The UK Green Building Council has called for greater collaboration as a way of delivering sustainability in major cities…
Collaboration between city councils and the private sector could be the key to delivering sustainability across UK cities.
The UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC) said this type of partnership would become increasingly important as devolution continues to take hold across cities and regions, moving further from central government intervention.
The call for greater collaboration comes in the wake of a two day summit from the UK-GBC in partnership with Birmingham City Council. Some 100 hand-picked delegates came together during the summit to discuss sustainability issues such as green infrastructure and boosting energy efficiency. A number of workshops were also held to present challenges and opportunities for city sustainability.
The summit presented three key areas that needed to be addressed. This included how to build a supply chain capable of providing the city’s growing population with homes and commercial developments; how to achieve energy efficiency across the city after the demise of government-backed schemes; and how to integrate nature into new and existing developments.
Delegates came up with a number of ideas including monetising the value of sustainability and incentivising land owners and developers to bring forward unviable sites in Birmingham; encouraging community ownership of Green Infrastructure; and creating a locally-led programme for real energy performance disclosure in commercial buildings
UK-GBC’s campaigns and policy director for John Alker said: “There is a broad consensus that cities hold the key to both tackling environmental challenges and delivering a better quality of life for citizens.
“But despite big ambitions, local authorities can’t be expected to deliver this alone. It was abundantly clear over our two day summit that there is a huge appetite for collaboration from our industry-wide membership, who are brimming with innovative ideas needed to turn this ambition into reality.
“Devolution offers additional promise, but cities need to ensure that powers to influence sustainability are put squarely on the negotiation table. This could help cities offer the long-term vision and certainty over policy direction which is so lacking at a national level.”
Birmingham City Council’s cabinet member for Sustainability Councillor Lisa Trickett said: “Our approach to sustainability focuses on improving residents’ lives by building a strong economy through which we will create jobs and enhance the city environment.
“We have made a great start, but there are still have many challenges around fuel poverty, housing, connectivity and providing accessible high quality green space.
“The City Summit has helped us to engage a wide range of experts in what we can do to improve and accelerate our progress in this area and we also look forward to a continued working relationship with UKGBC.”
