title of the post
Evidencing the need for a Stewardship Framework and Accreditation system to support long-term environmental and biodiversity gains, and deliver nature recovery in and around where
An opinion by Mina Hasman, RIBA, ARB, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, BREEAM AP, Sustainability Director, SOM & Climate Framework Initiative Lead.
The built environment and construction industry, as well as associated professional and educational bodies are showing a momentous culture shift, reporting much more awareness and activity around climate literacy than what was the case a few years ago. However, for every organisation striving for improvement, there are some stuck in ‘business as usual’ mode, making only limited, ad-hoc progress.
Some don’t even know where to start – either due to lack of resources within their organisations, or because of a shortfall on holistic expertise around the topics that are underpinned by climate change; including climate justice, circular economy, biodiversity, health and connectivity – among the heavily referenced energy and carbon. This has over the recent years, limited some of the leading industry organisations to move beyond their genuine commitments onto proper review and implementation of refreshed/new training programmes that incorporate core topics every built environment actor should be aware of and re-/uspkilled with.
The existing business models for content creation and delivery additionally prevent the fast uptake and dissemination of especially the implementation of such holistic training at scale. Where a cross-industry collaboration between various industry organisations, as well as industry and academia can collectively lead to this very needed outcome, the organisations fail to land on working models and systems that can prove to be financially and mutually beneficial to all parties involved. This hinders the delivery of climate-focused education and upskilling at the speed and scale it is needed.
The Construction Industry Council’s ‘Carbon Zero: the Professional Institutions’ Climate Action Plan’ presents a crucial roadmap to support Professional Institutes/Institutions (PIs) in this area, with commitments towards a collective end goal, and indication of clear actions, provided to enable them to create comprehensive action plans that address education and qualification in the industry’s fast changing landscape. With supportive actions that facilitate closer and stronger ties between industry and academia, this Action Plan serves as a means to establish the course of action for the PIs, in order to accelerate industry-wide re-/upskilling, along with other priorities (such as establishing new regulatory standards) that will continue to surface as essential actions across the built environment sector in the coming years.
There is a need for a forum and a facilitator entity to liaise within and beyond institutions, to identify programme and content gaps, and how to best fill them, while also encouraging the sharing of lessons learnt across the industry and academia. This is a clear area, where the global, transdisciplinary initiative – the Climate Framework – can continue to bring tremendous value to the industry, to all those across the sector and to the educators in academia:
Re-skilling and upskilling, as well as lifelong learning have been pivotal in the discussions of the built environment professionals’ competence agenda, over the recent years. There is a clear need for a well-established and a common framework to change behaviours and improve competencies – with time, creating lasting generational change across the entire construction industry. The universal adoption of the Climate Framework as a shared taxonomy to define the baseline knowledge and skills for every built environment professional across the world, will bring the much-needed acceleration to the sector’s decarbonisation, while also ensuring holistic climate actions are taken for a resilient future for us and the generations to come.
Evidencing the need for a Stewardship Framework and Accreditation system to support long-term environmental and biodiversity gains, and deliver nature recovery in and around where
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