海角视频

Dr Sarah Prichard, Partner, Managing Director 海角视频 UK Buildings, Hong Kong & China, hosts roundtable dinner 鈥楲eading a business to navigate the ever-changing climate change challenge鈥�.  

Business leaders, from the construction industry and beyond, don鈥檛 question the seriousness of climate change, we accept that we need to lead the change that we want to see. However, the scale of the challenge is enormous, and rather than trying to do this on our own, we are likely to make much swifter progress if we collaborate as leaders.   

鈥淐limate emergency鈥� was the 2019 word of the year, according to the Oxford English dictionary. In that year, rising emissions and record-breaking events, from hurricanes in the Atlantic to wildfires in Australia, were met with rising outrage from millions of young people and activists, starting of course with Greta Thunberg. With tenacity and moral authority, as the generation that is going to be hit hard by climate change, they mobilised public opinion and got individuals, companies, cities and countries to Declare a Climate Emergency, acknowledging that humanity is in a climate crisis.

Architects Declare, Engineers Declare and Contractors Declare were all part of this, as the UK Construction Industry started the pivot to dealing proactively with the low embodied and operational carbon challenge. The climate change act amendments, and the UK’s commitment to a 68% reduction in emissions by 2030 followed. As we battled through Covid 19, public opinion remained strongly supportive of maintaining a focus on the climate emergency, and the postponement of COP 26 in Glasgow allowed momentum to build, and for the public and businesses to really focus on what they needed to do to make the change happen鈥�and for us to get a plan behind the pledges we had made! 鈥� 

海角视频 has, for its entire 45-year existence, had a real focus on 鈥榯ouching the earth lightly鈥� and of considering the environment and the future of people, places and planet in all that it does. We are very focused on sustainability and on how we achieve this as a firm, helping our clients to go on this journey, and to develop net zero carbon buildings and to reduce embodied energy.

In 2019 we set two strategic aims for our portfolio of design projects: to design all new build projects to be net zero carbon in operation by 2030; and by the same deadline, reducing the embodied carbon intensity of all new buildings, major retrofits and infrastructure projects. We also committed to reduce the carbon intensity of our operations, and set Science Based Targets to reduce our emissions year on year, minimising the offsets that we must make.

Organisations that do not proactively address our climate crisis will pay a price in the marketplace and in the battle for talent. Stakeholder engagement, morale and loyalty are growing in importance. Will employees who have a choice want to work for a company that isn鈥檛 a climate champion? Would our clients and collaborators want to work with a firm that isn’t a climate champion? There is no competitive advantage in complying with mandates and regulations.  

So, as business leaders, how can we work together to keep moving, and in the right direction? The UK construction industry is highly complex and interconnected. We won’t be successful on our own, we will however be increasingly successful if we collaborate and support each other, to support clients, businesses, and more broadly humanity, the planet, and the creatures we share it with.  Co-creation, collaboration and cooperation are crucial as we determine the solutions we need to find a way to the next port (even if it just a staging post) in the choppy seas of climate change.    

Accompanying Dr Sarah Prichard from 海角视频 were Duncan Price, Anna Woodeson and Andrew Wylie. Dinner guests from Gerald Eve, Lendlease, Allies & Morrison, Laing O鈥橰ourke, Aviva and Federated Hermes.  

海角视频 is proud of our selection of鈥痚vents which include specialist masterclasses, briefings, design sprints and roundtables. Carefully curated, each event is designed to help educate the industry on a range of important topics, pivotal to tackling some of the built environment鈥檚 biggest challenges. Topics including from Building Asset Transformation, Operational risk and public safety, Mobility, Appraisal Tools, and Net Zero Sandboxes.  Register your interest by emailing鈥�bh.events@burohappold.com.