Sourced from EU Business News.

The term sustainable development was first coined in Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report, published by the United Nations in 1987. The report defined the term as ‘the ability to meet the needs of all people in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own’. Over 30 years later, sustainability is a critical issue that we are still grappling with. So, what’s different this time? Who can we learn from? And what kind of future do we want to shape? Here Martin Hurn, event director at net zero pioneer Futurebuild joins Oliver Jones, research director at international design practice Ryder Architecture to discuss the challenge and the ambitious plans to address it.

The built environment industry has talked about sustainability for decades, yet in reality, progress has been slow.

“The cold hard truth of the matter is that efforts for our industry to become more sustainable generally failed because sustainability was a choice,” explained Jones. “Our net zero targets are now written in law; they are an obligation and the effects of not acting are becoming more evident as each day passes.”

 The UK Government’s ambitious goal for net zero by 2050 means that our industry is legally obliged to eliminate emissions, creating not only a driver to change the industry, but also an economic impetus.

Read the full article here.