Earth Trust at UK Property Festival and OxProp Awards

by Jayne Manley

You may be asking yourself, what has Earth Trust got to do with The UK Property Festival, and why is being shortlisted for not one but two property awards so significant?

The UK Property Festival will be held at Bicester Motion on 9th September, and will bring together property, science and innovation communities from across the Oxford-Cambridge Arc. It’s a big day for Earth Trust. We’re asking industry, developers and the government to step up and think differently about the challenges we face, whether this is climate and carbon, ecosystems and biodiversity or health and access to nature.

Colouring in the Green Arc

I will be joining a panel discussing Colouring in the Green Arc to speak up for sustainability, people and the natural world. The Oxford to Cambridge Arc is a UK Government economic spatial “arc” of development joining up these two great cities to deliver growth and prosperity. It’s vital that we design green infrastructure into homes, developments and transport links so that people benefit from the richness of nature and its life-sustaining properties.

Ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), the green arc vision provides the government with an opportunity to demonstrate what we all want our children’s future to look like: a low carbon future, better connections with nature and healthy communities.

We are not suggesting this is going to be easy! Earth Trust’s experience during the pandemic has shown how challenging it can be to address the three interrelated challenges of climate, nature and health. But it can and needs to be done.

We need to help people feel engaged and able to access nature – only if this is the case will we be able to begin to address the green-space equality gap that has become so apparent through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Earth Lab nominated for two awards

Later in the evening an awards ceremony will celebrate the very best in building projects and the people that make these happen. We’re flying the flag for environmental awareness with Earth Lab, our new learning and engagement building, which has been shortlisted in two categories: Most Innovative and Sustainable Initiative of the Year and Project of the Year.

Our vision for Earth Lab was always to work with the design and construction industries to build something truly special that would challenge preconceptions and give people a glimpse into a more sustainable future. Working with partners that shared these ambitions was key. I’m grateful to all of our partners and funders for their support, including Agile Property, Baqus, Beard, Curtins, Method Consulting, OxLEP, The Banister Charitable Trust, Patsy Wood Trust and other anonymous funders who understood the risks and also the tremendous opportunities to demonstrate and influence along the way.

Earth Trust is about inspiring people to act differently: by investing today in designing and building with nature at the forefront of our minds, tomorrow we will reap the much needed benefits in the future.

Wish us luck!

 

Featured image © Craig White / Agile Property & Homes 2021