The event marked a turning point in the conference's history, with a new emphasis on sustainable re-use of heritage buildings. Said Giles Semper: ‘Fred Taggart of The Prince's Regeneration Trust has advised me on the event over the years. When we met again early in 2008, Fred and his colleague Roland Jeffrey were of the view that the case with respect to the re-use of valuable old buildings was substantially made and that we should move with the times. They felt that, although there has been a lot of debate around the sustainability of new buildings, particularly housing, there has been little useful material on sustainable re-use.'

The conference was chaired by Will Palin, new Secretary for SAVE Britain's Heritage - a key campaigning group. It began with a session on the meaning of sustainability in the context of re-use, addressed by Anthony Alexander of Alan Baxter & Associates and David Drewe of English Heritage. Anthony urged delegates to think ‘beyond the building line', including the accessibility of the building and its relationship to its immediate environment.

The second session included a substantial contribution from Mark Siddall of Dewoj'c Architects, who considered notions of ‘embodied energy' and ‘embodied carbon' when applied to buildings, also featuring the [    ]s in Germany as examples of low-carbon buildings. Richard Oxley of Oxley Conservation and George Marshall, proprietor of the famous ‘Yellow House' in Oxford, both gave a ‘reality check' - in the first case urging individual solutions for individual buildings, and in the second expressing frustration over the variety of obstacles put in the way of the building proprietor who wants to do the best by the environment.

Anne Power addressed the third session as keynote speaker. Her paper was a highly persuasive paean against demolition as the ‘default' position for many when assessing the validity of existing buildings. She drew on huge experience both as a community activist and as an academic. She was joined by three excellent colleagues - David Ireland from the Empty Homes Agency, Jonathan Brown of URBED and Kate [  ] of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England. The debate centred around the inadequacies of the UK planning and tax systems in encouraging re-use.

The day concluded with three excellent case studies. Nigel Grizzard - famous for his own mills conference - gave an affectionate and highly knowledgeable tour of some ‘pet projects' in the re-use of mills. Oliver Caroe of Purcell Miller Tritton shared a sophisticated feasibility study on a ‘sustainable upgrade' for [   ] House. And Sarah Royse - recently Young Consultant of the Year in the [   ] awards, spoke about the brilliant refurbishment of Beaufort Court in Hemel Hempstead - formerly the ‘hen house' for Ovaltine - as a headquarters for [   ].

Giles Semper is now exploring ways in which the conference itself can be made sustainable! ‘Conferences are a difficult proposition these days. Local authority staff aren't encouraged to attend as many events as they used to, and there is a high level of competiton. However I am currently consulting with the speakers as to how we can give more life to their excellent contributions, and how next year's event can be improved yet further.'