Seminar stages
The Seminar Stages bring Futurebuild’s mission to life through practical knowledge sharing and collaboration across the built environment. Across the Buildings & Materials, Energy, and Placemaking stages, industry leaders and innovators come together to explore the solutions, strategies and technologies shaping a more sustainable built environment. From low-carbon materials and building performance to clean energy systems and regenerative places, the programme supports the industry’s collective drive towards net zero and a more resilient future. Many sessions are CPD-accredited, enabling attendees to gain valuable professional development while learning from leading experts.
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Buildings and Materials Stage
  1. Buildings and Materials Stage
    As the debate about Net Zero policy rages, leading thinkers and practitioners are exploring how to move beyond these constraints into a regenerative future of buildings and places that use natural mat …
  2. Buildings and Materials Stage
    What is regenerative design, and why do we need it? How can we shift our mindset toward more regenerative ways of thinking and doing? This session will introduce key areas of focus that help practices …
  3. Buildings and Materials Stage
    How can the demand and supply of regenerative materials be accelerated? How can clients procure more regenerative approaches so that design aspirations can be met in practice? How can we build suffici …
  4. Buildings and Materials Stage
    Organised by the Good Homes Alliance and chaired by Neil Freshwater, Public Affairs Lead of VELUX GB & Ireland, this seminar will explore how good daylight design can deliver better outcomes for resid …
  5. Buildings and Materials Stage
    Organised by the Good Homes Alliance and chaired by GHA Programme Director Laura Broderick, this seminar will explore what it means in practice for homes to truly deliver for residents. Baily Garner, …
  6. Buildings and Materials Stage
    As the UK grapples with fuel poverty, damp homes, and increasing overheating risks, the conversation is shifting from energy to health. This session explores how Passivhaus aligns with the Healthy Hom …
  7. Buildings and Materials Stage
    Passivhaus is no longer a fringe movement - it’s gaining traction with volume housebuilders, local authorities, and forward-thinking developers. But how do we move from promising pockets to widespread …
Energy Stage
  1. Energy Stage
     
  2. Energy Stage
    Dr Andrew Smith is a co-founder of ZapCarbon, working with public and private sector organisations to deliver solutions that have a positive environmental impact. He is passionate about making housing …
  3. Energy Stage
    Phil Ord, CEO, of Qvantum UK explains how domestic heat pumps can be part of the solution to managing our energy demands. Find out how Qvantum's unique Flexready (r) technology can help cities meet th …
  4. Energy Stage
    Acoustic performance of externally installed heat pumps; Understanding sound power, sound pressure and practical noise management for commercial and residential developments. We will look at key UK re …
  5. Energy Stage
    This session will guide attendees through the main types of heat pump systems, their benefits, and provide an optimum use case for each. Experts from HPA UK member organisations will share practical i …
  6. Energy Stage
    The Future Homes Standard is set to require new homes to use low-carbon heating, with heat pumps and shared ground loops set to play a central role. This HPA UK panel brings together experts from acro …
  7. Energy Stage
     
  8. Energy Stage
    Steel Circularity is a collaborative solution that facilitates resource efficiency, material cost benefit, and whole life carbon reduction across the construction supply chain. By utilizing EAF (Elect …
  9. Energy Stage
    The future of concrete is not just about new ideas, but about making them work. This session provides a rapid overview of emerging low-carbon concrete solutions and focuses on how they are being adopt …
  10. Energy Stage
    This session would focus on the practical challenge of turning Warm Homes and related funding programmes into real projects on the ground. The discussion would explore how local authorities and housin …
  11. Energy Stage
    The long-awaited Warm Homes Plan, investing £15 billion to upgrade five million homes by 2030 has reinforced the UK Government's commitment to a 'rooftop revolution'. The Plan aims to rapidly accelera …
Placemaking Stage
  1. Placemaking Stage
    Discover how the UK built environment sector is leading the way with a regenerative places framework designed by industry, for industry. This session will unpack the principles behind the framework, w …
  2. Placemaking Stage
