John Connaughton, Ed Brown, Neal Kalita, and David Rees will all be speaking at this year’s Ecobuild, an event for sustainable design, construction and the built environment.

Ed leads the way with three presentations – as well as chairing a panel session with Paul Morrell on the government’s Low Carbon Construction paper. John will speak on Regulation & Policies, Neal presents twice, firstly on the Impact of Feed-in Tariffs, and secondly on Microgeneration. David will outline the Economics of Refurbishments.

Despite the recession, Ecobuild continues to flourish with panoplies of new building technologies on display, for many of which, it may be another decade before they become commonplace. In turn it raises a question on the value of thought leadership today. It is inescapable that no matter how good the concept – the shortage of capital and weakness of the commercial property market does little to encourage an appetite for the new.

History provides valuable lessons on forward thinking. As an example, the trench warfare of World War I led to an equally narrow view of the peace and prefaced further confrontation. The vision of one man, George C Marshall sitting at a desk in Washington DC in 1945, created post World War II reconstruction, and an era of European prosperity for which we have to be eternally grateful.

Sitting at our desks today, our task is to make the most of the opportunities we see around us and build our strength ahead of any recovery; new thinking does not pay bills. Nevertheless, in our quieter moments, the investment of our thoughts towards the needs of the future market will in time prove prescient.

Given the UK’s vast stock of ageing buildings and growing pressures for emissions reduction – a complete expertise in the methodology and economics of low carbon, cost efficient ways to re-use, renew, and regenerate what already exists may be a key component of our return to prosperity.

Full details are available at www.ecobuild.co.uk.