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Echelon Conference – keynote presentations

Our group’s Echelon Conference, delivered by Pretium and Echelon Consultancy, took place at Stamford Bridge on Thursday 21st October, with a headline theme of sustainability.

Our group CEO Mathew Baxter opened the conference, which was sponsored by Devonshires, with a look back at the last 18 months and how the sector has pulled together during the pandemic. You can view his presentation here.

He was followed by regenerative sustainability provocateur and consultant Martin Brown, whose Fairsnape practice supports, counsels and provokes clients, designers, contractors, academic and industry groups on regenerative journeys and discoveries.

Martin is also author of FutuREstorative, Working Towards a New Sustainability, long-time advocate for the Living Building Challenge, Vice-President at Living Future Europe and founder of global conscious collective Zoom Regenerative.

He urged delegates to consider whether they are being regenerative or degenerative in a thought-provoking keynote session. You can view his presentation here.

The afternoon keynote focused on the future of heating with presentations from Parth Mehta, Business Development Director, EQUANS UK & Ireland, and Alastair Thorpe, Account Director at Vattenfall, a Swedish state-owned energy business.

Alastair outlined Vattenfall’s commitment to fossil fuel free living within one generation, and how he is promoting the build out of large scale low-to-zero carbon heat networks across the UK. His presentation can be viewed here.

Parth talked about EQUANS’ strategy for empowering transitions and enabling a low-carbon energy era. His presentation can be viewed here.

The conference was rounded off with a Q&A, chaired by Mathew, with our expert panel comprising Martin and Parth, as well as Mark London (partner at Devonshires), Niall O’Rourke (Director of Safe Buildings, Metropolitan Thames Valley), Stuart Hough (Managing Director, Travis Perkins Managed Services), Megan Adlen (Group Sustainability Director, Travis Perkins PLC) and Mike Turner (Executive Director at Ian Williams Ltd).

The keynote sessions were held in the Harris Suite and sponsored by Mears Group PLC.

Delegates were able to participate in the discussions throughout the day and put their questions to the speakers using sli.do, which was sponsored by Ian Williams, while Gerda sponsored the lanyards.

The Innovariums were sponsored by EQUANS UK & Ireland and Langley Roofing Systems,. You can read more about these in our news section.

The conference was followed with a drinks reception sponsored by Gilmartins and charity dinner, sponsored by Morgan Sindall Property Services, which raised over £26,000 for Herts Young Homeless through a raffle and auction.