Kimmett, Commercial Manager at Open Energi.
Phillip Morris, Senior Development Manager, Centre for Sustainable Energy.
Agamemnon Otero, CEO, Repowering (and Director of Brixton Energy).
FINANCING SMART CITIES
Session Five
Session Five began by providing a series of talks around upcoming funding opportunities from some of the EU's largest funding streams, before discussing how the UK's cities and towns could finance their ambitions to become sustainable cities:
Professor Michael Mainelli, Executive Chairman, Z/Yen Group.
Ewa Bloch, UK National Contact Point for Horizon 2020.
Dr Daniela Melandri, EU Co-Ordinator at Future Cities Catapult.
THE 2017 CONFERENCE
Building the Programme
We are currently building the Creating Sustainable Cities 2017 Conference Programme and would like to thank those who have provided us with feedback and comments. This is an essential element for our Conference Programme and ensures that the information presented at the event is both timely and relevant, tackling topics that our audience wants addressing.