Ecobuild Review 2008

For the second consecutive year Burdens Environmental exhibited at Ecobuild. With 500 exhibitors and 500 speakers participating, ecobuild is now the world’s biggest event dedicated to sustainable design, construction and the built environment.

The growing concern with, and awareness of environmental matters, was reflected in the attendance at this year’s exhibition - some 24,000 visitors attended the show, an increase of 80% over the 07 numbers.

The atmosphere was quite electric, with people across the construction industry keen to explore, question and debate existing working methods and materials, explore change and build their own knowledge. It felt as if the event was full of people all wanting to make a difference.

Those speaking and involved in debates at Ecobuild included the following high profile names:

• Roger Harrabin - BBC Environment Analyst
• Kevin McCloud - Presenter, Grand Designs, Author, Designer
• Sir Neville Simms, Chairman, BRE Trust, Chairman, International Power
• Sir Crispin Tickell, Director of the Policy Foresight Programme, James Martin Institute, Oxford University
• David Strahan, Author, Journalist and documentary film-maker (David has reported and produced extensively for the BBC’s Money Programme and Horizon)
• Janet Street-Porter - Broadcaster and Journalist
• Baroness Susan Greenfield – Director Royal Institution
• Rt. Hon. Nick Raynsford, MP Formerly Minister for Local and Regional Government in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
• Neil Sinden, Director of Policy CPRE
• The Rt Hon. John Gummer MP
• The Rt Hon Michael Meacher MP
• James Naughtie - The Today Programme
• Ken Livingstone - Mayor of London
• Boris Johnson, MP Member of Parliament for Henley on Thames
• London Mayoral Candidate
• Brian Paddick - Liberal Democrat Mayoral Candidate
• Nick Clegg, MP, Leader Liberal Democrats
• David Strahan - Author, Journalist and documentary film-maker

And, whilst the arguments over sustainability and environmental best practice are many and complex, we seek to position Burdens Environmental as bringing an unrivalled level of expertise, provider of clarity and offering a pragmatic approach to delivering sustainable construction.

Through the design of our stand we set out to communicate this approach, to highlight key issues and exhibit some of our product and service solutions.

The graphics on or stand helped to communicate the key issues. After a tour of the Burdens stand I’m sure most people would be left with the view that the waste in our society is shocking!

Design

To support the design stage we provide technical literature – for the show we produced a guide to the regulations, codes and products required for the design, construction and maintenance of sustainable homes. This literature includes the government national standard – Code for Sustainable Homes.

Our web site www.burdensenviornmental.com was featured on our stand as a valuable and evolving source of information and guidance.

Our web presence and technical capability is now further advanced with our sponsorship of and links with Greenspec. Greenspec is the UK Construction Industry definitive guide to ‘green’ building design, products, specification and construction.

Construction

Given that building use accounts for 50% of UK energy / C02 emissions and of this 57% is from heating, then we have real challenges in building dwellings that are well insulated and require minimal heating or cooling. The quality of UK construction is further reflected in the number of asthma cases in the UK – with 1 in 6 of us suffering!

Our stand showcased natural building and insulation materials that offer the potential to dramatically improve the quality of our buildings, reduce energy costs / c02 emissions and improve peoples lives.

Sustainable Drainage

Our stand highlighted products and systems to reduce surface water run off – green roofs, permeable paving systems, alongside rainwater harvesting systems to store and re-use water. But, when approx. 30% of all water is used for flushing toilets big issues is to reduce our consumption. 60 million people using just a few litres less per day is a lot of water! And, hence a range of appliances including water efficient WC’s and waterless urinals now form part of our solution.

Renewables

With £1.00 in every £3.00 spent on domestic heating effectively wasted then the more energy we can derive from renewable sources the less finite resources we waste. The power of the sun used in our thermal solar panels or heat from the ground used in our air to ground system all effectively provide free heating.

Waste

6.7million tonnes of household food waste produced each year in the UK. Some 1/3 of all cooked food wasted! Against this backdrop then not surprisingly our Biplex anaerobic digestion units that turn food waste into compost attracted an enormous amount of interest.

Maintenance

Fragile Earth bacterial based cleaning products attracted wide interest. The UK now has to cope with some 200,000-sewer blockages each year. 70% of these are caused by the build up of fats, oils and greases, which Fragile Earth prevents.

Next time you open a tin of paint consider the amount of chemicals that is contains, the manufacture and transportation, impact on human health and waste and recycling issues. Then compare this with Fragile Earth Eco paints - a product based entirely on natural minerals, supplied in a powder format for mixing with water prior to use – no chemicals, no recycling, and no health issues!

Burdens Environmental Sponsors – Green Shoots
As well as exhibiting at the even we also sponsored the ‘Green Shoots’ hall.
The Green Shoots arena was an area of the show allocated for the most innovative ‘green’ construction products from small and emerging businesses.

Some 35 companies exhibited in green shoots and all who exhibited took part in a ‘dragons den’ style competition to choose the best business opportunity.

The event was hosted by Robert Harabin - Radio 4 environmental correspondent, and a short list of Green Shoots participants had to pit their commercial wits against three Dragons and vie for the chance to win the Green Shoots award plus business assistance. The Dragons were;

• Tim Smit, Chief Executive, The Eden Project
• Pam Alexander, Chief Executive, South East England Development Agency
• Arthur Burden, Chairman, Burdens

The finalists were:

Biotecture limited – offering a patented modular, green wall cladding system adaptable enough to provide a living cladding solution to any building or wall (new build or refurbishment). The green wall system offers thermal and aesthetic benefits as well as providing the ability to store large volumes of water, remove air pollutants and increase biodiversity.

Magma Tech - provide a thermally insulating wall tie ‘Teplo Tie’ to help traditional masonry construction meet the ever-improving thermal performance requirements. U value savings of up to 10% have been calculated for traditional cavity sizes using the ‘Teplo Tie’ composite in place of stainless steel wall ties. Savings can be even more significant in wide cavities.

SolarVenti UK – SolarVenti units provide a powerful solution for a large range of damp problems ranging from condensation and stale air, to moulds and mildew. They replace electrical dehumidifiers with a free to run solution. Powered and triggered solely by the sun all of the units take in fresh air, warm it and push it into living or storage spaces displacing stale and humid air with warmed fresh dry air.

And, the winners were - Biotecture Limited. As part of our sponsorship package and their prize we will help them with business planning and marketing.

Kevin Hancock
Sales and Marketing Director