The Green Economy Under Our Feet - Towards A Green Britain Conference 2024

Welcome to The Green Economy Under Our Feet - Towards A Green Britain Conference 2024!
Join us at the easily accessible British Library Knowledge Centre (or get online access) for insightful & inspiring discussions covering themes including;

• advocating a holistic approach to land-use & green infrastructure
• demonstrating best climate-change practice
• prioritising water resilience to deliver a ‘Fresh Water Future’
• reversing biodiversity decline
• promoting holistic action for cleaner air
• ensuring soils are treated as a valuable capital asset
• exploring innovative ideas for Nature-based-Solutions
• unlocking investment in low carbon technologies to deliver ‘Net-Zero’
• unlocking the enormous social, economic and environmental potential of green jobs and skills

* Advocating a holistic approach to land-use & green infrastructure

* Demonstrating best climate-change practice

* Prioritising water resilience to deliver a ‘Fresh Water Future’

* Reversing biodiversity decline

* Promoting holistic action for cleaner air

* Ensuring soils are treated as a valuable capital asset

* Exploring innovative ideas for nature-based-solutions

* Unlocking investment in low carbon technologies to deliver ‘Net-Zero’

* Unlocking the enormous social, economic and environmental potential of green jobs and skills

- Enjoy networking opportunities

- Earn an 8-hour *CPD certificate. This event is accepted as part of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) required to be completed by LI, SGD & SocEnv members.

*For many professions, it is a mandatory requirement to show evidence of CPD each year to enable renewal of professional-body membership or chartership. For LI & SGD members the minimum requirement is 25 hours of CPD every year.

- Helping large companies meet **mandatory environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.

**In June 2021, the G7 Finance Ministers announced their support for mandatory ESG disclosures, stating that such disclosures “provide consistent and decision-useful information for market participants…[that] will help mobilise the billions of pounds of private sector finance, and reinforce government policy to meet our net-zero commitments”.

WHO IS THIS EVENT FOR?

This conference will provide

· landscape architects

· garden designers

· landowners

· landscapers

· parks managers

· biodiversity & sustainability managers

· climate-change managers

· ESG managers

· ecologists

· environmentalists

· contractors & suppliers

.......with an insight into the emerging opportunities, that are attracting major market interest, incorporating climate-change, carbon, ecological, biodiversity net-gain and Nature-based-Solutions into the landscape design process.

Learn from industry experts about fighting climate change, biodiversity net-gain, nature-based-solutions, carbon sequestration, carbon auditing, sustainable ecological practices and the future of the ‘Green Economy’ in Britain.

Attend yourself or, generously enable, via donation, an apprentice, student or charity-worker to attend to obtain the knowledge & experience.

Don’t miss out on this exciting event – reserve your space now.

Who are the speakers at this event?

Chair Kirsten Henson is the Founding Director of KLH Sustainability, a sustainable built environment consultancy based in London. She has contributed to various masterplans, corporate strategies and research over her 20-year career as well as implementing sustainability innovation on numerous award-winning projects. Building on Kirsten’s extensive London 2012 Olympic experience, Kirsten has provided independent technical advice to the International Olympic Committee and United Nations Environment Programme to build capacity within Olympic Games Organising Committees. She has worked with Sochi 2014, Rio 2016, Beijing 2022 and Paris 2024. Kirsten holds two masters degrees from the University of Cambridge in Engineering and Engineering for Sustainable Development.

Dr Bruno Marques is President of the International Federation of Landscape Architects and the Associate Dean for Academic Development and Senior Lecturer in Landscape Architecture at Victoria University of Wellington, Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation. Bruno’s main research interests relate to the integration of Indigenous methods in participatory design and place-making in landscape rehabilitation and ecosystem services.

Professon Paul Elkins OBE has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of London and is Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources at University College London. He was Deputy Director of the UK Energy Research Centre from 2014-2019. He is a member of UNEP’s International Resource Panel, for which he has lead reports on resource efficiency and critical minerals for the energy transition. His new book is Stopping Climate Change: Policies for Real Zero (Routledge, 2024). In 1994 Paul Ekins received a Global 500 Award ‘for outstanding environmental achievement’ from the United Nations Environment Programme. In the UK New Year’s Honours List for 2015 he received an OBE for services to environmental policy.

Carolin Göhler FLI is President of the Landscape Institute. Carolin has over 35 years’ experience as a Chartered Landscape Architect and Horticulturalist, especially in the public and third sectors in the UK and overseas. Her specialisms include horticulture; the design and implementation of gardens and urban, natural and heritage landscapes; and land management. She is a strong advocate for the importance of sustainable, quality landscapes, which are essential for the health and wellbeing of people and nature.

Mark Gregory was born and bred in the Yorkshire town of West Cowick. A proud Yorkshireman, he returns there regularly to visit family and the stunning landscapes he refers to as ‘God’s Country’. Mark Gregory has been at the forefront of the horticultural and landscaping industry for the past thirty-five years. Trained in pure horticulture with the RHS at Wisley and studying at Askham Bryan Horticultural College to HND level, he has gained a reputation for technical knowledge and logistical understanding. He has a ‘hands on’ approach and leads from the front. Mark has managed and delivered on some 157 Show Gardens in total, with 100 of these being Chelsea Show Gardens.

