Builders get Batty: Kelly Gunnell reports back from Ecobuild 2011
It is two weeks post-Ecobuild 2011 and I am still recovering. Ecobuild is the world’s largest event for sustainable design, construction and the built environment, with more than 600 speakers and 1300 exhibitors, all held over 3 days at the beginning of March. This year Ecobuild was held at the Excel Centre in east London which meant that it could accommodate even more visitors. They were expecting more than 50,000 people to attend this year and as you can see from the picture below, it was certainly packed.
BCT had a stand in the Biodiversity Pavilion where a dedicated crew of BCT staff and volunteers helped field all manner of questions. Some queries were certinaly building related and there was much interest in the bat boxes that we had on display. However, we also had to help with general bat education. Yes, someone really did ask if bats laid eggs!
This year Ecobuild used the Cityscape area to host a number of talks relating to Enhancing Biodiversity and Greening the City. The Biodiversity talks covered everything from bees, trees, birds and yes, even bats. I was lucky enough to present two talks on Designing Buildings for Bats which were very well received.
It is great to finally see Biodiversity taking a prime position in a mainstream building related event. Hopefully the organisers will take note from all the interest and realise that Biodiversity rules the world!
If you would like to find out more about bats and how they can be incorporated into buildings why not visit our webpage click here.
Kelly Gunnell
Bats and Built Environment Officer