    Our existing towns and cities were never built to cope with the challenges we have with urban growth, rainfall and surface water runoff. Retrofitting sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) offers practic …
  3. Placemaking Stage
     
  4. Placemaking Stage
    Cities and communities are facing growing climate, nature and social pressures, biophilic design offers a roadmap to resilience. This panel brings together leading experts to explore practical strateg …
  5. Placemaking Stage
    The panel will discuss recent national and local planning policy developments such as Biodiversity Net Gain, Urban Greening Factor and SUDS requirements to explore how this is influencing the implemen …
  6. Placemaking Stage
    The session will explore the range of work that CIHT is undertaking on how climate change is impacting the transport sector, from the need for decarbonisation to how to improve the resilience of the s …
  7. Placemaking Stage
    Across the built environment, organisations are under increasing scrutiny for the environmental and sustainability claims they make, from product performance and materials to carbon, circularity, and …
Buildings and Materials Stage
  1. Buildings and Materials Stage
    How can design, planning, public policy, and community engagement work together to create resilient towns, circular communities, and regenerative destinations? This session will explore place-led tran …
  2. Buildings and Materials Stage
    Following the recent progress report on the MPA's UK Concrete and Cement Industry Roadmap to Beyond Net Zero, this session explores ongoing efforts to advance low-carbon concrete and cement through im …
  3. Buildings and Materials Stage
    From MMC to Masonry: Navigating detailing and specification for low carbon, future-proofed housing The construction of new homes has been put at the heart of boosting economic growth and tackling hous …
  4. Buildings and Materials Stage
    Architects and specifiers are tasked with delivering on an increasing range of seemingly disconnected goals. How can materials address human wellness, contribute to a circular economy, and drive regen …
  5. Buildings and Materials Stage
    From insights to impact, we invite you to join a panel of game-changers, integrating digital material banks, circularity, and AI to scale measurable impact. Cradle to Cradle Certified®, Madaster, and …
  6. Buildings and Materials Stage
    Organised and convened by ASBP, this session will update the audience on two recently completed research projects. The first is looking at how fixings behave under fire in mass timber buildings, with …
  7. Buildings and Materials Stage
    This seminar, organised by the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products and the ASBP Natural Fibre Insulation Group, and chaired by Churchill Fellowship award winner Ele George, will explore how reg …
Energy Stage
  1. Energy Stage
    This session will unpack the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard—developed through cross-industry collaboration—focusing on critical areas like upfront carbon, operational carbon reduction, operatio …
  2. Energy Stage
    During this session, speakers will look at the role of intelligent energy systems, demand-side response, and building services integration in reducing peak loads and enhancing operational efficiency. …
  3. Energy Stage
    Panel: Kieran O'Brien, Director CIBSE Certification (kob@cibse.org) Pavlos Konstantinidis, Technical Manager CIBSE Certification (pkonstantinidis@cibse.org) This session focuses on understanding and a …
  4. Energy Stage
    In this session, members of the Heat Network team at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, and also Helena Charlton, Director of Heat Networks at Ofgem, will provide an overview of the key …
  5. Energy Stage
    In this session you will hear from a number of UKDEA members as they presents on a variety of case studies. Steve Wilkinson - Utilising SmartTalk to Deliver Performance Improvements Gabriel Gallagher …
  6. Energy Stage
    Planning Inspectors are accepting higher standards for where and how to build in local authority Local Plans as they can now provide an evidence base. Leaders in the field are calling for these higher …
  7. Energy Stage
    Systemic approaches are essential if we are going to meet our sustainability and social value goals. In this session, sector leaders will share approaches they have taken at the project, portfolio, co …
Placemaking Stage
  1. Placemaking Stage
    How can we create climate-resilient cityscapes that restore biodiversity, strengthen our connection with nature, and support healthier lives? This session brings together three leading experts to exam …
  2. Placemaking Stage
    We are told that we must ‘plant the right tree in the right place’ – but what is ‘right’ when we need to ensure increased biodiversity and trees that will be able to reach maturity and live their pote …
  3. Placemaking Stage
