Opinion piece Putting ConTech at the Heart of Evidencing Part L Compliance An opinion piece article by Sion Bellis, Chief Residential Officer, Zutec From 15th June 2022, all new homes registered in England and Wales must produce 31% less CO2 emissions on the current SAP model, to comply with the uplifted Part L standard (or Approved

Opinion piece All Jobs Greener – workforce transformation for a sustainable future An opinion piece article by Martin Baxter, Deputy CEO IEMA and Director of Policy and External Affairs The shift to a green economy will create green jobs within new and emerging sectors, while those working in existing sectors will have to gain the

Opinion piece Making Material Changes in Buildings An opinion piece article by Will Arnold, Head of Climate Action, The Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) Carbon in buildings Buildings are a good thing. They bring people together, keep them warm, and give them places to be useful. But as we are all painfully aware, the construction,

Opinion piece Why Marketing is at the forefront of industry collaboration: A route to a safer future An opinion piece article by Peter Sumpton, Construction Marketing Consultant, Marketing Study Lab Competition is Healthy In any industry, competition is healthy. If there is no competition then a monopoly occurs which means a singular company can dictate

Opinion piece Modular Construction, High Risk Residential Buildings and the Ethics of Building Safety An opinion piece article by the British Board of Agrément Building on Dame Judith Hackitt’s Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, the centre piece of this new regime is a requirement for higher risk buildings to have a Safety Case

Opinion piece When uncertainty becomes the main certainty  Getting back to how things are designed and made. Redscape model by McCloy+ Muchemwa. Credit: Photograph by Sophie Percival. An opinion piece by Helen Castle, Publishing Director, RIBA Embracing uncertainty has become the new order. Over the last two years, a state of flux has been met with

Opinion piece Our time to Shine – the role of building services engineers in a decade of reckoning An opinion piece by Ruth Carter, CEO, Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) The 2020s have been termed ‘the Decisive Decade’ for mitigating the effects of climate, biodiversity and equity crises. In working with some of

Opinion piece Can Volumetric Manufactured Buildings Deliver a Net Zero Future? An opinion piece by Richard Hipkiss, Development Director, The Modular and Portable Building Association Is the road to a net zero future a well mapped out route or is there uncertainty along the way? Here Richard Hipkiss, Development Director of the Modular and Portable

Opinion piece Making a digital impact at Futurebuild 2022 An opinion piece by Marie Grieve, Managing Director, Costello Palmer Communications and Content Creator for the Digital Impact stages at Futurebuild Digital Impact made its return to Futurebuild 2022 as a spotlight area for digital construction and emerging technologies within the digital built environment. The wonders

Opinion piece Building new homes while meeting climate targets is possible An opinion piece by Steward Dalgarno, Director of Innovation and Sustainability of Stewart Milne Group The end of the UN’s climate change conference COP26 marked the beginning of the hard work required to prevent global warming rising above 1.5C. For the UK to play

Opinion piece How devolution can help local authorities to ‘level up’ their net-zero carbon plans An opinion piece by Sue Riddlestone OBE, Chief Executive and Co-founder of Bioregional As we face a climate and ecological emergency and a cost-of-living crisis, the need for action to end our dependency on fossil-fuels and transition to zero-carbon lifestyles

Opinion piece The Value Toolkit: Mapping out how to translate tip into transformative action An opinion piece by Ellie Jenkins, Industry Project Lead for The Value Toolkit Published late last year, the Transforming Infrastructure Performance (TIP) Roadmap to 2030 has societal outcomes at its core. It is an exciting step forward to see a government

Opinion piece Why BPE in-use will inevitably make our lives better An opinion piece by Fionn Stevenson, Professor of Sustainable Design, Building Performance Network (BLN) Performance challenges facing industry Currently, building activity in Europe is responsible for 36% of all carbon emissions, which is driving forward climate change at an alarming rate in terms of

Opinion piece Without Competence, can we deliver the Future? An opinion piece by Simon Forrester, CEO, Guild of Architectural Ironmongers (GAI) At the Guild of Architectural Ironmongers, our vision for the next 10 years is to provide a safe and secure built environment for all our stakeholders through a holistic approach to how we think

Opinion piece NHS Scotland tie-up shows how digitalisation and data can transform built environment An opinion piece by Prof (Hon) David Philp, Impact Director, Construction Innovation Hub Digitalisation and more effective handling of data is at the heart of the Hub’s work to transform construction and the built environment. That’s why we are working with

2022 for healthy, circular resolutions in construction practice – here’s how! 06 January 2022 An opinion piece by Chaline Church Founding Director, Editor, 540 WORLD Thankfully, it’s 2022 and the A, B, C, D (Alpha, Brexit, Covid, Delta) words are finally moving toward recent history, leaving us all a bit bewildered and bruised, but at

Are graduates climate-aware built environment professionals of the future? 10 December 2021 An opinion piece by Adam Endacott FRSA Creative & Communications Director, Editor, Architectural Technology Journal, Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists The skills of built environment professionals will need to evolve to reflect changing needs and contexts, becoming more diverse and specialised, with professionals

The value of digital asset information management 26 November 2021 An opinion piece by John Adams, Head of Product, Glider Asset management is the process by which data and information is collated and stored to obtain maximum value from the built asset itself, striking the right balance between performance improvement, risk reduction, cost optimisation and

Hub joins the global debate at COP summit in Glasgow A COP26 review by Dave Philp 05 November 2021 COP26 is well underway and the Hub team are on the ground in Glasgow discussing sustainable legacies and the positive impact we can help make for a low-carbon built environment. This week, our Impact Director, Dave

The race against climate change: does net zero mark the finish line? 29 October 2021 An opinion piece by Stephen Good, CEO, Construction Scotland Innovation Centre The UK is gearing up for net zero, with the Government having published a landmark strategy last week to outline the actions needed to decarbonise the economy over the

How to ensure our wetlands are protected from urbanisation 22 October 2021 An opinion piece by Adam McKinnon, ACO Water Management, Regional Specification Manager Urban developments are having a detrimental impact on the environment and biodiversity. As such, urban runoff needs to be managed carefully, through stringent treatment processes, to ensure long-lasting – or even

What should net-zero homes look like? 13 October 2021 An opinion piece by Tom Dollard, Pollard Thomas Edwards, Head of Sustainable Design My work over the last four years has involved carrying out design and construction reviews of low carbon housing case studies for the Building for 2050 project. Our team has analysed the performance

‘My perceptions on hand-drawing’ by Simone de Gale 07 October 2021 An opinion piece by Simone de Gale, SGA, Chief Executive/Chartered Architect ARB RIBA Given all the digital aids available, what is it with architects and the hand-drawn? We asked a number of practitioners to talk through a specific free-hand sketch of theirs and how

RIBA rolls up its sleeves 01 October 2021 An opinion piece by Simon Allford, RIBA Architecture, President Covid, climate change, Grenfell… a revitalised RIBA will be well placed to tackle today’s issues, says new president Simon Allford. After a very strange year for all, I took up office as president last week. Aside from continuing

The Landscape sector: paving the road to a low carbon future 16 September 2021 An opinion piece by Jane Findlay, Landscape Institute, President Context: Climate change, built environment and landscape professionals Climate change is one of the most pressing and urgent challenges for humanity today. Recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global