As part of a new feature – Letter from the Director – Rob Fiehn will explore trends and events that are currently taking place across London and share them with you as part of a series of regular articles. In this first edition, he explores the various sustainability initiatives that have recently surfaced in the capital.

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Dear London enthusiasts,

It appears that the city is going green but this isn’t a reflection on politics or landscape but rather a more general pervading attitude to the ways we think about our buildings, old and new.

Achieving net-zero targets

I was recently invited to attend a property conference called Footprint+ that specialises in helping us all deliver net-zero carbon targets, hosting a range of different experts from a wide variety of backgrounds. They used to stage their show in Brighton but this year it moved to the former Billingsgate Market that sits right on the Thames in the City of London. 

The most surprising element of the event was the claim that we are heading for a new stone age. This is something that is being championed by the Stone Collective, who believe the humble material has the potential to lead us out of the climate emergency thanks to its strength, durability and low-carbon footprint.

Across town in the Building Centre, a new exhibition is focused on the various ways our existing built environment can be repurposed for a new lease of life. Retrofit 24 has tasked itself with showcasing the best examples of ways to decarbonise the UK’s real estate. They outline that 80% of the buildings that will be here in 2050 already exist, so how do we make sure they are resilient for the challenges ahead? The show features a series of case studies of best practice and it’s on until 30^th August.

Check out our rundown of upcoming events

As some members will already know, the Society was taken on a tour of Sustainable Ventures that occupies the fifth floor of County Hall on the South Bank. The workspace is full of 100+ start-up companies that are all taking on environmental schemes in their own unique way. The office certainly practices what it preaches, with a bar clad in a material made of old orange peels, a reception comprised of reused coffee grounds, acoustic panels of mycelium (a mushroom product to the uninitiated) and experimental walls that grow their own moss.

A world-class museum

Finally, we took a turn around the construction site of the new London Museum, formerly known as the Museum of London, that is moving from its Barbican site to Smithfield Market. We were overwhelmed by the scale and ambition of the project. Workers on site are painstakingly repairing and retaining as much of the original buildings as possible. Materials that do have to leave the site are being catalogued (you wouldn’t expect anything less from a museum) and will find new homes as part of a circular economy approach.

All in all, we can see that London is slowly but surely adapting to the new pressures it’s facing and it turns out that the future might be based on the past after all!

Rob Fiehn, Director, The London Society

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