G4C Oxford presents a panel discussion on the subject of:

Decarbonisation of Heritage Properties

Arts at the Old Fire Station 40 George Street Oxford, OX1 2AQ

17:30, Monday 24th April 2023

The G4C Oxford committee are pleased to invite all Constructing Excellence Oxford Club members to their upcoming panel discussion event on the subject of 'Decarbonisation of Heritage Properties'. 

The objective of the event is to identify the challenges that exist with the decarbonisation of heritage assets, provide practical solutions for overcoming the challenges, and to feed into the wider G4C national project titled 'Uncovering Net Zero'. 

• Doors open at 17:30 with refreshments available at a cash bar. 

• The panel discussion will commence at 18:00 and last for approximately 1 hours and 30 mins.  

• Students welcomed free of charge. 

• Please contact jack.strickland@fgould.com for any further queries. 

The Panel:

Councillor Anna Railton - Oxford City Council

Councillor Anna Railton is the newly appointed Cabinet Member for Climate Justice and Zero Carbon Oxford. She also holds the role of City Councillor for Hinksey Park Ward and is a Senior Machine Learning Engineer at GitHub.

Anna has lived in Oxford since 2017 and was drawn to the city because of the heritage and diversity that comes with living in a historic university city, as well as being surrounded by parks, green spaces and the river. She is an experienced community activist and Parish Councillor and is passionate about building a fairer City and enhancing our local environment.

She has recently written about the challenges and opportunities regarding the decarbonisation of buildings in a recent opinion piece available at the following link: BLOG: Introducing Councillor Anna Railton

Chris Hughes - Principal Mechanical Engineer at CBG Consultants Ltd

Chris has 7 years’ experience across construction and consulting, on both large infrastructure projects and small energy generation schemes. Before this he completed a master’s in Energy, Environment & Buildings from the University of Southampton, achieving a distinction.

Chris believes in the importance of collaboration and strong communication of building services systems. He has diverse experience across historic and listed buildings, as well as residential, commercial, office refurbishment, health centre, and energy generation projects. His knowledge ranges from new builds and refurbishments through to building restoration. He is highly flexible and can easily and quickly adapt to different project demands.

Chris has a particular passion for sustainability and renewable energy generation, with broad involvement in biomass energy centres, ground source, and water source heat pumps, across feasibility, design and discharge of planning conditions.

In 2017, he was named as one of the Confederation of British Industry’s ‘Future Leaders’, a group of 18 under 35 chosen from across the construction industry. More recently, in 2020 Chris was chosen as an Engineers Without Borders UK ‘Change Maker’.

Chris Travis - Chartered Mechanical Engineer at CBG Consultants Ltd

Chris Travis is a Chartered mechanical engineer with over 11 years of experience in the engineering sector and has delivered numerous multi-disciplinary projects in the energy and industrial sectors in both office and remote site locations.

Chris now focuses his career on low carbon and sustainable energy solutions and uses his knowledge and experience to help deliver these in the building services sector. He has working knowledge of LZC technologies, mechanical control systems and associated plant and the design, installation and commissioning of energy centre combined heat and power systems.

Chris brings with him a strong background of delivering complex programmes of work in highly regulated industries with multiple stakeholders and has recently delivered detailed design packages for private residential (listed) buildings, universities, and primary educational facilities.

Jack Strickland - Building Surveyor at Faithful+Gould (Chair)

Jack is the regional chair of the G4C (Generation for Change) Oxford Club - a networking group with a target audience of the next generation of construction professionals and future leaders working within the built environment in Oxford. 

Jack has experience working with a wide range of clients in the public and private sector across a diverse range of properties in education, research and development, residential, defense, corporate real estate and commercial occupiers, retail, banking, leisure, local authorities, and housing associations. In additional to delivering Building Surveying professional services, Jack has fulfilled the role of project manager and contract administrator on a wide range of refurbishment, maintenance, and demolition projects.

Jack is an accredited NEC4 supervisor and is trained in undertaking access audits and fire risk assessments. Jack has experience working client side within a public sector organisation where he gained expertise in public sector procurement. 

Laura Baron - Head of Sustainability at Purcell Architects

As Head of Sustainability, Laura leads Purcell’s sustainability strategy and processes, driving innovation across the practice. As a qualified architect with over 14 years’ experience, she has developed a broad range of skills, working on a range of projects from large-scale urban masterplans to sensitive historic sites. Her role is to educate and advocate for environmentally and socially conscious design, at every stage of a project.

Laura is passionate about working with all members of a project team to find innovative solutions to adapting and conserving our built heritage, against the backdrop of the climate emergency. She works closely with project teams to advise and guide our clients on achieving sustainability through the decision-making process.

Laura is also driving the sustainability agenda at an industry level, participating in a number of initiatives, including LETI (London Energy Transformation Initiative) where she has contributing to the LETI Client Guide for Net Zero Carbon Buildings, and numerous other short publications. She sits on the working group for the Skills for a Sustainable SkylineTaskforce which is working to understand current barriers, identify solutions, and promote the green skills needed for our transition to net zero. She is also an active member of the Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN).

William Morris - Conservation Accredited Structural Engineer at Ridge LLP

William has 16 years of experience in structural engineering with a particular interest in historic buildings, having worked on a number of projects in and around Oxford, including Churches, college buildings and private properties. Projects have ranged from small sensitive repairs to large scale renovations. He joined Ridge LLP in June 2021 where he leads a team of structural engineers. 

William has also worked on a range of new and contemporary projects; from private residential to large commercial developments to multi-disciplinary public sector schemes both in a structural design role and as a project manager. A number of William's projects have been delivered using BIM and collaborative design with model sharing and clash detection.