“No one should underestimate the sheer scale of the opportunity”

The Low Carbon Construction Innovation and Growth Team (IGT) has published its emerging findings on the challenges and opportunities for the construction sector. The IGT aims to identify how the construction industry can best deliver the future carbon reduction commitments for 2020 and beyond. Its emerging findings highlight the challenge for the industry and its customers to work together in new ways to reduce costs, stimulate innovation and develop a clear proposition for low carbon retrofit and new build. The interim report identifies four major opportunities for the sector if the challenges and barriers are effectively addressed:

• to carry out a huge programme of work, stretched out over at least the next 40 years;
• to make use of that workload to reform the structure and practice of the industry;
• to export the products and skills of a modernised industry;
• to excite future generations of potential recruits into an industry with a noble cause.

The Low Carbon Transition Plan sets out how the UK will achieve the targets from the Climate Change Act to cut CO2 emissions. Almost every proposition in it represents a market for construction if the barriers can be overcome. As a nation, we need to develop new buildings that enable their owners and occupiers to lead more energy efficient lives without loss of comfort. Similarly, the 28 million existing buildings in the UK need to be upgraded, and we need to build the infrastructure that will support the production of ‘clean’ energy and the operation of sustainable transport systems. This is a huge opportunity: a programme measured in hundreds of billions of pounds which can help reshape the industry to become a more integrated, collaborative and progressive industry which attracts the brightest people. 
Transitions to low carbon and high performance should be seen as part and parcel of the same challenge. To take advantage of this the Construction Industry needs to develop a shared sense of purpose and a clear vision of the future so it can play a leadership role in the move to low carbon. Chief Construction Adviser, Paul Morrell, who chairs the IGT, said ‘No one should underestimate the sheer scale of the opportunity the transition to a low carbon economy will offer the construction industry. The requirement for low carbon construction is probably the biggest change management programme that the industry has faced since Victorian times. ‘The industry and Government need to rise to this challenge. Only by working together will the full benefits accrue to the UK economy and help drive the growth and new jobs we all seek. The Emerging Findings are the first part of that process. They have set out the shape of the dialogue we need to have. I am looking forward to working with the industry and Government to build these into a construction industry led delivery plan all are willing and able to commit to.’ Welcoming the report, Secretary of State for Business Lord Mandelson said, ‘The construction industry is central to the UK meeting our stretching carbon targets and the findings from the construction IGT clearly show they are up to this challenge.  “As we have seen as part of our New Industry, New Jobs programme, there are huge business opportunities for growth and green jobs in the low carbon economy which will benefit construction. To support the industry to take advantage of this we are also setting up a National Skills Academy for green building services. ” A number of initiatives are in train, or planned to address low carbon skills challenges facing construction: The Built Environment Skills Alliance Future Skills Group is working to identify skills gaps across a range of built environment sectors, looking at their impact on occupational standards and qualifications; ConstructionSkills, the Sector Skills Council for construction is planning a ‘Cut the Carbon’ awareness campaign for launch in the autumn under the banner “What’s in it for me”; and Government will be consulting on Low Carbon Skills covering a number of industries, including construction, with the intention of launching a Low Carbon Skills Strategy in the Autumn. The Government also announced that London is to be designated a Low Carbon Economic Area for energy efficient buildings, to join with the existing Low Carbon Economic Areas in Manchester to demonstrate how co-ordinated retrofitting housing and other buildings can improve the energy efficiency of the built environment on a broad scale. The IGT comprises experts from the construction industry and from Government. It will publish its final report later in the year, including recommendations to Government to help inform policy development. The Construction Products Association has organised a meeting with Paul Morrell to discuss the emerging findings on 20 April at the Building Centre in London, which is open to all members.