New industry group aims to build sustainability skills in the construction sector

This Taskforce comes in response to a survey of industry professionals by the City of London Corporation that found 91% of respondents said the commercial built environment sector lacks sufficient skilled workers to achieve net zero targets.

The built environment has a leading role in helping to achieve the UK’s net zero target by 2050 – being responsible for around a quarter of emissions in the UK. While construction has long been a large contributor to carbon emissions (both embodied and operating), there are impressive strides being made in this area with innovative procurement methods such as modern methods of construction (MMC), and more construction products that can reduce the use of carbon throughout the lifecycle of a development (which we have previously considered here). However, a project is only as good as the people involved in it and the Taskforce has identified that there are skill gaps and labour shortages in the construction, retrofit, and maintenance of low-carbon commercial buildings.

The Taskforce is focused on London specifically and is one of a number of initiatives which aim to achieve net zero in the UK by 2050. The Construction Leadership Council recently consulted on PAS 2080 – a new standard for Carbon Management in Buildings and Infrastructure. PAS 2080 has a number of targets aimed at aligning the built environment with the transition to a net zero carbon economy by 2050, including reinforcing the importance of carbon reduction across the life cycle of a building.