Speakers
Ian Vaughan Evans - Chairman and Past President of LABC and Head of Building Control — Flintshire County Council. Ian has worked in Local Authority Building Control for over thirty years, starting as a Trainee with Glyndwr DC in 1975 and working for Colwyn BC, Chester CC, Alyn and Deeside DC before becoming the Chief Building Control Officer for Flintshire County Council in 1996.
Ian strongly believes that Local Authority Building Control is the best provider of Building Control services and has been involved in the promotion of this for a number of years. In 2001 he became a Director of LABC Services representing the Local Government Association and in 2003 became the Honorary Treasurer of the DSA. He has been involved with LABC Wales on the marketing side for many years helping to organise seminars, Quality Award dinners and other events for both internal and external customers. His main interests are in marketing, promoting and delivering services to both internal and external customers.
Rob Gwillim - Rob Gwillim has been working in the Renewable Energy Industry for the past eighteen years. During his career as an engineer and consultant at the Centre for Alternative Technology and the National Energy Foundation, he was involved in projects covering all of the major renewable technologies. Rob is now Course Leader for the University of East London masters course in Renewable Energy and the Built Environment at the Centre for Alternative Technology and Technical Director for Perpetual Energy Ltd an energy development company specialising in offering renewable energy solutions for industry and the building sector.
Cindy Harris - Cindy Harris has a degree in Sociology and a City & Guilds in Carpentry & Joinery. She has worked at the Centre for Alternative Technology for many years as construction project manager and environmental consultant, and is an expert on the environmental impacts of building materials. Cindy now works for the Design Commission for Wales as Head of Design Review and is an honorary member of the Royal Society of Architects in Wales. She has lectured on sustainable design and construction, from the general public to post-graduate level, and has helped develop course material here and in Australia. Cindy has co-written two books published by CAT Publications:
‘Out of the Woods: ecological design for timber frame self build’, and
‘The Whole House Book’, recently published in its second edition.
Phil Horton, Special Projects Officer, Centre for Alternative Technology Charity -
Phil is a Chartered Engineer who worked for the BBC's capital projects department for 9 years before moving to CAT in 1998 to work for their free Information service. He is now the Project Manager for the Wales Institute for Sustainable Education (WISE), a £4 million building being constructed to expand CAT's ability to deliver education in all areas of sustainability. WISE reflects CAT's latest thinking about sustainable building design and will be extensively monitored to confirm its performance in use. The project started on site in June 2006 and is scheduled for completion this Autumn.
Rebecca Huck - Rebecca has been the WISE Network coordinator since September 2006. WISE Network is an EU funded collaboration between the Universities of Bangor, Aberystwyth and Swansea where she provides a unique opportunity for businesses to access the knowledge and facilities at the three institutions while ensuring effective partnership. Prior to this she worked in the waste industry for 8 years following completion of her academic studies, a BSc in Applied Environmental & Resource science at Salford University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Water Resources at University of Wales Bangor. Feeling the need to broaden her horizons into the wider world of waste beyond landfill in 2002 she took a post with the Wales Environment Trust as a Business Development Manager initially looking at developing markets in North Wales for recycled materials and then developing the use of secondary and recycled aggregates in North Wales. Rebecca is an accredited CIWM (Chartered Institution of Waste Management) Waste Awareness Trainer - General and Construction and a Chartered Wastes Manager.
Colin King - Colin King is Sustainable Construction Manager for the BRE. He is one of the Technical Authors of the Code for Sustainable Homes and is one of the senior deliverers of Code Training .
His role also covers resolving technical issues in implementing and delivering the Code on site and within the BREEAM Centre.
In addition to the above role he is also involved in delivering sustainable housing solutions and Planning Guidance for the Welsh Assembly Government and House builders in the UK, covering both the new build market and refurbishment of existing housing stock.
Terry O' Regan, B. Agr. Sc. (Hort), M.I.L.I., MI Hort, BHL Landscape Group & Landscape Alliance Ireland - From Cork, Ireland, Terry is a horticultural graduate of UCD Dublin with 38 year’s landscape industry experience, an award-winning landscape contractor and latterly a landscape design and environmental consultant, past chairman of the Association of Landscape Contractors of Ireland, he called for an Irish National Landscape Policy in 1994, has participated in the development of the European Landscape Convention, founded Landscape Alliance Ireland and the National Landscape Forum series, was founding chairperson of the LA21 body - the Cork Environmental Forum, he writes and lectures on landscape evolution, quality and management in Ireland and Europe.
Francois Samuel - Francois Samuel is the Head of Construction Unit within the Housing Directorate of the Welsh Assembly Government, covering Building Regulations liaison in Wales, Construction legislation and industry liaison, Promotion of Constructing Excellence, Standards for Social Housing including new housing design, specification and procurement and The Welsh Housing Quality Standard as well as domestic energy efficiency matters.
Steve Smith, Renewable Energy Consultant – Steve has specialist experience in renewable energy, energy efficiency and building services projects in assessment, design and implementation roles. He is highly skilled in the design and construction of renewable energy systems, CHP installations, district heating networks, and energy efficient built environments, having worked in these disciplines on educational, office, residential, industrial and defence buildings.
Steve has extensive experience of feasibility studies in these disciplines, making use of a range of energy modelling software including Energy Pro, RetScreen and Excel. He has previously been involved in projects ranging from CHP installations for the Universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen, low carbon studies and designs for housing associations and carbon reduction and renewable energy studies for new town developments and university campuses.
Roger Thomas has been Chief Executive of the Countryside Council for Wales for the last six years. Before that he was Director of Environment Agency Wales, having worked for the Agency and its predecessor organisations in a number of roles based throughout Wales.
In his present job he has been leading a new strategy for the organisation, based upon CCW’s response to climate change. CCW has concluded that climate change presents the biggest challenge facing an organisation charged with championing the natural environment. The strategy has both adaptation and mitigation elements: adaptation to facilitate the free movement of animal and plant species in response to changing climate; mitigation through widening public understanding of both the importance of our natural environment to health and well-being and the impact of our lifestyles upon this – and with the objective of persuading people to change how they live.
Pete West - Before joining Severn Wye Energy Agency (SWEA) in 2006, Pete spent six years as Project Manager at the West Wales Eco Centre, where he was responsible for funding and delivery of a range of successful renewable energy and education projects. He also has fifteen years’ experience of running a heating business specialising in environmentally-friendly installations including biomass, solar water heating, condensing boilers and heating controls.
Pete has a strong commitment to international cooperation within the sustainable energy NGO sector, and has developed a number of partnerships with energy NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe. He is a member of the management board of the Danish-based International Network for Sustainable Energy, INFORSE-Europe, and has presented at seminars on renewable energy policy in Brussels, Estonia and the Ukraine.
Since joining SWEA, Pete has led the development of a wood fuels cooperative for Gloucestershire and the establishment of a local authority funded renewable energy advice service with referrals to an accredited local installer network.
Julia Williams - Julia's role within Climate Change and Water at the Welsh Assembly Government is to develop and steer policy in relation to energy efficiency and energy saving and small scale energy (micro) generation to help mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change and to help alleviate fuel poverty; and to develop and steer policy to make buildings in Wales more sustainable.
