One property entrepreneur, who I knew in the eighties, confessed only a few are taking sustainability seriously. Angus McIntosh, head of research at King Sturge and chair of Newzeye’s GPP Conference concurred when he said there’s a lot is window dressing, re-iterating that buildings like the Gherkin are great environmentally, but there’s only 60% lettable space.

And Savills’ Graham Brown says industrialists want to know about ease of access, proximity to motorways, parking, eaves height and rent – and not how environmentally friendly the building is.

Some architects and engineers I talked to were less worried about glass towers but more about the positioning and other factors. It is field which is by no means cut and dried.

Louise Ellison of the Property Research Forum has come up with a Sustainability Index for property which could help. But this contains different terms and language to those seen at Ecobuild, including EcoHomes and the Code for Sustainable Homes. There’s a danger here. And therein lies the problem. Everybody sees sustainability from their own point of view.

One lawyer stood up in a seminar and said: “Two years ago I’d be embarrassed to talk about sustainability and environmental issues here.”

Chairman of DEGW, Despina Katsikakis said changing work patterns and social influences mean we need to adapt existing buildings rather than build new ones all the time. This flew in the face of many at MIPIM touting commercial property.

One delegate said world sporting bodies should stipulate use of existing buildings at world events, rather than building massive stadiums taking tonnes of carbon, which sometimes aren’t used after the events.

 What to do in all this confusion? As one engineer said: “Every bit counts.”