Eliot Wittington is CISL’s Chief System Change Officer, is responsible for its Foresight and Convening work. Under him are teams delivering the work of CISL’s Corporate Leaders Groups, which bring businesses together to positively engage with EU and UK policy makers; CISL’s Centre for Sustainable Finance, which brings banks, insurers and investors together to shift the financial system and CISL’s research work including The Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellowship Programme. Eliot’s work has a strong focus on climate change, but he also helps drive action on nature, the circular economy, plastics and issues around the social and justice implications of economic change. He has over 20 years’ experience in working to unlock systemic change, including providing policy analysis around climate action for Save the Children and Christian Aid, leading Christian Aid’sUK lobbying work with parliamentarians and political parties, and working on mobilising grassroots campaigning in locations from Addis Ababa to Birmingham.

Kathy Willis is Professor of Biodiversity in the department of Biology and the Principal of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. She is also a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. Previous roles include Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a member of the UK Government’s Natural Capital Committee. Her current research focuses on the relationship between biodiversity and human health. Specifically, her research aims to understand which of our interactions (sight, smell, sound, and touch) with nature, and what types of nature found in urban green spaces, trigger beneficial physical and mental health outcomes.

Stephen Alderton, based in Angers, Pays de la Loire, France, is currently a Joint-Directeur for the professional amenity grass seed company Top Green SAS and has spent more than 40 years in the professional amenity industry in the UK and France developing new grass cultivars to better cope with climate change. Stephen brings experience from previous roles at Top Green, Force Limagrain, and The Green Genetics. Stephen Alderton holds a B.Sc Engineering degree with Marketing option from Aston University. Stephen is currently responsible for the Marketing and Development activities of the company in France, Europe and North Africa.

Tom Heap presents the investigations on BBC’s Countryfile and is the co-presenter of the new Radio 4 flagship environment and wildlife series ‘Rare Earth’. He had his own Climate Show on Sky News and has also reported for BBC Panorama on food, farming, energy and wildlife.
He has written a couple of books, including Landsmart, published earlier this year, looking at how both we and nature can win the race for space on Earth.
Tom Heap has worked as a TV news sound man, a Today programme producer, a BBC correspondent specialising on Science and Rural Affairs and, in 2003, led a broadcasting team to cover the 50th anniversary of the ascent of Mount Everest.

Dr Heather Barrett-Mold OBE is an effective leader, now enjoying consultancy and a range of voluntary work, but as Principal & Chief Executive of Pershore Group of Colleges, led, managed and improved the finances, the building stock and all aspects of the quality. A Secretary of State appointment to the Board of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and an expert for the Commission for Sustainable Development 2012. A Past President of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture, Past Chair, now Vice President, of the Institution of Environmental Science. Currently a board member of the Science Council, Perennial and the Picton Trust, Assistant to the Court of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners and President of Growing Point.

Howard Wood - Director of Landscape & Environmental Services Ltd, has been a leader in Sustainable Landscape Management in Europe and the UK for 45 years. After graduating in Environmental Sciences in 1979, he developed eco-friendly practices for public spaces. In 2002, he designed a sustainability training program for Lyon’s 300 park staff, reducing both environmental impact and costs. Howard has appeared in French TV documentaries on ecological dynamics and regularly speaks at European conferences. In 2010, he conducted the UK’s first Carbon Audit for a city park, and in 2024, completed the first comprehensive Carbon Audit for a UK Borough Council, thereby helping it to meet its ongoing carbon neutrality target.

Liz Nicholson - Managing director of garden design, landscaping and forestry business, Nicholsons, is not only driven by quality but also focussing attention on the essential part that landscape design and forestry has to play in balancing climate and nature. Taking a lead in building elemental the green design tool for landscape and garden design, Liz is determined to ensure that all schemes maximise benefits and minimise adverse impacts on climate and nature. She shines a spotlight on the importance of handling soils well, considering movement of water through sites and being aware of our carbon emissions in construction. Additionally, her role as a director of Forest Canopy Foundation has involved her in building a monetized natural capital marketplace in the forestry industry, developing a product called C&Nopy.

Dr Mike Wells - Mike is a professional ecologist, ecourbanist and ecological designer who works internationally and leads an ecological assessment and design practiced called Biodiversity by Design which he founded in 2006. He has led the ecological design of several exemplar eco-masterplanning and regeneration projects including the Athletes' Village (now East Village) Stratford for the 2012 Olympic Games and the regeneration of the Greenwich Peninsula, both in London. In 2021 for lifetime achievements in ecological design Mike was afforded the singular honour of being elected a Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society for Arts.

Ann-Marie Powell's multi-award-winning garden design practice offers a unique blend of meticulous hard landscaping and innovative, vibrant planting. For over twenty-five years her studio has consistently viewed outdoor spaces as dynamic environments full of exciting possibilities.

The AMPG studio has an unwavering passion for plants inviting bold colours and textural contrasts. Rather than approaching gardens as merely decorative spaces, we strive to create garden habitats that invite an ever-evolving ecology.

Our design philosophy is rooted in sustainability, ensuring that our landscapes are resilient, and energetically harmonious, serving as havens for diverse insect and wildlife populations. We believe in forging a deep connection for our clients with the natural world, immersing them in the beauty and tranquillity of nature.

Don’t miss out on this exciting event – reserve your space now.

This conference is dedicated to Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe 1900-1996.
Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, founder of the LI in 1929 and IFLA in 1948, wrote in his seminal The Landscape of Man in 1982;-

‘The world is moving into a phase when landscape design may well be recognized as the most comprehensive of the arts. Man creates around him an environment that is a projection into nature of his abstract ideas.

It is only in the present century that the collective landscape has emerged as a social necessity. We are promoting a landscape art on a scale never conceived of in history.’

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

British Library Conference Centre, 96 Euston Rd, London, United Kingdom