Barriers to sustainable infrastructure in urban regeneration

Abstract

The £6 billion regeneration of the area immediately to the east of Birmingham's city centre is currently one of the largest redevelopment schemes being undertaken in the UK. The ten-year redevelopment of this 130 ha site is based upon a vision of Eastside as a sustainable exemplar of city centre regeneration. Turning this vision into reality requires both a sustainable policy to be embraced willingly, rather than reluctantly, and best practice to be adopted. This paper describes sustainable options that are essential to a good quality of life (i.e. supply of water and energy) and yet that will help Eastside on the road towards exemplary status. Some of these options are relatively well understood and practically proven (e.g. greywater recycling, rainfall harvesting, borehole abstraction and combined heat and power systems), and indeed have been adopted elsewhere in the UK, while others are closer to ‘blue skies’ concepts (e.g. fuel cells and multi-utility tunnels) and will require step changes in both attitudes and technology prior to their introduction. When assessing the feasibility of implementing these sustainable technologies within a commercial redevelopment scheme there are necessarily many barriers to be overcome. This paper highlights these barriers, some of which are specific to Eastside while others are generic to any redevelopment scheme, and aims to show how many subtle and complex arguments are involved in overcoming them. In so doing, it recommends enablers that should be considered for adoption.