Insider's Daniel Zambartas spoke to a range of industry experts at Insider's Shaping Sustainable Construction Lunch held at Manchester Hall.
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00:00Hi, I'm Tim Clement, Director of Social Value and Sustainability for Morganton
00:14New World Construction. I'm here today to talk about sustainable construction and what do we
00:21really need to do differently in the industry to reach these carbon neutral targets. In Manchester
00:27it's a header of England's targets, it's 2014 and if we keep doing the same things in the
00:32same way we'll keep getting the same results. So today's conversation about that. I think
00:37a lot of that comes down to procurement and how we do it. Business as usual, how we procure
00:44things on capital expenditure is so ingrained in what we do, it's so strong, sort of concreted
00:51in. So it's how we unpick that to think if we did procurement differently, what difference
00:57outcomes could we get. I absolutely agree on the issue of greenwashing. I'm seeing more
01:04and more a lack of trust in carbon numbers and what they mean and whether they're right.
01:13And things like marketing a zero carbon product. It might be true in some sense of the word,
01:21but I think there's a real sort of truth seeking requirement for the industry. A little bit
01:27like cost. You know, something costs a certain amount, something should cost a carbon amount
01:32and it shouldn't be in doubt that that is what it costs. Sustainability does not always cost more.
01:40Often when we use less resources, we can actually make it cost less.
01:46So I'm Mike Trice from Populous Architects, where we're designers of large audience venues.
01:55And I'm here to discuss sustainability aspects of venue design. So sustainable design in stadiums
02:03is all about trying to limit the body energy that goes into the building in the first place.
02:09So the Etihad has been a part of our expansion works there. And the Etihad expansion is a reuse
02:16of existing building, which is a really good way of continuing to use the body energy that's
02:21already invested in the building infrastructure. The more we save on the energy we put into the
02:27building, the more we save money. So this is more.
02:30I'm Silvia Giudesto. I'm assistant professor for sustainability within the Center for Sustainable
02:36Innovation. I'm an engineer with specialism on waste resource solutions.
02:42Hi. I'm Jeménez Aranda. I'm assistant professor at the South
02:48European School. I'm also part of the team with Silvia at the Center for Sustainable Innovation.
02:53My area of speciality is digital transformation, helping companies to adopt the technology to add value.
02:59I think that the major problem with the building and construction sector is that I ranked at
03:05the top 10 polluters in the world with the highest CO2 emissions. It is important to decarbonize.
03:13And we are getting really, really at the point where we cannot just close our eyes. And so what I'm here to do today is it's just that just maybe hope to over some people's eyes.
03:29The construction sector is really complex and fragmented. There's a lot of regulations for the different activities. So the companies need support to be innovative, to find new ways of doing things. And that's what Silvia and myself at the university are doing. Just help the companies to find new ways of working, new ways to be more sustainable, new materials, new processes, new tools. So helping them in this transition.
03:57Yeah. Yeah. I'm Mike Cross. I'm Sustainable Business Director for Wilmot Dickson. I'm here speaking on a panel and I'm very interested to hear what some of the speakers have got to say. It's a good event.
04:09It's a good event. That was good. I think it would, well, I think it constructionally just broadly is in the mainstream. Ultimately, we have all the solutions we need. There's no new technology that you really need to be able to produce a sustainable building.
04:23We need a special adoption of those things, which is really about understanding how they impact people's lives and deciding right at the beginning of a project, what you want to receive and bringing the right stakeholders, building the status at the beginning, so that you can have much more service about what you can deliver and control.
04:39Hi. I am Paul Fox, CEO of the Fox Group. We're a Northwest-based plant hire haulage and upshift earthworks demolition contractor.
04:46We've been here today talking about the circular economy and carbon reduction. Our business place has a big focus on that due to the amount of materials we move in the process.
04:56The circular economy basically is we'll knock a building down, do demolition works, do the radiation works, remove the waste off-site processes for any number of our facilities and sell it back into the market.
05:08Getting them to recognise the value for what it does for your business. I think getting your team round you to be part of the journey and become part of the culture.
05:18And then the third issue, which is probably the biggest issue from a financial point, you know, recycled products. We don't get any more recycled products. We probably should do because a lot more work goes into making a good recycled aggregate.