EMISSIONS & AIR QUALITY Smart Class, South 2022

“Innovative Technology for a Greener and Cleaner London” – The global coronavirus pandemic had a very significant impact on travel trends across London, and we saw an increase in journeys walked and cycled. Although it is still early days, recent demand trends indicate we are in a period of steady and sustained recovery, and it is critical that the full capabilities of our networks remain available to continue to support a return to normal and the longer-term viability of the Capital.

Dan Champion – Head of Air Quality, Environment & Technology at TfL – leads the sponsorship of the Mayor of London’s and Transport for London’s investment in air quality, environment and operational technology. Investment in TfL is essential for London’s and the UK’s recovery and, in this opening keynote, Dan will explain why, from seamless journeys to creating more capacity, investment in technology is crucial for making that recovery a green one. His presentation will also touch on some of the innovative schemes – e.g. the Direct Vision Standard (DVS) for HGVs, expansion of London’s ULEZ to 18 times the size of the central London zone, EV Charging Infrastructure etc – that his team have already helped deliver to drive down emissions.

“Utilising Innovative Transport Solutions to Tackle Southampton’s Air Quality Challenge” – Southampton is the third-most population dense city in England, and like many major cities, continues to experience persistent congestion and poor air quality in certain key areas of the city. While road sources remain the principal source of key pollutants in the city, shipping and other industry also contribute and provide unique challenges to address.

While Southampton has seen improvements in air quality over recent years, the city is set to grow, with 42,000 new homes forecasted between 2016 and 2037 and projection that The Port of Southampton could be handling twice as many cruise ship passengers by 2035.

As such there’s clearly a need to identify and pursue new, innovative opportunities for improving transport to ensure improvements are maintained over coming years.

Southampton City Council is working with other councils and public authorities on the Solent Future Transport Zone programme. This is a £28m DfT funded programme of innovative transport projects, including e-scooters, bike share, sustainable logistics and delivering a Mobility-as-a-Service application for the Solent region, all of which hope to improve transport across the region and reduce the contribution of transport to poor air quality.

This insightful keynote will be co-presented by Southampton City Council’s Sustainable Projects Lead (Air Quality), George O’Ferrall, and Solent Transport’s FTZ Project Manager, Rob Gloyns.

“Opening the Door to Air Quality ‘Safe Havens'” – Nathan Wood is chair of one of the most high profile special interest groups in the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA). The Health & Well-being in Buildings Group evolved out of the Association’s Indoor Air Quality group when members identified a need to reflect the use of building engineering solutions to improve the wider health and well-being of building users.

The removal of most Covid restrictions in the UK has increased calls for clearer practical guidance and the setting of specific indoor air quality (IAQ) contaminant targets to support the health and wellbeing of building occupants. BESA has, therefore, produced a concise guide to good practice: ‘Indoor Air Quality for Health & Well-Being’, which is designed to help building owners, managers and engineers interpret IAQ data and turn it into useful strategies for improving the indoor environment.

In this keynote, Nathan will provide an introduction to BESA’s Safe Haven campaign and outline the new BESA guidance which sets out target limits for a range of airborne contaminants in a variety of indoor spaces. It explains how air quality data gathered during specialist surveys or from the wide range of low cost real-time and continuous IAQ monitoring devices, can be interpreted and acted upon.

“Saving 15 Million Tonnes of CO2 through the Introduction of DRT” – 380,000 on-demand vehicles could replace around 12 million private cars in Germany. This would result in a CO2 saving of approximately 15 million tonnes per year – 10 per cent of the total CO2 emissions emitted annually by traffic in Germany.

These exciting findings are the result of the ioki study on “Public Mobility in Germany”, which shows the power that the use of data can have in the analysis of mobility circumstances. The response to this study was overwhelming in Germany, and after being quoted in the national news “Tagesschau”, ioki are pleased to announce that they will be conducting more of these studies for other European countries, including the UK.

In ioki’s session, co-presented/hosted by Alina and Anna, you will learn how mobility analytics consulting services can help you to reach your climate goals through new public mobility offers, what role DRT solutions play in this context and why autonomous transport will be an increasingly important building block in the development of public transport.

“Data Led Air Quality Improvement and Transport Decarbonisation” – Alongside cleaning the air, transport decarbonisation is driving more and more public sector investment decisions, with new and innovative digital solutions being sought. This is in conjunction with maintained legacy concerns such as congestion, safety and equality.

In this presentation, Nick Ruxton-Boyle – Director of Environment at Marston Holdings – explains how use of smart city technology and digitised enforcement can generate a platform in which public support can be gained and maintained through good data collection and visualisation.

With reference to real world public sector case studies, Nick will demonstrate how the use of data, before, during and after scheme delivery can justify preferred options, validate outcomes, ensure compliance, and maximise return on scheme investment.

“Air Quality and Highways Operations – How to Track, Analyse, Recommend and Predict the Impact” – Brightly is the global leader in intelligent asset management solutions, enabling organisations to transform the performance of their assets through Enterprise Asset Management, Strategic Asset Management, IoT Remote Monitoring, Sustainability and Community Engagement. Hannah Winstanley – Senior Director, Client Services Centre – is leading Brightly’s full carbon reduction strategy plan.

Aligning to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Hannah’s presentation will provide examples of how a shift in highways and environmental operations can have a positive impact on air quality and GHG reduction. By tracking and measuring the emissions of inspections, reactive and planned works, she will demonstrate how to build a baseline carbon footprint of each asset and roll-up data across asset portfolios. Analysis of the data will provide insight and recommendations for strategies to reduce carbon and predict trends over time.