A growing success

Ecobuild, the world’s biggest event for sustainable design, construction and the built environment, is bigger than ever this year, bringing together more than 1,000 suppliers of sustainable construction products at London’s Earls Court between Tuesday 02 March and Thursday 04 March 2010.

From big names such as Rockwool, Sika, Dimplex, Finnforest, Schueco, Interface, Rehau, ACO Technologies, Kohler Mira and CEMEX, to the smallest new business exhibiting in Ecobuild’s ‘Green Shoots’ entrepreneurs zone, every conceivable product and service for low and zero carbon construction will be represented.

Many exhibitors choose Ecobuild as the launch platform for new products and initiatives and you will find these new products and initiatives within the Ecobuild conference.

Information programme – seminars, conference Ecobuild’s outstanding conference and seminar programme always delivers the very best in up-to-date information, delivered by over 500 of the sector’s most highly-regarded experts.

Plus – new for 2010 – over 30 additional sessions for those involved in the provision of heating, electrical and plumbing services.

‘Ecobuild installer’ is designed to make sense of the market for the installation of micro renewable energy systems with two parallel streams of seminars, workshops and training sessions, ‘installer business’ and ‘practical installer.’ The ‘practical installer’ stream is brought to life with a series of live interactive demonstrations by Plumb Center with leading manufacturers taking place throughout each day including:

• Solar panel installation - Ploughcroft / Plumb Center
• Solar-thermal - Worcester Bosch / Kingspan / Baxi / Ideal / Vaillant
• Biomass / micro CHP – Baxi
• Heat pumps - Dimplex / CTC
• Underfloor heating – Uponor
• Rain water harvesting – Kingspan
• Greywater recycling – Ecoplay
• Water efficiency - Saracen/ Mira

Ecobuild’s conference maintains its reputation for attracting speakers of the highest calibre. The conference will feature Joan Ruddock, minister of state, Department of Energy & Climate Change; Greg Barker, shadow minister for climate change; Simon Hughes, Liberal Democrat shadow secretary of state for energy and climate change; Nick Raynsford MP, deputy chairman, construction industry council and former construction minister; Stephen Stone, chief executive Crest Nicholson; and Paul Drechsler, chief executive of Wates.

They will take to the stage to discuss topics such as ‘Copenhagen consequences: how strong is the political will for a low carbon Britain?’ ‘International and green: learning from around the world’ and ‘Second generation sustainability: zero carbon without the bling.’

Ecobuild fringe, attractions, special events
Another new initiative for 2010 is the Ecobuild fringe, an eclectic range of events from exhibitors, supporters and partners, all taking place at or around Earls Court during Ecobuild.

Highlights include:
• One planet living – BioRegional
• The power of landscape to deliver communities – The Landscape Institute
• Delivering sustainable M&E projects – M&E Sustainability
• Bio-based materials for better low carbon buildings – National Non Food Crop Centre (NNFCC)
• Ventilation and indoor air quality – AECB
• Delivering low energy sustainable buildings: the people dimension – Construction Skills

Elsewhere on the programme there are dozens of attractions and special events. The presentation of BRE Global’s BREEAM Awards which recognise and reward those involved in the design and construction of the highest scoring buildings certified under BREEAM will take place in the Ecobuild Arena on Wednesday 03 March.

The Solar Decathlon Europe competition stops off at Ecobuild too, with the debut of The Nottingham HOUSE (Home Optimising the Use of Solar Energy) at Ecobuild on its way to the final in Madrid in June. The University of Nottingham’s Department of the Built Environment (SBE) has teamed up with Saint Gobain to create the HOUSE – an energy efficient, zero carbon solar powered home – which is part of the students’ entry into the competition.

Bill Dunster’s RuralZED, providers of the first ever Level 6 certified, ‘zero carbon’ house – launched at Ecobuild 2008 – will be offering an on-the-spot real time design and business planning service for plotholders and will demonstrate how landowners can both develop their land profitably and achieve the highest environmental standards.

The ‘design while you wait’ consultation at Ecobuild will allow visitors to come away with an architect’s sketch layout for a potential site, the cost for a RuralZED housing solution, an estate agent’s valuation of the completed home(s), a business plan providing anticipated profit and RuralZED system specifications and kit costs.

Solarcentury’s ‘Solar Hub’ is well-timed to help visitors understand the implications of the Government’s clean energy cashback scheme planned for April next year. Using a model city as a backdrop, Solarcentury will demonstrate the ease with which solar solutions can be integrated into the built environment and showcase the very latest in solar PV and solar-thermal technologies.

Always a hugely popular attraction, Ecobuild’s ‘Cityscape’ takes green infrastructure as its theme for 2010 and looks at the improvements that urban green space can deliver in both social and environmental terms.

‘Innovate offsite’ from Mtech Consult and Galliford Try will showcase the very best in offsite construction, bringing together a broad range of systems to demonstrate the benefits of using offsite products and techniques for complex and challenging projects as well as more straightforward builds.

Experts in providing training in lowimpact building methods and natural materials, RESET and Amazonails will be collaborating to provide a series of rammed earth and strawbale workshops, taking
place daily on the exhibition floor.

As well as hands-on, practical demonstrations of straw bale wall construction, clay plastering and lime rendering, workshops will consider habitat design approaches, green infrastructure and climate change adaptation, SUDS and ecosystem services.

Arena
In the Ecobuild arena, the high profile commentators for 2010 include: Andrew Neil, Terry Farrell, Will Alsop, Rosie Boycott, Jonathon Porritt, Alastair McGowan, Dame Joan Bakewell and David Blunkett, who will be discussing subjects as diverse as human behaviour, food, architecture and design, science and religion.

New for 2010 is the series of arena lectures. Eight expert speakers will deliver stimulating talks on a range of subjects from design to politics. Lectures include: ‘The unbearable redundancy of things’ from Stephen Bayley, who is an award-winning author, journalist and design consultant; ‘Politicians going green make me see red’ from Jonathan Glancey, an architecture and design correspondent at The Guardian; and ‘How to avoid power cuts in the UK’ from James Woodhuysen, professor of forecasting and innovation at De Montfort University.