The pace of change and growth in the development of data centres is significant, but how much scope is there to improve their sustainability credentials? Operational efficiency and power usage can deliver big wins. But what about material choices? How do good intentions make it to reality? Is there an argument that design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) could be adopted more widely? Putting the sustainability arguments to the test are Angela Vico Correas, director at studioNWA...

With the UK’s grid capacity stretched and an ever-growing need for data centres, what choices do we have to power them? What impact will grid connectivity reforms have? How can we scale alternative forms of power generation? And could data centres even help to address power loads and support decarbonisation? Sharing their views are Amy Turner, power connections lead at SEGRO, Jon Clark, associate at construction consultancy RLB, Peter Sibley, divisional director for nuclear at Sta...

techUK described the data centres market as “the backbone of the UK economy”. But as data centres move beyond traditional locations into semi-rural or urban locations, public perception becomes even more important. How can we quantify their value? How are data centre operators engaging with their host communities? And how are bigger sites enabling a more creative approach to design? While there’s an obvious opportunity to recycle the vast amounts of heat that data centres produce,...

The future is localised energy generation and storage - a smart grid. But what is a smart grid? How does it work? Who benefits? And who do tenants pay for their energy? What does a smart grid look like in both a residential and commercial development? And how does it balance the demands for EV charging? To help answer these questions and more, we are joined by Ben Bowler, a renewables, storage, and e-mobility director with Stantec, and Henry Leivers, chief operating officer for SNRG, a next g...

From competence to culture change, there's a lot to absorb around the Building Safety Act. So, what is meant by the level of detail required being proportionate to risk? What's the impact of a greater focus on detailed design upfront? Why can't you find Gateway 2 and 3 referenced in the Act? And why is it important to be able to show all your workings-out, just like you did at school? Offering a sweeping view on the Building Safety Act in this episode are Owen Edwards, building control specia...

The Building Safety Act brings ethics, responsibility, and competence to the fore. It demands a change in culture from the construction industry. So, how does this industry embrace culture change? What can we learn from other sectors that have undergone behavioural and cultural change? And crucially, where are we now - is a nervous industry a competent industry? Tackling this brief are James McNay, fire safety director with Stantec, and Jessica Neuberger, partner at international law firm, Ev...

Competence is a key word in the positioning and requirements of the Building Safety Act. How is the industry proving competence? If you're responsible for selecting suppliers or products, how are you assured of their competence? What does this mean to the process of design - why is performance-based design the future? And how is the industry adapting to the changes required from the Building Safety Act? With recognised expertise in the realm of the Act, joining this episode are Professor Jose...

The SCOPE is a podcast exploring climate change as a force on, and result of, the built environment. Our guests are Monika Büscher, professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology, and associate director in the Centre for Mobilities Research at Lancaster University, Greg Marsden, professor of Transport Governance, Institute for Transport Studies, Keith Mitchell, director of Transport and Place, Stantec and Richard Wenham, chair, England’s Economic Heartland. Following the launch o...

The SCOPE is a podcast exploring climate change as a force on, and result of, the built environment. Our first guests are Nels Nelson, a Senior Urban Planner at Stantec’s Urban Places, and Memo Cedeño from Harvard’s School of Public Health. We discuss the urban heat island effect, how to avoid spending public money where its least needed but most noisily called for, proving common sense, quantifying health outcomes, and acting like your house is on fire.