5 years ago Futurebuild produced a timeline in advance of what was to be COP 26 in Glasgow. (later postponed a year due to the Covid outbreak). Since then we have had COP27 in Sharm El Sheik, COP28 in the United Arab Emirates and COP29 in Azerbaijan at the end of which the UN Climate Change Executive, Simon Stiell, said “We need to set our sights and double our efforts on the road to Belém” (COP30).

We are redrafting that timeline again now but the Paris targets are looking increasingly vulnerable and while the solutions remain just about do-able, achieving them is as daunting as ever.

Meanwhile the COPs on biodiversity have taken place in parallel. As with the climate COPs, there has been ‘talking’ but positive and universal agreement and action is lacking and biodiversity loss, as with climate, is a real threat to the viability of life for all!

If we are not yet even close to where we need to be on either climate and biodiversity, what are we, who work in the built and natural environment doing to make a difference now, what more must we do over the next 5 years to 2030 and the next 10 years to 2035?

For the 2025 Arena programme, we have identified three over-arching themes: Putting circularity and reuse at the heart of what we all do; a Focus on the intersection between sustainability, social justice and transition; and Proposals for making happen what needs to happen now.

Where do we start? Questions raised in the programme include; what are our political leaders doing and what would we like them to do – they need to be bold in their decisions as this will set the framework in which we can respond; and how will we interpret and act on our responsibility to deliver in our areas of competence both professionally and personally without it overwhelming us. 

As designers we have a role in delivering the circular economy through careful consideration of how to best reuse existing buildings and materials as well as designing any new buildings with flexibility and re-use in mind.  The Arena programme on Day 1 explores these issues.

The UK government has committed itself to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals in the UK by 2030. How will we do this in the context of an interconnected polycrisis? Social justice and a just transition mean that we must respond, ensuring that people have access to nature, employment, schools, and services – net zero carbon healthy homes in healthy places that work for people of all ages. The Arena programme on Day 2 explores issues including the provision of affordable homes for all, in the right places, and whether a comprehensive land use framework might be part of the answer.

The major topic for the ‘making it happen’ discussions on Day 3 is the publication of the pilot version of the Net Zero Carbon Building Standard. The Futurebuild programme has supported this since its inception and the day will feature two sessions focus on the Standard. Once the Standard has been road tested it needs to be put into widespread practice. Should/could this lead to a review of the Building Regulations so that everyone has to deliver the highest rather than the least standards for construction? Finally on Day 3 we take time to look back and look forward to ascertain how well we are doing, or could we do better.

Alongside the Futurebuild Arena programme there is the National Retrofit Conference and five seminar stages in which much of what is discussed at a strategic conference level is unpacked in greater detail by a wide range of expert partners.

After twenty years of Ecobuild/Futurebuild, we are still talking, but we are also changing how and what we do. The question is now whether we  can take action collaboratively across all sectors to do what needs to be done five times faster?

Simon Foxell for the Edge