Ahead of COP27 in Egypt, Knight Frank hosted a super panel discussion today entitled "Net Zero Neighbourhoods: a just transition?" 

The panel comprised: Emma Cariaga (Joint Head of Canada Water and Head of Residential at British Land), Matt Flood (Office Lead, Brent Cross Town, Related Argent) and Christopher Botten (Head of Sustainability, Urban Regeneration). 

Some quickfire key snippets/thoughts:

1. Making it hurt financially: British Land are voluntarily adding a "cost of carbon" surcharge into new development appraisals, so introducing a financial imperative on e.g. design teams to cut operational and embodied carbon. The fund is recycled into transitioning existing stock (the "transition vehicle"). Fascinating. 

2. Timberrrrr!!!: For Matt Flood, there has been notable progress around operational carbon - where partnerships are key - whether through those green lease partnerships with "customers" and at Brent Cross, with "fossil free" energy company Vatenfall. 

However, the key challenge is embodied carbon - and for Matt, innovative construction methods such as timber may be the answer. Yet even there, the key is collaborating - the industry must look beyond traditional silos and share knowledge to progress new methodology asap. 

3. "Climate future fit developments": Developments need to be resilient and adaptable. The panel all spoke to long term regeneration projects - whilst early thinking may have incorporated what was then the low carbon option, innovation moves on (e.g. until recently, gas fired heat networks may have been the answer). How do you manage developments so that they are fit for future?  A key challenge.