Attendees to this year’s Futurebuild Arena – taking place at London Excel from 4th-6th March – will also be able to access the National Retrofit Conference with a single ticket.

The Futurebuild Arena, alongside the National Retrofit Conference, offers a unique opportunity to dive into the built environment’s biggest challenges and emerge with actionable insights, strategies, and collaborations that will shape the future. With a single ticket, attendees gain access to both of these influential events, making it an unmissable experience for architects and built environment professionals.

The Futurebuild Arena
Curated by The Edge and sponsored by heat pump experts Mitsubishi Electric, the CPD-accredited Futurebuild Arena Programme will host a wide variety of thought-provoking sessions focusing on the 2025 edition’s themes: circularity, social justice, and fair use of resources. A distinguished line-up of industry leaders will dissect the steps needed to achieve targets within one, five, and 10 years, providing actionable insights for visitors.

Day 1: Putting Circularity And Reuse At The Heart Of Living And Working
The first day sets the stage with strategies of embedding circularity in the built environment. Tina Paillet, Past President of RICS and Co-founder of Circotrade will chair a debate on making the circular economy a reality while Sophie Thomas, Founding Partner and Chief Technology Officer, etsaW Venture, explores innovative material reuse.

Day 2: Sustainability, Social Justice, and Transition
Baroness Young of Old Scone will Chair a debate on the need for a land-use framework with Dani Arribas-Bel from the Alan Turing Institute, and Stephen Hill of C2O futureplanners. Following a keynote by Housing Minister, Baroness Taylor, Yolande Barnes and Alan Law will discuss tackling the polycrisis of fixing housing, climate, nature and health.

Day 3: Making It Happen
The final day will focus on actionable steps to implement sustainable solutions. David Partridge and Jess Hrivnak will lead discussions on the Net Zero Carbon Building Standard. To close the day, Smith Mordak and Dr Emily Nurse will look back and look forward to consider if we are doing enough.

The full Futurebuild Arena programme can be found here with speaker details and biographies.

National Retrofit Conference
Taking place alongside Futurebuild 2025, the National Retrofit Conference, sponsored by Sustainable Building Services, centres on Scaling the Ambition and Delivering the Promise with Retrofitting with its main theme of Regenerating Our Cities and Regions. Curated by the Retrofit Academy CIC and the National Retrofit Hub, the conference will deliver practical, actionable solutions that attendees can implement to advance their retrofit programmes.

Day 1: Leadership, Innovation, and Skills
This day explores how strong leadership, policy direction, and a skilled workforce are vital in accelerating retrofitting across the UK. Highlights include:

• Pioneering a Net Zero Future for a Global City. Megan Life, Associate Director of Environment and Energy at Greater London Authority will outline London’s strategy for achieving net zero, setting an example for urban centres worldwide.
• Delivering Labour’s Net Zero Vision: Strategies, Challenges, and Opportunities. Miatta Fahnbulleh MP, Minister for Energy Consumers, will delve into Labour’s commitment to net zero and how policy will shape the future of retrofit and energy efficiency.
• Panel discussions will cover topics such as, The Warm Homes Plan,  State of the Nation – Retrofitting for a Sustainable Future, Leadership in Retrofitting – Driving Change Across Cities and Regions, and the critical role of Skills and Workforce Development.

Day 2: Retrofit Done Right at Scale
The focus shifts to scaling up retrofit efforts to meet decarbonisation targets. Sessions include:

• Driving Standards and Volume in the Large Scale Retrofit Market. Simon Ayers, Chief Executive at TrustMark.
• Retrofit our buildings, or our brains? Science, history and giving people agency to improve health, comfort and carbon. Bill Bordass, Research and Policy Adviser – Usable Buildings and Robyn Pender, Director – Whethergauge.
  Is Retrofit Investible? A panel will discuss economic models and financing strategies to attract investors.

Day 3: Community-Led Retrofit – Building from the Bottom Up
Curated by the National Retrofit Hub, this day focuses on grassroots-led solutions and financial innovations. Highlights include:

• EPC Reform – Perspectives on Change in Action. Hosted by Rachael Owens, National Retrofit Hub Co-Director, with speakers from Which? and Ecology Building Society.
• Community-Led Retrofit – Redefining Retrofit at Scale. Hosted by Sara Edmonds, National Retrofit Hub Co-Director and Head of Citizen Engagement at BE-ST, featuring BE-ST Retrofit Scotland, Footwork Trust and Ecological Building Systems.

The full National Retrofit Conference programme can be found here with speaker details and biographies.

“The Futurebuild Arena and National Retrofit Conference mark a pivotal moment as we celebrate 20 years of driving sustainability in the built environment,” said Martin Hurn, Event Director at Futurebuild. “These events will challenge us all to confront the urgency of the climate crisis and provide actionable solutions that will have a real, tangible impact. With just five years to 2030, now is the time for decisive action. The National Retrofit Conference exemplifies the collaboration needed to tackle retrofitting challenges and drive meaningful progress across the sector.”

Join us at Futurebuild 2025 and be part of the change. Register here.