Following the UK declaring an environment emergency in 2019, CIC established a Climate Change Committee to help construction fulfil its obligations. By Matt Mahony.
Even considering the tumultuous news cycle of recent months, I’m willing to gamble that by the time you read this there will be something in the media bringing you face to face with the stark consequences of climate change inaction – whether it relates to overheating, fires, floods, drought or other biodiversity threats.
The built and natural environment in the UK is likely to encounter the escalating impacts of climate change. Global heating already presents a high and immediate risk to human health, wellbeing and productivity, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
This is especially pertinent given the construction industry is one of our biggest sources of carbon emissions and the construction, demolition and excavation sector is the largest source of waste generation.
In the UK alone, the total greenhouse gas emissions from the production and use of construction materials total 64 million tonnes CO2e per year – more than the UK’s aviation and shipping emissions combined.
CIC’s Climate Change Committee was established by former CIC chair Stephen Hodder to address the urgent need for climate action in the sector. Formed in response to the UK parliament declaring an environment and climate emergency on 1 May 2019, it coordinates efforts across the sector’s professional institutes.
In March 2020, it released a joint statement signed by 29 built environment bodies – including CIOB – acknowledging the climate emergency and committing to action. It published an action plan, later presented at COP26 in Glasgow, outlining steps for achieving net zero emissions.
Action plan
The plan has yielded outcomes such as the CIC climate action plan education and qualification toolkit, an emergency response planning for extreme weather events, plus regular webinars on topics including water management, and biodiversity health. These are all free to CIOB members, as well as our expert-led economic and policy briefings.
The committee is currently chaired by Mina Hasman, author of the RIBA Climate Guide and recognised in the TIME100 Climate 2023 list for her contributions to climate action.
The group remains a focal point for the institutions’ input to government on sustainability, while giving support for initiatives such as the Part Z proposed amendment to the building regulations, the Climate Framework and the Built Environment Carbon Database.
In February this year, its Competence Framework for Sustainability in the Built Environment was jointly published by CIC and the Edge. This is an underpinning framework for developing discipline-specific sustainability competence requirements across the sector. It has been drafted as a seed document for a British Standard in the BSI’s Competence in the Built Environment series.
We are delighted to have continued involvement from CIOB within the committee in helping us all in fulfilling our urgent obligations to address global heating and biodiversity decline and make our built environment greener, healthier and more inclusive.
Matt Mahony is the policy and public affairs manager at CIC.
