BY ROBIN NICHOLSON - PARTNER & CONVEYOR OF THE EDGE

Collaboration for 100% Net Zero Carbon:

We have to transform into a collaborative industry to achieve 100% Net Zero Carbon by 2050.

Why did so many of you attend our recent webinars when we are all so spoilt for choice? The first webinar attracted 750 attendees and the second 570. Is it possible that people now realise that we have to transform ourselves into a collaborative industry if we are to have any chance of achieving 100% Net Zero Carbon by 2050?

In 2015 the Edge published ‘Collaboration for Change‘ by Paul Morrell on the future of professionalism. This March at Futurebuild 2020, ACO launched the second edition that they had sponsored. Then Futurebuild NOW asked the Edge to organize two one-hour webinars on ‘Collaboration to achieve 100% Net Zero Carbon’ in association with ACO, and Colab CPD.

First webinar –  Collaborating on Projects 

Edge leader, Simon Foxell set out the issues, identifying roadblocks and offering recent guidance from UK Green Building Council, RIBA and LETI (London Energy Transformation Initiative). Then Lynne Ceeney explained her work to update the  CIC’s Design Quality Indicator  (DQI) after nearly 20 years of use to align its best elements with those of Soft Landings, Quality Tracker and other tools. Clare Murray, Head of Sustainability at Levitt Bernstein and member of  LETI  explained the fruits of their most recent collaborative effort the LETI Climate Emergency Design Guide. And lastly, Julie Godefroy explained her research into what building performance evaluation (BPE) can tell us by looking not at what but how and why. She explained the tool she is developing to assess the balance between supportive factors and risk factors in a project performance. 

Second webinar –  Whole industry Collaboration 

Simon Foxell explained the Edge Roundtable held at RIBA on 20th June with an astonishing 25 industry bodies that led to our Cross-Institutional Climate Action Plan, now adopted by CIC. Ann Bentley, Global Director of RLB and member of the  Construction Leadership Council  (CLC) took us through current negotiations with Government and the CLC’s approach to Zero Carbon. She explained that, in response to the present situation, the Cabinet Office had asked for her excellent CLC report ‘Procuring for value’ to be implemented faster.  

Keith Clarke explained that Change was not Sustainability, that Time was key and that, despite great exemplars, we were not doing very well as an industry; he challenged us to get to net zero fast as if the construction industry didn’t we would certainly overshoot the  1.5°C limit. To tie this all together from a clients’ perspective,  Better Buildings Partnership  CEO Sarah Ratcliffe asked us to focus on performance outcomes, throughout the lifecycle of a building. She ended by stressing the importance of retrofitting the buildings we have already got. Lynne Ceeney skillfully wove listeners’ questions into the session.

Futurebuild NOW  and  ACO  were so delighted with these seminars that they have asked Edge to develop a series of webinars, which will start by examining how the climate emergency must be an integral part of the economic recovery and not something to think about later.