I wrote this letter to London's daily paper, the Evening Standard, on 6 March. they have declined to publish it.
I
was disappointed - and mystified - why London’s only daily
newspaper as failed to cover the important and
exciting Ecobuild 2014 exhibition, specialist seminars and conference
that has attracted fifty thousand visitors to the ExCel
Centre in Docklands this week, especially as the Evening Standard carries its always
interesting weekly Homes
& Property section every Wednesday.
The
top 30 clients attending last year's Ecobuild represented a project value
of £27 billion, massively
important to London’s economy.
This
year I heard many challenging presentations and saw dozens of product
demonstrations on making buildings and communities more resilient to wilder
weather, such as flooding and longer heat waves.
There were also splendid presentations on reusing building materials and household objects like tables, cupboards and white goods. Richard Featherstone of London Reuse Ltd showed how his company is working with Wandsworth borough and others across London in the capital's Re-use Network to reduce the waste going to landfill, refurbishing and repairing goods that otherwise would be thrown away, to make them availableat affordable cost to London’s hard pressed, low income families.
As
he said: we have to get the ”f” out of
refuse!
Richard Featherstone- Master of Waste!
Richard Featherstone, Development Manager at London Re-use,
has been named as one of the Masters of Waste in Resource magazine’s Hot 100
list.
Richard jumped to 29th this year from 96th last year, which
he attributes to the work of London Re-use during the years in pushing
furniture re-use from fringe to a core activity.
“It is good to see re-use experts represented in the UK hot
100” he insisted. “We, at London Re-use, are working towards re-use becoming
mainstream in waste management rather than an optional extra. In the next two
years we are going to see the increasing importance of saving re-usable
household products from the waste stream to supply the growing social need in
the event of a shrinking Social Fund.
“I’m holding firm to LRN’s vision of London as a city where
re-use is easy, popular and normal. A city which maximises the economic, environmental
and community benefits of re-use with an unrivalled infrastructure which
becomes an international model for re-use.” Featherstone added.
In Resource magazine Featherstone, life president of the
Furniture Re-use Network, is credited: “For his outstanding commitment and
dedication to re-use. Richard has been, and still is, a pioneer of re-use in
London and deserves recognition.”
One of of the most fascinating presentations came from the Urban Water Research Group at Imperial College. Its leader, Professor Maksimovic, unveiled his vision of the Blue-Green Dream for re-engineering London, to minimize the impact of future flooding with an innovative and integrated use of vegetation (tree cover for shade and to absorb rainfall, water system management, including all London’s rivers, and land, along with smarter landscape architecture and building planning.
He made the point that we have to stop paving or concreting over gardens for ca-parking, as London is losing the equivalent of 25 Hyde Parks every ten years - a staggering loss of green space and building up urban flooding problems.
Climate-KIC project: How to build cooler, healthier and
cheaper cities
Learn more about the Blue Green Dream
project, which brings together urban planners, landscape architects and water
experts to build better cities, bring down costs and make urban areas more
attractive
Around the globe, climate change is
starting to have a major impact on city life through rising temperatures, an
increase in the risk of floods and droughts and a drop in property values. To
find out how urban planners, landscape architects and water experts can work
together to sustainably bring down city temperatures, fight water shortages,
protect homes and businesses from damage by flooding – and increase
biodiversity and save money in the process – Climate-KIC has launched the Blue
Green Dream project.
“Green
roofs used to be really popular – but it turns out that many of them are now
fire hazards due to dehydration,” says Čedo Maksimović, head of the Blue Green Dream project on behalf of
Climate-KIC. According to Maksimović, the capture, storage and reuse of
rainwater can keep green roofs hydrated, reduce urban flooding and function as
natural air-conditioning through evaporation.
The Blue Green Dream project highlights the
multiple benefits that could be gained, such as air quality, noise dampening,
public health and aesthetic improvements by better integrating water (Blue) and
vegetated (Green) infrastructures. “We want people to see trees and plants as
more than just something pretty to look at, and cities as sources of water not
just consumers of water,” said Maksimović, who is Professor of Civil and
Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London, where he heads the Urban
Water Research Group.
Natural cooling
Maksimović points to the natural cooling
effect of trees and other vegetation in particular as a potential revolution in
urban planning, which would see smart irrigation channels distribute rainwater
to trees in order to stimulate evaporation and reduce flooding. “Most city
trees get fed exactly enough water to survive – if that. By changing that we
estimate we can bring down local temperatures by as much as three degrees
Celsius,” Maksimović said.
No small feat if you take into account that
high urban temperatures can claim unnecessary lives. On a hot summer’s day, the
temperature in a city like London can be six degrees higher than its rural
surroundings, Maksimović pointed out, stressing that up to 50.000 Europeans are
estimated to have died in the 2003 heat wave – a situation where every degree
counts.
