Join Professor Saul Humphrey at 12pm on Wednesday 5^th March at the Futurebuild Arena for an insightful session in the Futurebuild Knowledge Programme. In “10 years on from their adoption to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030,” he will reflect on the progress towards the SDGs and the critical role of the construction industry in achieving them. Below, Saul discusses how the built environment, responsible for significant carbon emissions, waste, and biodiversity loss, must transition from being part of the problem to part of the solution.

In the first few weeks of this year, we have witnessed President Trump announce the USA’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement despite record CO2e emissions being reported for 2024 and the highest ever average temperature record being exceeded once more. This would not be so bad but for the fact that the top ten highest temperature records have all occurred in the last ten years.

This is no coincidence and the risk of exceeding tipping-points and witnessing horrific and accelerated feedback loops gets ever greater as GHG emissions grow and pollution and biodiversity loss increases.

Scientists and global leaders anticipated this long ago, indeed the Rio de Janeiro, ‘Earth Summit’ was in 1992 and it was then that more than 178 countries adopted a comprehensive plan of action to build a global partnership for sustainable development to improve human lives and protect the environment.

It was, however, in 2015 that the United Nations published the Sustainable Development Goals. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all United Nations Member States. It provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership. They recognise that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.

But ten years on and just five years before the targets should be met, we are all falling well behind the stated ambition.

Unfortunately, construction and the built environment holds some considerable culpability for this.

 After all, the Built Environment is responsible for:

• Generating approximately 40% of global carbon emissions, with 11% arising from construction projects
• Using roughly half of the raw materials extracted
• Creating around a third of the world’s overall waste
• Second largest driver of man-made pressure on biodiversity

But this cannot be our future.

The construction sector is not solely responsible for addressing all 17 targets but we can do more.

The World Green Building Council noted that our sector can directly affect nine of the goals, but with a little more alignment, we can actually do so much more. Some CIOB members are tracking their progress against all 17 goals and B Corps have to demonstrate and score their progress for independent verification against every goal.

Such alignment is important. So much so, CIOB President, Professor Mike Kagioglou‘s key theme for his Presidential year was the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the team are making great progress in advancing these targets with members – but more of that soon! I wish to progress this alignment too and I endeavour to put the SDGs at the heart of all strategic project decisions and complement this with academic lectures and engagement to inspire the next generation.

We know that Construction must stop being part of the problem and transition to be being part of the solution. We can build more sustainable buildings, with lower embodied carbon that only require renewable energy in operation. We can avoid waste and create genuine biodiversity gain. We can help with economic prosperity, advancing specialist education,

We can retrofit our existing buildings and ensure our infrastructure is adaptable and resilient to the changes that are now ‘baked in.’

After all we know that we must avoid creating stranded assets and instead align our offering to delivering the premium value buildings that boast BREEAM Outstanding and LEED Platinum credits. This makes good economic sense.

Doing all this – and more – in a truly sustainable manner is something to target.  Scoring progress against all 17 Sustainable Development Goals is an important metric of performance and one I’d encourage all to emulate. Together, let’s build a more sustainable future.

After all, what was it that Winston Churchill said: “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”

Author:

Professor Saul D Humphrey MSc PhD FCIOB FRICS FICE MCIArb FRSA CEnv

Saul is the current Vice President of the Chartered Institute of Building. Hie Presidential term starts next year.

Saul is the current holder of the Chartered Institute of Building’s National “Sustainability Award.”

Saul is also the Managing Partner of his own consultancy practice eponymously named as Saul D Humphrey LLP. The practice is B Corp (certified).

He is an experienced Managing Director, Consultant, Property Investor/Developer and Construction/Project Manager in the Construction sector, specialising in Sustainable Construction. He previously led R G Carter Construction in the East and was Managing Director of Morgan Sindall Construction (East) before starting his own consultancy in 2019.

Saul is Professor of Sustainable Construction at Anglia Ruskin University. He is also the Chair of the Institute of Directors (Norfolk and Suffolk) and Chair of Building Growth (the construction, housing and property development sector group covering Norfolk and Suffolk).

Saul is also a Non-Executive Director of Great Yarmouth Borough Council’s housing development/property companies, Equinox Property Holdings Limited and Equinox Enterprises Limited; Non-Executive Director/Independent Member of Norwich City Council’s East Norwich Strategic Regeneration Area (ENSRA) Delivery Board; and he is the Managing Director (Designate) of Human Nature (Hethel).

Saul is an Ambassador of Norfolk Constructing Excellence Club (NCEC); Norfolk Community Foundation’s “Good for Good”; Changing Streams CIC; and he is the East of England past President, and past National Director, of the National Federation of Builders (NFB).

Saul is a Member of the United Kingdom Green Building Council; Suffolk Sustainability Institute (University of Suffolk); Norfolk Net Zero Advisory Board; a Construction Leadership Council CO2nstructZero Business Partner; and Trustee of Construction East. Saul also volunteers for Sounding Board and Norfolk ProHelp, now known as “Good for Good.”