COMMENT The built environment contributes a shocking 40% of all energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. The technology and expertise exist to reduce this dramatically and yet, with a few notable exceptions, the industry largely continues with business as usual.
As an industry we pride ourselves on our excellent understanding of project risk and costs. Now is the time to put those skills to good use and look at a bigger picture. The long-term risks of not re-evaluating our wider goals, radically changing what we do and how we do it could not be higher. The costs of inaction now will be exponentially greater in years to come.
So as we face the most severe macroeconomic shock since World War II as a result of the Covid-19 tragedy, we have seen governments respond in unprecedented ways to support the economy. The International Energy Agency has calculated that governments are planning to spend $9tn (£7.2tn) globally in the next few months on rescuing their economies. The resulting stimulus packages will determine the shape of the global economy for years to come. Critically, within that time, emissions must start to fall sharply and permanently or climate targets will be permanently out of reach.
The actions we take or fail to take in the next few years will decide whether or not we continue as a viable civil society in the decades beyond 2030. We are at a defining moment; a turning point.
The construction industry needs to make its voice heard in government to ensure that the economic recovery protects public health, safeguards and creates long-term skilled jobs and addresses climate targets.
A year ago, leading architectural practices – including all of the then 17 UK Stirling Prize-winning practices – launched Architects Declare, with an 11-point declaration seeking to trigger radical changes in the profession in order to meet the Paris agreement climate targets.
AD now has almost 1,000 signatories in the UK. We were rapidly joined by many leading engineering companies, project managers and landscape architects under the umbrella of Construction Declares and, subsequently, by more than 5,000 companies from 23 countries across the globe.
Together with other organisations, we have written to prime minister Boris Johnson outlining three key strands to create a sustainable green recovery:
- Four practical ideas of what construction can do for the economy;
- Four urgent actions needed from government to support this; and
- Five wider measures of environmental legislation needed in the next 10 years
We are now inviting all other members of the construction community to join us and create their own Declare networks to share knowledge, engage national and regional government, raise awareness and encourage change. We invite funders, insurers, developers, estates, surveyors, contractors and suppliers to step up.
Let’s not forget that climate breakdown is already happening – in the UK and globally – the evidence is clear with fires, floods, exceptional temperatures and hurricanes.
Continuing with limitless resource extraction and endless growth on a finite planet is surely unsustainable to any rational mind. However, it is important to understand that the alternative to endless growth is not hair-shirted regression. As the visionary economist Kate Raworth shows in her book Doughnut Economics, the alternative would be “a safe and just space for humanity to prosper, within a thriving web of life”.
We all need to see the world through the lens of the climate crisis. It should influence every decision and choice we make both personal and professional.
Julia Barfield is managing director of Marks Barfield Architects
