The final Retrofit 2050 academic conference will take place on the 12th and 13th February 2014 in Cardiff. The aim and purpose of this conference will be to share knowledge and findings from across the Retrofit 2050 project’s interdisciplinary programme of research, and engage in a process of comparative and mutual learning with leading national and international academic peers, together with a small number of key stakeholders from policy and practice. The event will also be a platform to identify priorities for future interdisciplinary research.

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Malcolm Eames and Tim Dixon look to long-term aspirations for systemic responses to retrofit in the UK, and what the Retrofit 2050 visions can offer to support planning processes.Writing in the Estates Gazette, a weekly business magazine for the UK commercial property market, they describe the policy context in which UK retrofitting currently finds itself, and argue a way forward using the three visions developed in the project’s backcasting scenario process.

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A doctoral workshop on October 2013 brought together students from across the UK to present on their work around the topic of Sustainable Urban Environments. With topics ranging from technical issues such as operational energy performance and tools for planning retrofit interventions to social issues such as mediating retrofit and financial innovation, the presentations offered an insight into novel postgraduate level research into retrofit in its many forms.

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A forthcoming book will bring together contributions from leading international experts to focus on key issues such as systems innovation, financing tools, governance, energy, and water management. Edited by Tim Dixon, Malcolm Eames, Miriam Hunt and Simon Lannon, the chapters consider not only the knowledge and technical tools available, but looks forward to how they can be implemented in real cities by 2050.

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Building Research and Information is granting free access to their “Urban Retrofitting for the Transition to Sustainability” special issue, guest edited by member of the Retrofit 2050 team.

Building Research & Information is a leading peer-reviewed international journal that focuses on buildings and their supporting systems over their whole life. The scope of the journal embraces:

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A new paper by the RICS Europe Sustainability Task Force discusses key issues and challenges for sustainability in the construction sector with a focus on Realising the Opportunities for Built Environment Professionals.

It aims to promote discussion about the sorts of changes that practitioners and professionals need to make to support new approaches and practices.

The University of Reading Retrofit team contributed to this report and the report references their input, based on the EPSRC Retrofit 2050 research.

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A new report, Re-energising the Green Agenda, presents the findings of the Commission of Inquiry of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Excellence in the Built Environment. While it supports the Green Deal, it argues it urgently needs improvements to make it more financially attractive.

It also suggests that the Government needs to give clearer signals that the Green Agenda is a priority, including commitment to revising building regulations, to build confidence in the construction sector.

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To celebrate the publication of Building Research and Information journal’s special issue on Urban Retrofitting, there will be a launch event between 12.30pm and 1.30pm on Wednesday 2 October at the BRE INSITE Conference at BRE Watford. The event will be hosted by Richard Lorch (Editor in Chief of Building Research and Information), Professor Tim Dixon (University of Reading), and Professor Malcolm Eames (University of Cardiff). There will be a discussion on the special issue and the chance to hear more about the related EPSRC Retrofit 2050 programme of research.

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