Our net zero targets are written in law which means we are legally obliged to eliminate emissions creating not only a driver to change the industry, but also an economic impetus. There’s a great deal of talk about how we need to innovate to meet these challenges and how we need to innovate to combat Brexit and to regenerate our economy. This is all true, but we must act now. We have the technology, science and innovation that will absolutely lead us out of the mess that we’re in now and into a much brighter future.

Looking back at lockdown, I reached out and talked to some of the most innovative, pioneering and inspirational people that I could think of all over the world. From marine biologists to psychologists, economists to neuroscientists and computer scientists, I built up a rather unusual network of alternative thinkers around the world who are doing phenomenal things and addressing problems on a daily basis. If someone has a good idea in a different sector or in a different industry, it may not be naturally transferable as it is, but as a concept or as a sort of trigger, it can steer our thinking in a different way. Cross sector collaboration must take centre stage. There are many people knocking on our industry door who can help us on this journey. This army of young geniuses have the solutions but sometimes find it hard to navigate our industry. You’ve only got to look at low carbon materials. Natasha Balding and her team at LCM recently developed a carbon neutral and carbon negative concrete. A finalist in the Earth Shot prize, LCM uses unrecyclable plastic waste to make traditional concrete blocks carbon-zero. Innovative approaches such as this are vital to our success.

A shared vision

I’ve always admired what was once Ecobuild, and now Futurebuild, as a really interesting forum and place to convene innovative products and ideas people. Martin Hurn and I had a shared vision about creating a small place through conversation that we could engage with that wider audience of innovators and disruptors. FutureX was born and that was where my involvement with Furturebuild really started. Now with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on board as sponsors, the FutureX Innovation section has become a much bigger innovation area. It will be a FutureX branded area dedicated to people at different stages of that start-up journey.  It’s a huge thing to go to an event like Futurebuild as a start-up because you can get lost in the noise at other events, so it’s important to create a sense of community.

I’m thrilled we already have 25 ground breaking innovators onboard to exhibit in the FutureX Innovation section and the diverse range of products and services they’re bringing to the show. From minimass™ who will be bringing their technology that creates low-carbon, low-cost 3d printed concrete beams to Resiglass Solutions doing incredible things with recycled glass. Then there’s Planet Mark who will be explain their sustainability certification that verifies and measures carbon and social data to Low Carbon Materials who was a finalist in last year’s Earthshot prize for their carbon negative aggregate for carbon zero blockwork. The section is shaping up to be a real hub for the products we’ll be using in construction for years to come and I can’t wait to find out more about all of them.

These innovators and disruptors need more funding and support. We also need to do this at scale so they get more promotion and exposure. By having them all in one place, it’s going to have a great buzz, a real energy around it, providing the opportunity for visitors and businesses to get involved.

The Big Innovation Pitch was phenomenal last year and another great platform to highlight innovations at Futurebuild. There were so many good entries last year, it was genuinely difficult to whittle them down to the six finalists. I’m really looking forward to seeing what is submitted in 2023 and having the difficult task of choosing who makes it onto the stage at the show.

Circularity and nature

When we consider that there is a lot of ground to be made in terms of delivering truly net zero buildings, there is still so much more to do if we want to do this at scale. The biotech space is an incredible opportunity. There is also the combined challenge of reducing our emissions, economic regeneration and the circular economy.  How do we waste less and how to do we reuse more? That has a whole part to play in how buildings are used, what happens to them at their end of life and how we inherit sites. Do we now see sites as material banks? Absolutely. Can we afford to take everything and throw it in the tip? No, we can’t.  All of these things now feed into this incredibly complex but amazingly interesting space and sector within construction right now. The answer is evidently becoming even simpler in that nature has most of the answers. When you look at biotech, one of favourite advancements in that space is mycelium. It’s a pre-fungus that will eat almost anything as an aggregate and can be grown into any mould. It sequesters twice its own weight in carbon as opposed to emitting emissions. It’s also phenomenal acoustically, offers excellent fire performance and good structural performance in seismic zones. This is totally game changing because it also ties into circularity. You only grow mycelium where you’ve got waste streams or available waste, so it starts to feed on other bio-based products. It’s a fantastic opportunity for the built environment.

We cannot, however, focus on one challenge — sustainability in its truest sense is about more than just net zero. It requires a well-defined, holistic approach; digital technologies to monitor and measure performance and progress and an emphasis on delivering high quality environments that promote health and wellbeing of building occupants. Net zero is really just one part of the puzzle — we need a much more holistic approach to sustainability.

Instead of focusing solely on net zero, our industry must consider how it can deliver high quality environments that embrace technology to reduce carbon emissions, optimise building performance and improve occupant health.

The future is totally bright, it’s just we’ve got to keep communicating. We’ve got to keep telling people about it. We’ve got to give these things the exposure they need. And that’s why Futurebuild’s Big Innovation Pitch is absolutely crucial, because it’s a platform to share cutting edge innovation with a much wider audience.

Futurebuild 2023 will take place from March 7^th to March 9^th London’s ExCeL. Check out the FutureX Innovation section in more detail here.

Don’t miss out on next year’s event. Visitor registration is now open

About Futurebuild: Futurebuild is an event that brings together more than 15,000 building industry influencers and decision-makers with the power to make a difference and form part of a major transformation of the sustainable built environment. By cultivating this type of cross-sector collaboration, Futurebuild is helping to inspire the innovation that is needed to propel the construction industry towards the UK government’s ambitious net-zero target. Such an outcome is essential to creating a cleaner, healthier environment for future generations to enjoy.

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Eric Everard                                                                            Anne Lafère                                     

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eric.everard@easyfairs.com                                             anne.lafere@easyfairs.com