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From air quality to decarbonising our homes – here is a summary of the fascinating discussions and debates from the event.

You can also watch a recording of the

Decarbonising our homes

Are the homes built today going to help us reach our carbon emission targets? That was the focus of our first panel discussion of the day.

“To achieve near net zero by 2050 we need to retrofit roughly 330 homes a week, and that’s just South Yorkshire.” – Hadi Arbabi

The session was chaired by our Senior Research Fellow in Sustainability Policy, . The panel included  and , both lecturers in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at ����TV, as well as  – Senior Development Manager – Retrofit , South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.

Can flying be part of a sustainable future?

Do we really need to fly? If so, how much? And how can we do it with the lowest carbon impacts?

This session, chaired by our Co-Director, , looked at the future of flight and the aviation sector. It raised concerns about the supposed economic benefits of flying. The panel also discussed ‘synthetic’ aviation fuels and questioned whether it is really a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels.

Speakers included; , Director of Research and Innovation at ����TV; , Professor of Energy Policy at Sheffield Hallam University;  Senior Economist at New Economics Foundation, and our Research Fellow in Sustainability Assessment, .

Air pollution – In Conversation

“Air pollution kills people and clean air saves lives.” – Tom Hunt

In this moving and powerful conversation between , Director of the  and , Leader of Sheffield City Council, Rosamund told the story of how her daughter became the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as a cause on her death certificate.

You can read Now Then magazine’s article based on this conversation here: 

Not being distracted by (in)convenient truths

Should we be worried that scientists found microplastics in men’s testicles? How do our experts feel about the current ‘butterfly emergency’? Is the fact that most soft plastic collected at supermarkets for recycling is being burned cause for concern?

In our final session, chaired by , our audience and panel of experts took a look at the latest sensationalist climate and health headlines in the newspapers. They also voted on how concerned they are about the stories and considered if the academic community is doing enough research on the subject.

Our Co-Directors  and Rachael Rothman were joined on the panel by  – Director of Public Health in Sheffield and , Senior Lecturer, School of Biosciences at the ����TV.

You can read Now Then magazine’s article based on this conversation here: 

Watch The Sustainability Symposium 2024 online now

You can watch the full recording of the .

‘Decarbonising our homes’ (00:09:00)

‘Can flying be part of a sustainable future?’ (01:21:00)

‘Air pollution – In Conversation’ (02:33:00)

‘Not being distracted by (in)convenient truths’ (03:35:35)