Future Green Buildings - Sustainable Retrofit, Learning from Europe

18 November 2009, BRE Garston Watford, UK

On the 18th of November 2009, SIN Switzerland organised a Future Green Buildings seminar, at the BRE in Watford, in collaboration with the Modern Built Environment KTN and with a helping hand from the UKERC. The event presented renowned speakers from the UK and Europe with a unique opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences on retrofitting the urban environment.

Housing accounts for around 30% of the UK's total energy use and 27% of carbon dioxide emissions. While the environmental footprint of new housing schemes has been improving in recent years, there are still many barriers to overcome in the supply of energy and design for homes. In order to reduce the environmental impact and to enable the UK industry and wider community to meet the standards of the “Code for Sustainable Homes”, there is a need to increase energy efficiency in existing buildings. Low/zero carbon homes technologies that reduce energy use are therefore more and more in demand.

The Future Green Buildings seminar provided 60 UK house-builders, experts and policy makers with an opportunity to exchange knowledge with leading-edge European technology and research players from France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.

Topics for discussion included:

• Development on environmental friendly/sustainable houses and communities;
• How to adapt existing buildings to climate change (retrofit)?
• Energy efficient systems and technologies.

The aim of the meeting was to:

• Increase UK research capacity in low carbon technologies for house builders;
• Provide knowledge to the UK to reduce the environmental impact of existing buildings;
• Facilitate contacts and report on funding available from bodies such as the European Union (FP7) and national research councils;
• Disseminate information on programmes and incentives;
• Help participants identify opportunities and develop beneficial relations between UK and European scientists and experts.
   

The programme was a combination of presentations and group discussions focussing on 4 main themes: Retrofit,  Energy Efficiency, Supply Chain and Behaviour.

The discussion highlighted some of the main issues currently faced in the UK:
The lack of information available relevant about technologies and funding possibilities; the lack of incentives associated to the costs of retrofitting;  and finally the lack of training, skills and education that affect the industry and UK population alike.
 
The seminar was an overall success, opening up to great networking opportunities amongst the high-level speakers and participants.

More information on the programme, the speakers, the outcome of group discussions and the presentations will be made available on this website.
 

British Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Robert Watson, guest speaker at Swiss Global Change Day

On 31 March 2009, the Swiss global change research community met for the 10th time on the Swiss Global Change Day in Berne. This annual interdisciplinary meeting presents recent developments in the field of global environmental change research and is also an opportunity for the 300 international participants to discuss challenges for future research.

Professor Robert Watson, Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), was invited to talk about the role of science in “humanity’s global experiment with the environment”. He presented an overview of the current knowledge base regarding the key global environmental issues, such as climate change and loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and the implications for poverty alleviation and food and water security. He emphasized the need for an interdisciplinary approach to tackling environmental issues, arguing that biodiversity, water management, food security and climate change could not be dealt with separately. He also stressed the urgent need for stringent legally binding equitable international agreements and regulations for climate change.

As Defra CSA, Professor Watson provides UK ministers with scientific advice and builds on existing measures to ensure that science and technology are used to inform policy. He also supports the UK Government’s scientific work on minimising the effects of climate change and improving sustainability by promoting consistency across Defra and working together with other Government departments.

For more information:

• Defra (http://www.defra.gov.uk/science/how/sac/adviser.htm)
• Forum for Climate and Global Change, Proclim. (http://www.proclim.ch/)

 

Ambassador John Nichols and members of the STFC visit CERN

British Ambassador, John Nichols, and Science & Innovation officer, Gaby Bloem, visited CERN on 18 February 2009, accompanying members of the advisory committees to the UK’s Science & Technology Facilities Research Council (STFC). The STFC is one of the UK’s seven research councils which, together, invest £2.8 bn in research each year.

The Embassy in Berne and Consulate General in Geneva remain in close touch with key contacts at CERN and this was the Ambassador’s fourth visit since he took up post in Switzerland in Autumn 2008.

More information on www.scitech.ac.uk  and www.cern.ch

 

European scientists share novel infectious diseases therapies in London and Edinburgh

At the invitation of the UK Science & Innovation Network a delegation of European academic and business scientists visited the UK from 24-26 November 2008 as part of a European Novel Infectious Diseases Therapies Mission. Scientists from the following organisations were present:

• Debiopharm SA (Switzerland);
• ETH Zurich (Switzerland);
• Hadassah University (Israel);
• The Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology (Germany);
• Novartis Vaccines (Italy);
• OM Pharma (Switzerland);
• The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Switzerland);
• The University of Cologne (Germany);
• University of the Mediterranean (France) and
• Uppsala University (Sweden)

Networking and partnering seminars were held with the London Technology Network at the Swiss Embassy where participants also received a presentation on funding under the European Framework 7 Programme. Further partnering seminars were held with the Centre for Molecular Microbiology and Infection at Imperial College, London and with 3IR at the University of Edinburgh. 

Delegates sought to renew existing contacts and to establish new ones. They sought to gain a clearer understanding of UK and European science and innovation priorities and there was much discussion on new modes of cooperation for programmes and projects and possible sources of funding. It is hoped these early discussions will lead to greater transnational collaboration on infectious disease research in the future.

Background information

The UK Science & Innovation Network is the home of United Kingdom science diplomacy. The Network consists of 90 full time equivalent staff based in 25 countries at 40 embassies, high commissions and consulates worldwide. The Network forms part of the International Science and Innovation Unit (ISIU) of the United Kingdom's Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS).

ISIU seeks:

• to maximise the value to the UK research base from the European Union Framework Programmes and other European and global programmes;
• to ensure that UK researchers have access to the best science globally now and in the future;
• to increase the innovative nature of UK businesses by ensuring that they have optimal access to the very best science, engineering and technology opportunities worldwide;
• and to influence UK, overseas and multilateral policy in science and innovation, and in other policy areas based on optimal deployment of the scientific evidence base.

The UK Science & Innovation Network organises workshops and conferences either self standing or in partnership with others. It supports visits and missions both to and from the UK for ministers, officials, research councils, universities, academics, companies and others.