Speech: Built environment day at COP26 in Glasgow
Archive | 11 November 2021 | The speech originally appeared on the COP26 YouTube channel.
Hannah Vickers spoke on stage at COP26, as part of the CLC led session, ‘Construction: the Built Environment’, which took place on the dedicated built environment day (11 November 2021). The session was streamed online to a global audience, as well as to the delegates in Glasgow.
Press release
The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) is using COP26 to broker the agreement between industry leaders, young professionals, and the public to deliver net zero in the built environment.
The time for action and a concrete agreement to reduce carbon emissions and invest in our future is now. Government and industry have a crucial opportunity to agree tangible commitments, benefitting future generations across the world.
Our role as part of the built environment and construction sector (which accounts for 38% of global carbon emissions) is vital. The Construction Leadership Council’s Construct Zero programme is leading the industry’s drive to net zero and CLC is excited to announce its confirmed line-up for ‘Construction: The Built Environment’ at COP26 on 11 November.
The role of our industry’s young professionals, working in partnership with industry leaders, is fundamental to delivering on net zero. We have already seen their passion and heard some of their fantastic ideas through the youth COP summit in Milan and CLC’s young people’s summit. CLC are delighted to facilitate the voice of young professionals at the heart of this session by allocating 50% of their tickets to them. They are also pleased to confirm their session will be co-chaired by Sarah Linnell (Cundall). Sarah brings with her an exciting array of relevant knowledge and experience as a structural engineer turned sustainability engineer. CLC hope this will provide a great opportunity for young people to engage in this session and work with industry leaders.
Construction is unique with its local, regional, national and global footprint and we will hear from Actuate UK, Saint Gobain and the Construction Industry Council on how they, as Construct Zero partners, are already advancing the importance of retrofit, materials, and design/professional services in delivering net zero.
Some of Construct Zero’s priorities will be debated with four current Business Champions (Keltbray, Costain, Atkins and Travis Perkins), identifying some of the challenges they face, and opportunities to share best practice. CLC will also be releasing, ‘Building a Greener Britain’. This exciting film reaches out into local communities, demonstrating some of the great work taking place across the sector.
Streamed online through COP26’s YouTube channel, CLC are bringing the challenges and opportunities of net zero to industry, leaders, SMEs, young industry professionals and the general public.
“COP26 has the potential to be a landmark moment for the planet and its outcome will have a great impact on the construction sector in the UK. The Construction Leadership Council has a huge role to play as our sector transforms itself over the coming years, and we’re very pleased to able to announce the line-up for our event on cities and the built environment day at the conference. I would encourage everyone in the industry to get involved in anyway you can – our industry is changing quickly, and we must work together current and future leaders to ensure success.”
The event
The National Builders Federation has a PDF summary of the session online featuring key speakers and takeaways, as well as details on Hannah’s speech and Q&A session. The session was originally streamed on the COP26 YouTube channel, and is unfortunately no longer available.
Hannah Vickers compared and contrasted two construction sites – showing how the uptake and usage of technology could significantly improve time saved, monies spent and reductions in waste, simply by better utilisation and effective planning.
She also showed the gains that could be made in better usage of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and switching the mindset of running a site to that of production and using production processing methods to manage projects. She highlighted the positive impact of Mace’s ‘single digital system’ to improve information exchange with their supply chain, leading to ‘less mistakes, less waste, better quality results in less emissions.’
The speech was initially live streamed on YouTube. It originally aired on 11 November 2021.
Hannah Vickers is Managing Director at Built Confidence and Net Zero and Productivity lead at the Construction Leadership Council (CLC). She was previously Chief of Staff and Global Head of Advisory at Mace.
