Places.
Informing the NHS’s New Hospital Programme with Net Zero innovation
A ground-breaking Design for Performance office development
Creating a carbon neutral city by 2030
Wales’ first energy-positive housing development
People.
Robert Winch on climate-led investment risk and opportunity
Data-driven climate action
The finance and property worlds come together to talk...
Possibilities.
What will the next decade hold for the ever-evolving reality of sustainability?
Leading the UKGBC’s Whole Life Carbon Roadmap and beyond
Net Zero numbers and latest news
The future belongs to the curious
“The beautiful… something you know added to something you see, in a whole that is different from the sum of its parts.”
Norman Fitzroy Maclean, 1902 – 1990, author and scholar
FOREWORD
Evolving the built environment puts us at a unique intersection. We span technology, economics, local and global regulation, environmentalism, and the health and wellbeing of society. We craft the stage where lives – billions of them – play out every day.
The privilege, magnitude, complexity, and responsibility of this role can sometimes feel daunting. With every innovation, every development in how we work, and each impactful project, the need for more, better, newer seems to follow. The world feels fast, vast, and often out of control. Despite the pioneering developments they may feature, when projects take years to come to fruition, it can feel as though there’s always more that could be done.
So how do we combat that overwhelming feeling? How do we even begin to make changes that keep pace?
We explore.
The climate emergency has pushed us all to ask who we are, why we exist. When it comes to businesses, the questions are sometimes uncomfortable – and finding answers that ring true isn’t always easy. Do we still bend to the will of the status quo too easily sometimes? Are we all actually working together to create a legacy that protects our planet and that we can be proud of?
Doing things differently can be difficult. But it’s an ability that lies deep within us all.
We know we have to respond and adapt in a manner that mirrors that scale of the challenge. Every business needs a vision of what we can do – in our own small way – to enhance society and improve the world. Our industry has so much to contribute to the curation of a better future. But purely looking at climate constraints us... the planet is populated; we are inseparable from our natural world. There is not one person on this earth who isn’t at the mercy of human emotions, human problems, human desires. The briefs for the best buildings now begin with both the question of how they will protect our planet, and how they will help people.
So let’s give ourselves permission to lead the way together, to know what we collectively stand for, and to be brave in our ambitions. After all, it’s a small ask for a very big return...
Cover illustration by Owen Davey Photo (above) by USGS on Unsplash
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