Maksimović said redeveloping urban areas to
be cooler, greener and safer could not only save lives and costs, but also
increase property values.
Sainsbury’s funds PhD postion
The Blue Green Dream project combines the
strengths of a number of Climate-KIC partners, including Imperial College
London, Corporation for London and the Institute of Sustainability in the UK,
Delft Technical University, Deltares, Alterra, Bosch Slabbers and Arcadis in
the Netherlands, TU Berlin in Germany and École des Ponts ParisTech and Veolia
Environnement in France.
The latest partner to come on board is UK
supermarket giant Sainsbury’s, which has decided to fund a €120.000 PhD
position on the project. UK based AECOM and ICCI Ltd, as well as the
Ingenieurgesellschaft Prof. Dr. Sieker GmbH in Germany are also contributing
direct support to the project.
The Blue Green Dream project, which
kicked-off last summer, has set up demonstration and research sites in a number
of European cities. “It is important to demonstrate that these technologies
work, and to document the impact so we have a clear picture of how much energy
– and costs – can be saved,” Maksimović says.
Demonstration sites
The roof of the former Tempelhof Airport’s
main building in Berlin – famous for having the third biggest single roof in
the world, knows Maksimović – is currently being transformed to capture
and reuse rainwater. Local Climate-KIC researchers, attached to the Technical
University in Berlin and the Sieker Ingenieurgesellschaft, will demonstrate how
much energy can be recovered from Berlin’s wastewater sewer, and how much water
can be saved.
A section of the old Rotterdam harbour in
the Netherlands is currently being redeveloped into a residential area, with a
Climate-KIC team based at Delft Technical University working with urban
planners to maximise the reuse of rainwater, excess heat and natural cooling.
In Paris, Climate-KIC scientists from the
ParisTech university group have redeveloped a number of “Blue green” roofs,
Maksimović explains, to demonstrate and research the water capture and reuse
capability of roofs that otherwise dump free rain water straight into the
city’s sewer.
In the UK, Climate-KIC researchers based at
Imperial College London work with Sainsbury’s to decrease noise pollution from
large delivery trucks and look into the use of green walls and plants to reduce
the amount of noise reaching nearby residential properties.
UK Climate-KIC researchers are also involved
in talks about the redevelopment of the Aberfeldy New Village social housing
project, located in East London. The researchers are looking into reusing
excess heat produced by servers and cooling units in a nearby data centre.
“Companies like Sainsbury’s have a lot of heat producing cooling equipment such
as fridges and freezers,” said Maksimović, “they are keen to find out how they
can bring down costs by reusing that heat.”
Become involved
While Climate-KIC has provided the project
with a €3 million grant, additional funding is expected to be generated through
collaboration with businesses and governments. The project is initially
scheduled to for four years, but might be extended, and spun-out as a
consulting programme, providing training material and expertise to corporations
and local governments trying to bring down their energy costs.
New research and demonstration sites are
currently planned around the world, with final stage negotiations under way
with Singapore’s government about the use of the Gardens by the Bay site – an
energy self-sufficient 
show-garden currently primarily in use as outdoor
recreation space – as a research site for Climate-KIC scientists.
show-garden currently primarily in use as outdoor
recreation space – as a research site for Climate-KIC scientists.
Government officials in the UK have also
expressed interest, with London facing major EU fines for the poor water
quality of the river Thames due to frequent sewer overflows. “A quick solution
would be to immediately start integrating blue green solutions across the city
to take the pressure off the sewer and drainage systems,” said Maksimović,
pointing out that similar solutions have already been implemented in cities
like Philadelphia, Portland and Melbourne. “From a city wide perspective, blue
green solutions are unavoidable,” he said, referring to the on-going discussion
about a “super sewer” under the Thames.
Want to become involved in the Blue Green
Dream project as an organisation, business, planner or researcher? Contact
Professor Čedo Maksimović at c.maksimovic@imperial.ac.uk or call +44 (0) 20 7594 6013 or visit the project
website at www.bgd.org.uk.
Climate-KIC
Climate-KIC is a world class European
network, consisting of dynamic companies, the best academic institutions and
the public sector. Integrating education, entrepreneurship and innovation,
Climate-KIC produces a creative transformation of knowledge and ideas into
economically viable products and services that help to mitigate climate change.
As one of the EU’s three Knowledge and
Innovation Communities (KICs) designated in 2010 by the European Institute of
Innovation and Technology (EIT), it is Climate-KIC’s core purpose is to create
opportunities for innovators to address climate change and shape the world’s
next economy.
Evening Standard readers should know about such positive sustainable projects. Unfortunately, it editor is not interested.
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