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Sustainability

How would you like the Palace of Westminster to become a greener, more sustainable building?

Perhaps you have ideas about how we can reduce carbon emissions – both of the building itself, and as we carry out the restoration work.

Or perhaps you’re interested in increasing biodiversity, or minimising waste.

Between June and July 2021 we asked for your views and ideas about how we can make the Palace of Westminster a greener, more sustainable building.

The views and ideas shared will help to inform the detailed and costed restoration and renewal plan. You can look at what people said below. You can also sign up for information on further activities that will follow in due course.

More information

Parliament has decided that the Palace of Westminster will remain its permanent home, after the restoration project is complete. We are working on the detailed restoration plan which will be provided to Parliament for its decision. We want to take your views into account as we develop this plan.

There are many challenges in making a 150 year old historic building more sustainable. We have established sustainability aspirations and objectives. Find out more about what we mean by sustainability and about our sustainability policies.

Video transcript_Sustainability.pdf

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Phases

Phases overview

Phase 1: Gathering thoughts and ideas

Gathering thoughts and ideas

Phase 2: Developing a detailed and costed restoration and renewal plan

Developing a detailed and costed restoration and renewal plan

Phase 3: Providing the plan to Parliament

Providing the plan to Parliament

Gathering thoughts and ideas

1 January 2021 00:00 - 15 July 2021 23:00

As part of this once in a generation project, the Restoration and Renewal Programme is seeking your views, ideas, experience and knowledge to help inform our plans for different aspects of the restoration of the Palace of Westminster.

These online conversations will run until 14 July 2021. A range of other activities with different groups around the UK will continue throughout 2021.

Community guidelines

This website is an inclusive and constructive space for people to share their views and ideas about key areas of the Restoration and Renewal Programme. Content will be moderated in line with our Community Guidelines and Terms and Conditions. Comments not meeting these standards/guidelines will be removed by our team of moderators. Posting in this conversation is possible between 07:00 and 22:00 daily.

32 contributions

unknown author5 years ago

unknown author5 years ago

unknown author5 years ago

unknown author5 years ago There must be a strong case for relocating the seat of government to Birmingham. The city is more geographically central in the UK (closer to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland). HS2 is being built from London to Curzon St station in Birmingham. This would therefore be the ideal location for a purpose-built parliamentary complex. It could be designed from the ground up to have modern IT systems, energy-efficient heating/cooling, sustainable water use, etc. All the infrastructure of government could be located in one secure complex: debating chambers, theatres, committee rooms, offices, function rooms, restaurants, creche, hotel (for MPs, staff and visitors), etc.Curzon St is only minutes away from Birmingham International Airport by rail. Extensions of HS2 to the north, and upgrades to lines to the west, south-west and east would make this the best-connected city in the UK.Vacating the Palace of Westminster would facilitate its safe, sustainable and cost-efficient repair and refurbishment as a museum – of British history, democracy or government – and as a functional space with accommodation for state and other events.

unknown author5 years ago

unknown author5 years ago

unknown author5 years ago This stunning building needs to be preserved and made accessible to all. Surely we could save immense cost and impact by re locating the political function to a modern, purpose built and efficient building outside of the capital? This could include accommodation to further save cost to the taxpayer.Could the re-furbishment then be re-designed to that of visitor attraction and would this have lower cost and impact?Either way a really good start would be the introduction of a tax advantage to the use of HVO fuels during the project to benefit from the emissions reductions they provide. tis would be a really quick win!

unknown author5 years ago

unknown author5 years ago The heritage of the building needs to be preserved and be accessible to the widest audience by the diligent and thoughtful application of public funds.avoid any gimmicks, focus on utility in terms of the function of the building, do no more than is needed to preserve its initial heritage. Where new sustainable solutions can be made to work make them sustainable so that future generations see continuous life with no fashion frills. Fit for purpose, fit for the future, fit for a triple bottom line of People, Planet and shared Prosperity.Most if all allow the building to invoke and inspire leadership ensuring all that work their know they have a duty to the future every bit more than the past.

unknown author5 years ago

unknown author5 years ago The ideal solution would be to move out of London. Go somewhere where parliament can regenerate the local economy. Stop hyper inflating the London housing market. Redevelop the Houses of Parliament to retain a small area for historic/pageantry uses and use the rest to develop homes and a sustainable environment, including a lot of truly affordable housing for key workers (including cleaners etc.)Failing this then a lot more technology to allow remote working, and modern conference type facilities. Fitting high levels of energy efficient heating and cooling. Lots of green technology. And modern voting.

unknown author5 years ago

unknown author5 years ago Think more about using technology so that not everyone has to be in the building at the same time to vote or interact hence greener in terms of working population of HoP travelling to and from the building , and then use more of the historic infrastructure for other revenue raising efforts (education, events, tourism, tours, business events, ted talks etc) and for charity/taxpayers projects returning to the taxpayer.Be daring to showcase British innovation as an advertisement to the world of how innovative we can be. Solar panels, bee hives, green roof, are all already existing means - aim for something bigger and bolder.

