{"id":13988,"date":"2021-06-25T09:45:34","date_gmt":"2021-06-25T08:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futurebuild.nl\/?p=13988"},"modified":"2021-06-25T16:54:45","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T15:54:45","slug":"opinion-piece-john-adams-glider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futurebuild.nl\/en\/opinion-piece-john-adams-glider\/","title":{"rendered":"Who really controls the sustainable future of the built environment?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Opinion Piece by John Adams, Head of Product, Glider Technology <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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25 June 2021<\/p>

Who really controls the sustainable future of the built environment? <\/strong><\/p>

In these changing times it\u2019s not certain what the built environment of the future is going to look like.\u00a0 What is certain, is that with population increases expected until a predicted peak in 2070 and with an ageing and inefficient stock of built assets, we will continue to develop our planet at an increasing rate for generations to come.\u00a0 Driving towards carbon-neutral construction processes resulting in carbon-positive buildings, infrastructure, and public places, is one of the great challenges facing not just the construction industry, but the global community.\u00a0<\/p>

With so much to do and a myriad of technologies still to conquer or invent, who really is responsible for the sustainable future of our built environment?<\/p>

The easy answer is to lay this responsibility at the door of our politicians.\u00a0 Whilst mandates, targets and incentives will of course impact the pace of change, there is no effective lever of government that can force businesses to implement technologies that are not yet viable or available.\u00a0 There are also other concerns that governments will have to weigh up when considering how they influence the construction industry because any change which impacts supply chains and procurement would take time to implement in a manner that doesn\u2019t disrupt projects already in progress.\u00a0 Countries and cities are now, more than ever, in an economic race to secure business, so any legislation which forces London or Liverpool to develop more slowly than Berlin or Dublin would likely struggle to gain support.\u00a0<\/p>

Of course, where the levers of government can be pulled for positive impact such as investment in green industries, there will be competition between the sectors for investment. The construction industry institutions and associations need to make the case for that investment being focussed on our built environment, but there\u2019s little point putting out our hands without a compelling business case for how we\u2019ll provide real value.\u00a0 Are smog eating facades a better bet than sustainable concrete?\u00a0 The answers to these questions may lie with our academics\u2026<\/p>

So can our world-renowned universities and innovation hubs make UK R&D a deciding factor in the decarbonising of the global construction industry? Much like the politicians, the answer is both yes, and no.<\/p>

We have wonderful institutions at our disposal,\u00a0 and with time and investment, they will undoubtedly offer vital insight into how we take the right path towards a sustainable future. UK academia is doing world-leading work on smart connected buildings, platforms thinking,\u00a0 and the national digital twins, but these are drops in the ocean compared to the sheer scale of the challenge.\u00a0 As valuable as this work is for our global future, and for the UK inc, the journey from a research concept to real-world impact often takes years to realise.\u00a0<\/p>

Although it is fair to say that government and academia have key roles to play, the new actions they take now will not facilitate the seachange needed to create our sustainable future.\u00a0 This leaves two mega industries at the sharp end of generating the much-needed change.\u00a0 Construction and technology.<\/p>

Construction is second only to the finance services in size at an ever-growing $12.5 trillion globally,\u00a0 so it would be easy to assume that all the skills and resources needed for change are already within the sector.\u00a0\u00a0 With domain expertise and well-established processes for delivering projects of all sizes, the construction industry holds a privileged position as the steward of our built future.\u00a0\u00a0 However, with a legacy of cost focussed procurement combined with vast and sometimes volatile supply chains,\u00a0 even this mega-industry often struggles to make room for revolutionary innovation.\u00a0 Many of the household names of the industry are snared in the innovator’s dilemma; can they afford to risk existing relationships by focussing on future technologies over today\u2019s working solutions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Today\u2019s construction industry is a rigid pyramid responsible for 13% of global GDP and around 300mil jobs.\u00a0 Although the industry must lead the mission to a sustainable future,\u00a0 it is clear it can\u2019t do it alone without a more agile and responsive partner.\u00a0 The inescapable truth that construction change is more evolution than revolution has led the tech sector giants to focus their gaze on the opportunities.\u00a0 However, their impact to date has been a series of false dawns as the scale and complexity of getting things built is almost impossible to overestimate.\u00a0<\/p>

The tech sector is smaller than construction, but this is not predicted to last as the inherent desire for rapid and successful innovation continues to see every aspect of our lives shift towards technology.\u00a0 Whilst there is little doubt that the formula for revolutionary change in the way we create and live with our built environment lies in technology, the tech sector cannot simply replace the collective knowledge that brings towers, bridges and railways from concept to completion.\u00a0<\/p>

Although there is a thriving construction tech sector,\u00a0 with great businesses such as Glider making a real impact across the asset lifecycle, there is an enormous and virtually unexploited opportunity to bring these mega industries together in a globally significant way. This will require the kind of relationship which usually emerges from embarking on an ambitious shared journey which neither partner alone can hope to solve; such as decarbonising our built environment.\u00a0 There is a need to move the relationship between these gargantuan sectors through the gears to create innovative partnerships,\u00a0 and this is an area where the UK has an enviable record for us to draw upon right back to Isambard Kingdom Brunel and beyond.\u00a0<\/p>

With political encouragement and academic support, we can move the construction industry\u2019s relationship with technology way beyond the \u2018faster horses\u2019 model, into a new paradigm of an industry that once again thrives on the adoption of brand new innovation.\u00a0 Innovation with a green heart.\u00a0 We have the innovation hubs, the mega projects, the skills and knowledge, and the economic muscle, to support those construction and technology partnerships who are ready to roll up their sleeves to really move the needle towards a sustainable future.\u00a0<\/p>

Read the findings from our round-table discussion on Setting a course for net-zero construction, but who is really responsible for effective delivery?<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opinion Piece by John Adams, Head of Product, Glider Technology 25 June 2021 Who really controls the sustainable future of the built environment? In these changing times it\u2019s not certain what the built environment of the future is going to look like.\u00a0 What is certain, is that with population increases expected until a predicted peak […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13995,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[286],"tags":[],"edition":[],"class_list":["post-13988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion-pieces"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futurebuild.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futurebuild.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futurebuild.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurebuild.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurebuild.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurebuild.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurebuild.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futurebuild.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurebuild.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurebuild.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13988"},{"taxonomy":"edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurebuild.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/edition?post=13988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}