Richard Robinson is deputy co-chair of the Construction Leadership Council and chief executive of Atkins UK and Europe
The built environment accounts for 43% of the UK’s carbon emissions. Without your contribution to the UK’s carbon reduction efforts, the country will not reach its net zero target by 2050. We know where we need to go and how we are going to get there. Now we need to see and measure real progress on the ground.
“Best practices are being shared, as well as data, and that bodes well”
The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) is leading the industry’s response to the 2050 target through CO2nstruct Zero, an industry change program developed with the Green Construction Board to accelerate our transition to net zero. At the heart of this work is CO2nstruct’s Zero Performance Framework. This not only sets out how the sector will commit to net zero, but more importantly, how it will objectively and quantifiably measure whether we are doing enough, fast enough, while highlighting where more action is needed if we are to meet our obligations.
Launched at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, the framework is a world first and a clear statement that now is the time for collaborative action, measurement and delivery. Of course, without data we can’t measure anything, which is why the CLC has been so focused on engaging with trade organizations and businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Today, the CLC has more than 200 advocates and business partners who share information and measure progress consistently. We are working together to coordinate initiatives, overcome challenges and seize opportunities. We stand together as an industry that understands that the zero transition is bigger than any one company or sub-sector. Real progress is being made.
For example, the recently launched National Retrofit Hub, supported by over 40 organisations, including the Federation of Master Builders, Innovate UK, Trustmark, the Sustainable Development Foundation and the UK Green Building Council, will be a game changer as we look to retrofit our homes to use low carbon heating systems.
The fact that the UK’s 30 million homes account for more than 21 per cent of the country’s total carbon emissions, with three-quarters coming from heating systems, illustrates the importance of action being taken to tackle the fiendishly complex task of providing facility upgrades. ladder
The industry has stepped up to bring clarity to those working in the retrofit sector by signaling and sharing best practices to accelerate the rollout of greener homes.
In another part, a sectoral plan has been launched to eliminate 78% of diesel plants from construction sites by 2035. For context, construction vehicles and on-site plants emit 30 megatons of CO2 per year, a figure as significant as it sounds. So far, 30 per cent of the UK’s top contractors have trialled diesel-free construction sites and HS2 is setting new benchmarks in construction vehicle emissions standards as it targets diesel-free sites for 2029.
Best practices are being shared, as well as data, and that bodes well for our industry.
Measurement and metric
Looking ahead, I would like to see the industry focus on measurement, productivity and partnerships. The Performance Framework’s measurement and metrics have been a welcome guide for the sector, bringing consistency to target setting and data sharing. That said, there is much more to do on this as we seek to formalize consistency in carbon measurement across the sector in a way that customers, funders and businesses can trust.
This year we will see updates to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ Lifetime Carbon Assessment for the Built Environment Standard and the Net Zero Carbon Building Standard, which, together with PAS 2080, they will define the end-to-end process for carbon measurement and quantification in the built environment, providing an ecosystem for funders, planners and clients.
Productivity is of course an important area of focus for the construction industry, but we may not always appreciate the intrinsic link between productivity improvement and carbon reduction. Since Covid, our productivity has been 7.5% above the 10-year average, but there is still a long way to go if we are to approach the UK average across all sectors. That said, we need to build on the progress made and meet the growing appetite for digitally driven project delivery and modern construction methods, which can help us reduce waste, time on site, travel and , in short, our carbon footprint.
Finally, associations. The CLC works in partnership with governments and organizations of all industry sizes to ensure the construction sector has the voice, support and resilience it needs to grow; improve productivity; attract and retain talent; and successfully transition to net zero. But we have to go beyond that.
For example, as we continue our efforts to switch to electric vehicles and building plants, we will need to get much closer to the motor industry, and we are now actively seeking a partnership with the right industry body to develop a joint plan Similarly, we need to forge closer links with manufacturers of steel, timber and glass, not to mention the UK aggregates sector. Partnerships are essential if we want to reach net zero by 2050.
But progress is being made on the ground, measured, analyzed and shared, as we continue to transform the built environment together.
