BE-ST ‘24

I was thrilled to get the opportunity to head down to Paisley for BE-ST Fest ‘24 in November. And I was more than rewarded with two days of though-provoking speakers, engaging panel discussions and inspiring workshops.

BE-ST (Built Environment – Smarter Transition) has a mission; to accelerate the built environment’s just transition to zero carbon emissions. As well as being based in an international centre of excellence supported by Scottish Government, Scottish Funding Council and Scotland’s Enterprise Agencies, BE-ST hosts a conference each year to bring together key stakeholders, collaborators, clients, manufacturers, academics, legislators – really anyone who has a connection to the built environment.

As Operations Manager at CASE, I often ask the ‘obvious’ questions about a project, trying to gauge the impact it will have on the team, our resources and the potential to meet our company values. I initially wondered what I would gain from attending BE-ST Fest instead of sending one of our engineering or architectural team.

In fact, sitting on the periphery of the nuts and bolts of the construction world allowed me to act as sponge. Soaking up ideas, opinions, facts and proposals without prejudice or bias, I found myself enthused by the common messaging, which applies in all contexts:

We are all activists, we must really listen to others, we must collaborate, we must find and stick to our principles.

Featuring fascinating talks, thoughts and research from Joanna Yarrow  (sustainability activist), Funmbi Adeagbo (Black Females in Architecture), Emma Fletcher (Octopus Energy), Bola Ogunmefun (Tisserin Engineers) and Mel Esquerre (WikiHouse), the morning was packed with energising ideas.

Check out https://be-stfest.org/the-summit and https://be-stfest.org/the-international-retrofit-conference to see the speakers and panel discussions in action

Floortje Matthew