EVENT | FUTUREBUILD Katie Clemence-Jackson is project manager for the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard NAVIGATING A PATH TO NET ZERO The built environment industry gathered at the Futurebuild conference last month in London, to discuss various paths to decarbonisation. Alex Smith and Molly TooherRudd report 24 April 2023 www.cibsejournal.com F uturebuild returned to ExCeL London last month, with leading academic and industry figures discussing how the building industry would meet the challenges of delivering net zero. The opening address was by Sarwjit Sambhi, chief executive at developer St Modwen, who discussed how smart grids could potentially halve the peak loads in new all-electric housing developments. St Modwen is building 350 homes on the old Mini factory site at West Longbridge in Birmingham, and each one will have an air source heat pump, EV charging point and a connection to communal battery storage. As well as reducing the peak loads by 50%, Sambhi said a smart grid, created by electrical infrastructure firm SNRG, will reduce energy bills by 30%. The reduction in demand reduced project infrastructure costs and put less pressure on the Grid, he added. Its brilliant for the owners of the new homes, but also brilliant in terms of not needing to invest as much in copper wire in the ground, which all the distribution networks would like us to do, he said. If all new developments were built using smart grids, the necessary spending on electrical infrastructure could be halved over