Future Of Green Energy Discussed At Unique Green Vision Event

A unique conferencing event where attendees were encouraged to use their mobile phones throughout, was held in Leeds last week, bringing together academics and professionals from across the world to discuss the future of energy within buildings, projecting the findings onto a global stage through the integration of live social media updates.

Leeds Metropolitan's Centre for Knowledge Exchange and the Construction Sector Network brought together the construction industry’s leading experts in sustainability last Thursday at a Green Vision event, Gvis2011, focusing on what domestic and non domestic buildings, as well as individuals, need to work towards to meet the government’s radical carbon emission reductions as detailed in the Energy Bill*.

The seminar began with attendees hearing from Martin Brown of Fairsnape and be2Camp who sponsored the event. He said: “Unlike other events I'd like to encourage people to switch their phones on! We want to share content and encourage interaction worldwide so please do spread it out via twitter, your blogs or on LinkedIn or facebook updates. Let's take our discussion global!"

A series of key note speeches, roundtable discussions, and Pecha Kucha* style presentations became hot topics, gaining perspectives from international individuals and organisations, which gave insight into green energy within building on a global level.

Karen Stafeckis of sustainable developers Citu, one of the sponsors of Green Vision, said: “There are so many factors in green building and it takes events like this to bring common problems to the forefront and start looking at ways individuals and businesses across the industry can start making a difference. The roundtable discussions at today's event have been really useful to be part of practical, real life discussions and bridge the gap where design meets performance.”

The round table discussions generated debate from academics and professionals who tweeted their thoughts live which were projected onto the walls of Old Broadcasting House in Leeds, where the event was held.

A common theme that experts agreed on was that if the Energy Bill is to be a success, businesses and individuals need better education and understanding of the different elements within it, further incentives to implement green energy within buildings and a deeper understanding of the need for behavioural changes across the world to ensure 'green' buildings can work to their full potential.

Green Vision is supported by a number of regional partners who hold a commitment to sharing their knowledge, practice and thoughts on the future of energy within construction. These include sustainable property developers Citu, the team behind the UK’s most low carbon mixed use development, Greenhouse, The Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists, RICS, legal experts Squire Sanders Hammonds, social media consultancy Fairsnape and Leeds College of Building. It has also received support and recognition from UKBGBC who share the mission to dramatically improve the sustainability of the built environment.

Karl Redmond, CEO of the Construction Sector Network, hosts of the event, said: “The event has been absolutely fantastic. I’ve been really impressed by the level of interaction and the different areas of expertise that have been brought together. The industry needs more of these types of debates to involve everyone across all areas and consider energy in buildings for major corporations right through to SMEs. The social media interaction has brought invaluable contributions from all over the world, which is what is needed to make a serious difference to the future of the industry.”

The virtual networking event was supported by be2camp and Fairsnape who specialise in social media for the built environment. Paul Wilkinson of be2camp said: “It’s great to see people outside of the UK retweeting points raised during the debate, expanding the conference outside of the 4 walls in Leeds to across the world. It’s real time conversation that doesn’t cost anything to generate and has the potential to excite audiences across the world. By Skyping the key note speakers, money and energy was saved through not needing to travel. It is the future of networking and debates.”