星空传媒

Three of the eight winners were for Australian projects. All were excellent, but surely the best of British sustainable design doesn鈥檛 only manifest when it is air-lifted to the other side of the world.

A sustainable future will demand increasingly more travel restraint: we need to fly less, and less far afield. Opportunities abound in our own back yard after all, and sustainability starts at home.

鈥淟ocal鈥� is fast becoming ad speak for quality and excellence in the same way that 鈥済lobal鈥� once was. Global 鈥� as a corporate boast 鈥� is now pass茅. Witness HSBC: the world鈥檚 local bank?

If we start to think that we must fly in order to be next year鈥檚 green wizards (of Aus!), then each such flight of fancy will contribute as much CO2 equivalent as one 鈥渁verage鈥� UK person鈥檚 total annual footprint. Or 10 times more CO2 than the planet can sustain 鈥� if each of us were to agree to keep within the planet鈥檚 viable personal pollution quota. (It鈥檚 probably quite a good idea to observe Mother Nature鈥檚 limits.)

If sustainability expertise is air-lifted to the other side of the world, is it worthy of the name? And speaking of names鈥� last month鈥檚 suggestion simply won鈥檛 do

If we passively endorse organisational 鈥渨anderlust鈥�, there is a danger we are rewarding those who have quit smoking with a fat cigar! This is not a path that leads to any future.

For building services professionals, travel will almost certainly be the dominant part of their overall footprint, both at the level of the individual, and for the business. Of course we can and must export our new-found world-leading capability for zero carbon design 鈥� far and wide, intelligently and internationally but with personnel movement greatly minimised all the while. And it is better if we master the magic carbon-lite art at home first.

Shipping the best the profession has to offer over to Australia and back will soon appear almost criminal. History almost repeats itself.