Education Estates Net Zero Conference, London School of Economics April 2025
Fabric First Session Alumni Lecture Theatre: Chair Tim Warneford
It was another superb day at the LSE with the Education Estates team. This was the third such Net Zero conference held in the central London location. Whilst it is smaller in size than the two-day conference held in Manchester in October, its focus is all things sustainable across the education estate, and this ensures that there is a common thread across the day’s presentations so that delegates can apply learning from one session to another.
It is very often attended by those who provide the strategic lead on the direction of government policy, such as Dr Jonathan Dewsbury of the DfE and long-term advocate for the drive towards a more sustainable future, Alex Green, who provided both keynote and welcoming speeches respectively.
The usual supporting cast were also all in attendance, which generally makes for a very convivial and collective conference, the same committed bodies and faces who are lobbying for greater evidence of an overall strategy and depts of funding if we are going to meet our net zero targets – which are now just one generation away.
A long-time advocate of the “Fabric First” approach, Tim Warneford was invited to chair a session and select who would provide a cross section of views on the strategy. Guests included James Smurthwaite of Green Net Zero, Andrew Dutton of Arcadis and Jon Rylance and Glen Moses of Architects ADP.
Tim Warneford argues that the adoption of a fabric first approach provides a clear strategy that links both building condition and building performance into one measurable output and results in much more than just the sum of its parts.
One measure of a successful session is the level of audience participation. After the panel discussed the features and benefits of the fabric-first approach and presented case studies, questions from the audience came in rapidly. The session ran over time due to the high level of interaction between the audience and the panel, and the discussion eventually expanded beyond the original topic to include issues such as capital funding and the collection and analysis of condition data.
Feedback from delegates continued to pour in via LinkedIn posts, all positive and some stating that the session was the pick of the crop.
Tim Warneford, April 2025.
