SusPurPol
The SusPurPol Project was conducted by a cross-Europe partnership of organisations, focussing on knowledge sharing in the areas of sustainable development planning and procurement.
Beyond carbon reduction targets, and climate change issues, there is a larger issue of the overall sustainability of our society. Regardless of the greenhouse effect, resource depletion, biodiversity loss and inefficient behaviour mean that our current civilisation is not sustainable in the long term. Our buildings are large contributors to this unsustainable behaviour. The production of the raw material, disposal of waste, and maintenance of buildings inefficiently uses energy, water, and other resources. Small pockets of expertise to counter these issues exist, but generally focus upon small topics, rather than the overall picture. The EU provides funds to encourage cross-continent partnership working and knowledge transfer, and it is through one of these schemes that the SusPurPol project was set-up to address the issues raised above.
The three main partners focussed on one of the three facets of the EU GROW programme aim – people, planet and profit. Work in the UK focussed upon joint local policy and planning. The partners in Spain worked on the recycling of construction waste, and low carbon materials development. The work of Cracow University in Poland centred around the architects finding passive solutions to designing socially sustainable buildings.
UK:
The Environment Centre, and the PUSH partnership ran a series of workshops to identify the barriers to improved sustainable in local policy and planning systems. The resulting policy statement – known as SH14, and including minimum targets for renewable energy generation, sustainable construction and water usage – is being adopted into the South East Plan, the development planning framework for the south of England, as well as being incorporated into the 11 local authorities’ Local Development Frameworks.
Spain:
The Andalusian Institute of Technology and Seville University performed studies into the reduction, re-use and recycling of construction waste, and research into new materials. One product of this research is a new high-performance, low-cost ceramic, the production of which has been spun out to a new company.
Poland:
The Cracow University of Technology developed and ran two new modules within its architecture degree course, focussing on the design principles behind environmentally friendly buildings. The efficient use of passive solar heating, effective water and energy efficiency, and the use of low carbon materials are all covered. They also toured Europe collating and evaluating existing sustainable developments for the partners to learn from.
Knowledge Transfer:
The disparate expertise across the partnership was shared via numerous meetings, regular correspondence, and several international study tours. These culminated in the Creating a Low Carbon South East Conference held in Southampton in November of 2007, which included – amongst others - contributions from several cabinet ministers. Large groups from each SusPurPol partner attended the conference to share their results and expertise to a wider audience of 400 delegates.
The end result of the project was a major document – A Blueprint for Sustainable Development Planning and Purchasing Policy – which has been published on the world wide web, and was presented at the Low Carbon South East Conference.
Contact Email:
Organisation:
The Environment Centre (tEC)
Status:
Complete, although outcomes ongoing
Website relating to case study:
http://www.environmentcentre.com/SusPurPol/SusPurPolHome.php
Organisation’s website:
http://www.environmentcentre.com/
Keywords relating to this case study:
SusPurPol, PUSH, partnership, INTERREG IVa, Andalusia, Cracow, SH14, Sustainability, Procurement, Planning
South East groups case study relates to:
Planning
