In Summer 2021, the Construction Industry Council (CIC) published ‘Carbon Zero: the professional institutions’ climate action plan’ – a plan for real action in the face of the climate and biodiversity emergencies. One year on from the launch, the CIC is celebrating some notable successes.
In Summer 2021, the Construction Industry Council (CIC) Climate Change Committee published ‘Carbon Zero: the professional institutions’ climate action plan‘.
As one of the plan’s 40 signatories to and 11 delivery partners, the Landscape Institute (LI) is helping the CIC take real action in the face of the climate and biodiversity emergencies, including deliverables towards the UK Government’s 2050 net zero carbon emissions target. At the heart of the plan are ten Workstreams that reflect the main target areas for built environment professionals.
One year on from the launch of the plan, the CIC’s Climate Change Committee has reported some notable successes:
- 93% of professional standards setting bodies now require sustainability as part of their entry requirements to professional registers. CPD on climate change mitigation is becoming more readily available for all members, with an increasing number of institutions seeking to make climate change CPD a mandatory and ongoing requirement.
- Signatories have driven support for new initiatives such as the Climate Framework – a tool to enable the construction industry to easily access existing content developed by expert individuals and organisations across the international construction industry, as well as academics, government, and non-government bodies. This has already seen the release of new resources such as the University College of Estate Management’s Energy and Carbon in the Built Environment module.
- Committee Chair Stephen Hodder MBE presented the Action Plan at COP26 in support of CIC’s Construct Zero session, part of the Cities, Regions and Built Environment Day. The plan has also been featured at Futurebuild and UK Construction Week.
Stephen Hodder MBE will continue to coordinate the Action Plan as Committee chair. He plans to build on the successes so far, saying: ‘The aim is to drive real progress across each of the workstreams in the year ahead. We have seen great success on education and qualifications, and our signatories have been at the forefront of creating excellent new guidance on climate resilience and whole-life carbon.
‘The plan is a living document and workstream convenors now have an opportunity to refine the objectives to meet the challenge of a rapidly developing environmental emergency. Only through collaboration can we build on what is in place, support, and equip the professional institutions to act today.’
A collaborative forum where signatories can showcase and share new initiatives, the CIC Climate Change Committee has formally shown its support for the industry-led ‘Part Z’ campaign, which encourages the regulation and assessment of whole life-carbon emissions and the limiting of embodied carbon emissions for all major building projects.
The group will also be promoting the RIBA voluntary performance targets for operational energy use, water use, and embodied carbon that form the basis of the renewed 2030 Climate Challenge.
