VIDEO | How do we build a climate resilient future?
Ways to shape the built environment for climate change – that was the focus of an informative roundtable discussion hosted by Hydrock.
Bringing together developers, local authorities, landscape architects, and sustainability experts the roundtable in Liverpool ranged from conversations about policy to practical solutions. You can hear highlights, and our panellists main takeaways, in the video at the top of this article.
Participants
- George Barclay, head of property, FM, and operation at Sciontec
- Kate Bull, director of economy, skills, and sustainability at Liverpool City Council
- Danny Crump, director of urbanism at Layer.studio
- Liz Gatheral, director of estates at Liverpool John Moores University
- Ellie Kuitunen, principal consultant at Hydrock
- James Lacy-Smith, principal sustainability consultant at Hydrock
- Alan McBride, technical director at Muse
- Richard McGuckin, executive director of place at Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
- chaired by Julia Hatmaker, editor of Place North West
Key talking points
There is no denying that our climate is changing – partly through increased carbon dioxide emissions caused by humans. So how do we build for the future in a way that is sustainable and climate resilient?
Community buy-in was stressed time and time again as a crucial ingredient to getting this right. Everyone needs to be in the loop and on board with changes.
The group also agreed that the push needs to be towards retrofit more and more.
Strong, robust, and proactive policies need to also be put in place at both a community, local authority, and national government level as well. If these have sustainability ingrained at every level then everyone will be clear as to what needs to be done. Strong leadership needs to double down on these policies as well.
The conversation also focussed on partnership and how sharing information and even facilities may also be key to our built environment future.
Nature is also not the enemy, panellists said. Landscape-led placemaking is the way forward – with green infrastructure providing one part of the solution.
For more from this roundtable discussion, you can simply watch the video at the top of this article or on the Place North West YouTube channel. Learn more about Hydrock at hydrock.com.
