South Ayrshire Council - News - Sustainability Forum Conference

EUROPEAN DELEGATES VISIT SOUTH AYRSHIRE FOR SUSTAINABILITY FORUM CONFERENCE 2006

The South Ayrshire Sustainability Forum conference 2006 was held in the County Buildings in Ayr and officially opened by Councillor Hugh Hunter, the Convener of South Ayrshire Council’s Sustainability Forum. The theme for the conference was ‘Sustainable Design and Construction’.

The South Ayrshire Sustainability Forum was established to encourage a wide range of interested parties to participate in maintaining, and where possible enhancing, a high quality environment in South Ayrshire based on the principles of sustainable development.

The Council is a partner in a European funded project to give design advice on energy efficiency and renewable energy in rural areas. Funding for the conference was provided by the project.

The partners in the European project come from Germany, Greece and Spain and representatives from each country were present at the event. The Project Officer, Krysztof Gierulski, from the European Commission in Brussels, attended the conference and talked about funding opportunities through the Intelligent Energy Europe programme.

The South Ayrshire Provost Winifred Sloan welcomed the European delegates to a Civic Reception that she hosted on the evening of the conference within the County Buildings.

Entry to the conference was free, and invited guests and members of the public were able to get advice on meeting legislative requirements and making sustainability work when constructing buildings.

Councillor Hugh Hunter said: “Sustainability within the construction industry is becoming more important to professionals within the building trade and members of the public. With increased legislation and more guidance available conferences such as this one help to raise the profile of sustainability issues.

“The conference provided a platform to give practical advice and guidance about sustainability within building to people involved in the construction industry from architects and planners to developers and housing associations.”

Issues explored at the conference included:

Code for Sustainable Homes.

Resource Management.

Incorporating Sustainability into Planning.

Learning how to assess the sustainability of a building or development.

Learning how to implement the latest legislation.

How to determine the impact of sustainable development design.

Guest speakers addressed their audience on their specialist subject, which included Policy and Research, Energy, Planning and inputs from the private and public sector.

Delegates were given information on a number of workshops which were being held during the day, with an ‘expert witness’ running each workshop and, asked to choose the workshops which they would like to attend. The workshops were held on the following subjects:

Micro-renewables

EU energy performance in buildings

Including sustainability in the brief

Materials and recycling sustainability

Why bother?

The day after the conference representatives from the European funding partnership and the Project Officer spent a day at Culzean Castle where they were involved in several meetings on issues relating to the conference.

Anyone who would like information on sustainability in South Ayrshire should log on to www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/environment/sd or telephone 01292 616673, or alternatively e-mail staff at Sustainable.development@south-ayrshire.gov.uk.

Councillor Hugh Hunter is pictured at the conference with guest speakers, agency representatives and European funding partners.

Councillor Hugh Hunter is pictured at the conference with guest speakers, agency representatives and European funding partners.

May 2006