    This session will provide an overview of the London Green Infrastructure Framework (LGIF), a new strategic tool to help plan and prioritise investment in green infrastructure (GI) in London. It provid …
  4. Placemaking Stage
    As cities face increasing pressures from heatwaves, droughts and flooding, building urban resilience has never been more critical. This session explores how Adaptation Pathways can help planners, desi …
  5. Placemaking Stage
    Research has proved that people need access to nature for their physical and mental health and wellbeing. National aspirations not only seem to increase biodiversity but also to improve access to natu …
  6. Placemaking Stage
    Achieving reduced carbon construction and maximising project value requires teams to successfully integrate low carbon strategies with multi-functional benefits for the community and environment, all …
  7. Placemaking Stage
    Most new schemes start to deteriorate from the day they are completed. What lessons can be drawn from the best of new development, regeneration, landscape and public realm schemes that have bucked thi …
Buildings and Materials Stage
  1. Buildings and Materials Stage
     
  2. Buildings and Materials Stage
    Natural Stone is the original low-carbon construction material; one that has been used by architects, builders and designers for thousands of years. In a moment when the construction sector is working …
  3. Buildings and Materials Stage
    As an influential global city, London plays a critical role in shaping the policies that enable or constrain low-carbon construction. This panel brings together four project teams delivering commercia …
  4. Buildings and Materials Stage
    The NRH’s State of the Nation report revealed under-delivery of both the pace and quality of current retrofit schemes and citizens are disengaged and lack trust in retrofit. Blanket approaches are not …
  5. Buildings and Materials Stage
    A whole-house approach to retrofit is necessary to deliver a high-quality built environment supporting the health and wellbeing of occupants. In this session you’ll hear experts discuss a range of tec …
  6. Buildings and Materials Stage
    Retrofit has a critical role to play in moving beyond “doing less harm” towards a genuinely regenerative built environment, one that restores ecosystems, supports human health, and strengthens communi …
Energy Stage
  1. Energy Stage
    This engaging session will explore the application of mass balance allocation in carbon footprinting for the energy sector. The Carbon Trust's energy experts will explore reporting requirements, chall …
  2. Energy Stage
    This session will discuss phase 1 of the Local Area Retrofit Accelerator pilot. The pilot follows over three years of development to find an approach that can take a system-based approach to deliverin …
  3. Energy Stage
    In the push towards net-zero, the built environment sector is presented with the challenge of building homes that provide clean, renewable energy. Dan White, Market Development Director at MCS – the U …
  4. Energy Stage
    Chair Name: Prof Will Swan Speaker Name: Prof Will Swan, Director of Energy House Labs at the University of Salford Session Description: Full details are still be put together however the session will …
  5. Energy Stage
    Join Megan from the Sustainable Energy Association as she chairs a panel with members Herschel, Mitsubishi, AgilityEco, and Soltherm to discuss the importance of improving the energy efficiency of the …
  6. Energy Stage
    Join the Sustainable Energy Association (SEA) and their members Mixergy, Daikin UK, and E.ON for a panel session to discuss both the policy drivers and barriers for smart energy, alongside wider frame …
Placemaking Stage
  1. Placemaking Stage
    When do nature-based solutions genuinely reduce risk in development and when do they fail to translate into commercial value? How does green infrastructure influence insurability, cost of capital, ass …
  2. Placemaking Stage
    In this panel discussion we will look at green roofs, blue roofs, biosolar roofs and how amenity landscape roof finishes can demonstrate fire safety and building regulations compliance.
  3. Placemaking Stage
    Biophilia in Placemaking Integrating nature into both internal and external places is a vital benefit of taking a biophilic approach to design and decision making. This masterclass outlines the princi …
  4. Placemaking Stage
    Trees in proximity to buildings, particularly low-rise buildings, can provide multiple benefits including shading of the buildings themselves, shading of the external spaces from glare from the buildi …
  5. Placemaking Stage
    What do regenerative places look like on the ground? This panel brings together pioneering case studies that demonstrate how regenerative principles are being applied in real projects today. Hear from …