Kelly Harrison writes from FOOTPRINT+ …

“This week I’ve doubled my travel carbon footprint, six London bus journeys to the office versus two trains there and back to Brighton, all for the new Footprint+ sustainability conference.

Over the last few years at Whitby Wood we’ve been rigorously counting our carbon, analysing and plotting a route to zero. There are many parts of the industry outside of our control as consultants, so we created interactive graphs to show how change in regulation, procurement and technology can all impact our route. We’ve committed to being part of that change, learning, educating, researching and applying, not avoiding difficult conversations. And that’s why I’m up early, fresh faced and wide eyed, heading South.

Right now, with no new systems, the most responsible inner city development I can see is to adapt and extend existing buildings with low embodied carbon materials, providing a low enough operational carbon building is produced. That’s what I’ll be speaking about on Thursday at 11am.

I’m sitting on the train, looking out the window, the sun is out, the sky is blue, there’s a few clouds about. Starting in the City Metropolis, I can sense the buzz, the infrastructure, the river, the towers, the demolition, the heritage, the parks, the communities, the investment. As we speed through the suburbs we hit the airport, and then the farmland, changing biodiversity, wind farms, agriculture, industry, solar arrays, motorways. All of these observations make me feel so many things, the right, the wrong, the outrage, the optimism, the opportunity.

I can feel it in the train air, I’m full of anticipation of what will happen this week, what will come out of the think tanks, the breakfast briefings, the talks, and the conversations at the coffee stations? Who will I meet? What ideas will we have? Where will discussions lead?

How will this week change the world? I’ve no doubt it’ll be worth the train carbon…

Footprint+
7-9 June 2022 in Brighton
footprintplus.com

Kelly’s blog is brought to you by the lovely people at the IStructE