unknown author5 years ago Large urban buildings already provide nesting opportunities for some birds, however, restoration work so often includes filling holes, gaps etc., as part of the work, thereby removing the possibility for nesting. Sometimes this is mitigated by adding bird boxes after the works are complete. Boxes tend to have a short useful life and it would be wonderful if the government could lead the way by incorporating appropriate opportunities for birds, particularly swifts, potentially house martins, peregrine falcons, as well as more common hole-nesting species. There are now built-in specialist boxes available and if incorporated into the building structure, they will potentially remain for the foreseeable future. Swifts, in particular, are in huge decline, partially from a lack of nesting spaces, and it would be wonderful if screaming swifts in May and June could be just one of the many improvements from the restoration.

unknown author5 years ago Carbon reduction - self generation of as much power as possible, purchasing only truly renewable energy (fully PPA backed not just REGOS) total insulation, secondary glazing crafted by master craftspeople. No cooling - please tell me there is no cooling in a building of this age, shading externally and internally if there is cooling. Meat free catering, local food catering, local everything, Carbon free deliveries.Habitat - create biodiversity gain - woodland, pond and meadow habitat to encourage max biodiversity planting with indigenous only to support pollinators, reduce light pollution all around (the whole of the city ideally) to support light sensitive invertebrates.Waste - you need someone to identify every single waste output and eliminate those that cannot form part of a circular system. Reducing paper use, composting food waste, creating closed loop systems for grey water, rain water harvesting, full recycling for all that can be. Avoidance of all SUPs compost system for compostable plastics.Toxin free - interiors should use products snd materials with low embodied impacts, avoidance of all SVHCs - look carefully at data sheetsSupport for local and British in all purchasing, looking to create new and ling term jobs - gardeners, food producers, bee keepers and so on. There is so much more that’s just a start…

unknown author5 years ago I think it is ludicrous that we keep paying for PoW, we need to stop paying for MP’s to travel to Westminster, it’s time to digitise Parliament and use Skype, Teams etc... for meetings. If any building is needed then downsize into a modern greener building instead of fighting a bursting dam with a plaster. It is a complete waste of public money to keep patching the PoW up with constant repairs. Also absolutely ABOLISH the House of Lords in its entirety and have regional representation in its place.

unknown author5 years ago

unknown author5 years ago Give it to the National Trust and build a new, purpose built, more functional set of rooms and offices outside London, ideally in the midlands. This should lead to less London- centric government, and improve travel and business investment in the centre of England rather than just the south east corner. This would have the benefit of reducing congestion and pollution in central London, especially if part of the site ( any unsafe parts of the building?) were cleared and turned into a green space for the public. The PoW is beautiful but outdated, and hopelessly inefficient. It should be preserved, as far as is safe, as a relic of past times, but the business of government in the 21st century requires a more modern, efficient building. Our British obsession with tradition is holding us back in the modern world and makes us look hopelessly self- obsessed and old fashioned.

unknown author5 years ago Fatigue-vision is a U.K. SME and it won an Innovate U.K. award with their sensor called ‘pipesense’. This is applied to pipes across a building to predict in advance if a pipe is going to fatigue, or freeze. It triggers an alert to site managers to either investigate or it triggers valves to open or boilers start etc. This would not only save hundreds of thousands in preventative maintenance, it will reduce unnecessary losses to such a historic building. These sensors are wireless and can be installed easily, new or retrofit by plumbers as pipes are renewed. U.K. Insurers pay out £6m a day on claims for water damage. The parliamentary estates both older buildings and those more recently built could benefit greatly from such a simple, low cost, new or retrofit solution. Installed in minutes saving huge amounts and priceless works.

unknown author5 years ago

unknown author5 years ago

unknown author5 years ago

unknown author5 years ago The Palace of Westminster is very beautiful and I am glad that it is being restored. I would suggest that a simple way to make it more sustainable is to reduce water consumption by replacing old toilets and urinals with new, low flush models (although it is important to specify devices that will truly deliver low flushes and are simple to use). I wonder if there is any space to harvest rainwater for toilet flushing since the building has such a large roof. Additionally, it would be worth looking at opportunities for more nest sites for birds by installing gravel on the flat roofs, and maybe next boxes in strategic places. I realise that there are parts of the building where birds must be prohibited, but where birds can be allowed to live, those spaces could be enhanced. Small areas of green wall would be a possibility too, where the structure of the building could stand it. And maybe some floating wetlands in the river, near to the building, to provide additional habitat for wildlife without taking any more space in the grounds of the building. Thank you.

unknown author5 years ago I understand that installing Solar panels etc on such a Iconic Heritage site is often frowned upon. But after working in the roof plantrooms and the Victoria Tower building I believe there must be someway in harnessing the waste heat energy from the Cast Iron Roofing systems. Maybe by installing a pipework system insulated on the inside to reclaim this heat.Would be interested if there are any other schemes such as this around

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