This year’s LoLo CDT Annual Colloquium will be held on the 17 November 2016 at the Building Centre, London. Our students are among the brightest in the field, working on topics of profound practical importance; the energy leaders and pioneers of tomorrow who will take on senior roles in academia, industry, commerce, and policy formulation
The conference is your opportunity to meet with them, their academic supervisors and our industrial partners, to hear about and discuss the latest insights and findings in energy demand research, and to contribute to their work.
We are also delighted to announce this year’s keynote speaker will be Claire Curtis-Thomas, CEO, British Board of Agrément.
The Colloquium takes place at the end of a momentous year: the signing and, in the last week, coming into force of the Paris Agreement; the continued downturn in rates of dwelling retrofit; the winding up of the Zero Carbon Hub on the heels of the withdrawal of the Zero Carbon targets for new build last year; and BREXIT, which will almost certainly mean that for at least the next year the main focus of political attention will not be on energy demand and building performance.
2016 conference booklet including full programme, student biographies & posters
Policy & perverse behaviours – understanding the landscape for large insulation retrofit projects in the UK
Claire Curtis-Thomas, CEO, British Board of Agrément
17.30-18.30 – Building Centre Galleries (followed by networking drinks & canapés). If you are interested in attending just this session, please complete the standard registration form.
An obligation by successive UK governments to deliver global climate change agreements has led to the establishment of a billion pound property retrofit program designed to produce the agreed annual carbon savings.
Policy makers are reluctant to dictate contractual terms and conditions for carbon reduction measures and consequently industry has introduced a raft of approaches which are designed to maximise profits, an understandable objective, which we can demonstrate has been achieved at the expense of the householder and the British tax payer.
Speaker biography
Claire Curtis-Thomas graduated in Mechanical Engineering from University College, Cardiff, and went on to obtain an MBA at Aston University. She also has an honorary PhD in Technology.
Her industry experience was gained with Shell UK. This was followed with roles at Birmingham City Council, initially as Head of Corporate Affairs and later as Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council Laboratories. Claire then returned to university life as Dean of the Engineering and Business Department of the University of Wales, Newport, before moving into politics when she was elected as MP for Crosby.
During her time in parliament, Claire championed a number of issues on behalf of the construction industry and sat on three select committees: Trade & Industry, Home Affairs and Science & Technology. She also chaired All-Party Parliamentary Committees on Construction and Utility related subjects and founded the Construction & Development Partnership, a charity dedicated to bringing schools and education to the children of Sierra Leone.
Claire left politics in 2010 and before joining the BBA in 2013, she was Chief Executive of The Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers (IGEM), a Chartered Institution providing services, training, and standards to the gas.