Newsletter #37
Mitsubishi Electric Living Environmental Systems UK
Cooling, Heating, Ventilation and Controls
Welcome to the 37th edition of our Sustainability & Construction newsletter!
In this issue, we reflect on the past to pave the way forward as Martin Fahey draws from his past experiences to emphasize the urgency of transitioning to sustainable practices.?Chris Newman , argues that it is essential to reduce whole life carbon in buildings in order to meet the government's carbon emissions target.
Explore the urgency of reaching net-zero targets and the collaborative efforts needed across industries. Learn about the Climate Active Carbon Neutral certification and its alignment with global greenhouse gas accounting protocols.
From promoting sustainable building practices to innovative approaches in retrofitting, discover key initiatives driving sustainability forward. Gain valuable lessons from a study on housing retrofits and explore innovative approaches to building performance, exemplified by SGA Consulting's retrofit of York Guildhall.
Dive into the "Long-Term Plan for Construction" report, outlining key recommendations for fostering sustainability in the UK's built environment. Uncover the importance of developing a Climate Resilience Roadmap to address climate change impacts while reducing carbon emissions.
In our "Construction Voices" section, Noble Francis , Economics Director at the CPA, sheds light on the persistent issue of frequent changes in Construction Ministers within the UK government.?
Join us as we navigate towards a more sustainable and resilient future for generations to come.
Latest Mitsubishi Electric News
We’ve been involved in a fantastic new report that’s just been published, which focuses on the fact that we are now less than 6 years away from 2030, which is a milestone year for all of the businesses and corporates that have set short-term, or in some cases end-dates for their net zero targets.
We look at our Primary School educational programme. Here at Mitsubishi Electric, we place a great importance on educating the next generation about climate change and sustainability.
Martin Fahey reflects on his past experiences, to shed light on the necessity of transitioning to sustainable practices for the future. He vividly recounts his time working in coal-fired facilities, witnessing the labor-intensive and often hazardous conditions of coal mining and power generation.
We must reduce whole life carbon in the built environment. Chris Newman , zero carbon design manager at Mitsubishi Electric argues that it is essential to reduce whole life carbon in buildings in order to meet the government's carbon emissions target.
Latest Industry news
NABERS has today announced that the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers ( CIBSE ) has been appointed as the new NABERS UK scheme administrator.
NABERS offers a pathway to achieve Climate Active Carbon Neutral certification, a world-leading, government-backed certification that is aligned to national and international greenhouse gas accounting protocols.
领英推荐
It is clear that the business of 2030 will need to look very different from today and each sector will undergo unique transformations. edie’s new Destination 2030 series offers a timely reminder of the challenges that key sectors currently face. This report is focused on the drivers and innovation opportunities for the built environment.
CIBSE , Studio PDP and 10 Design have investigated how 10 housing projects are performing 10 years after they were retrofitted. The study highlights successes and uncovers crucial lessons for the future of housing retrofits.
SGA Consulting was crowned CIBSE ’s Building Performance Champion following the retrofit of the historic York Guildhall. Andy Pearson explains how the project team exploited the nearby River Ouse while protecting the listed site.
At the end of January 2023, Building Magazine published the Building the Future Commission's "Long-Term Plan for Construction" Report. The Report sets out eleven "Headline Recommendations", for both the Government and the Construction Industry, which it believes allow for the creation of a long-term plan for the UK's built environment.
As climate change impacts continue to occur, the built environment must prepare for hazards such as heatwaves, floods, and storms whilst cutting carbon emissions. To start, we first need to understand how to measure our resilience, establish industry-wide targets and pinpoint essential actions and policies to achieve them.
Construction Voices
Here, we invite industry leaders to share their valuable insights and expertise on creating a sustainable built environment. This week we include an article written by Noble Francis , Economics Director at the CPA.
The UK's frequent change of Construction Ministers with short tenures harms policy development and makes the industry a low priority.
The new Construction Minister is Alan Mak MP, which makes him the 10th Construction Minister in the last 5 years lasting an average of just 8 months each (Upper Chart). Alan Mak replaces Nusrat Ghani, who was Construction Minister for 16 months after replacing Jackie Doyle-Price, who was Construction Minister for just 2 months and who replaced Lord Callanan, who was also only in place for 2 months.
The new Construction Minister is also the 15th Construction Minister in the last 10 years, averaging just 10 months each (although the average is heavily distorted by the first two of those 15 ministers staying considerably more than double the average, bringing the average otherwise up from 7 months).
Alan Mak is also the 24th Construction Minister in the last 20 years lasting 12 months each (Lower Chart) so it is clearly a persistent problem but, equally, it is a problem that has been getting considerably worse in recent years.
The constant churn of construction ministers leads to poor policy development and delivery, given the complexity of the construction industry and the time needed to fully understand it.
Plus, it also means that the government focuses more on a constant stream of public relations announcements (stating that it wants more homes and infrastructure) rather than actually delivering (more homes and better infrastructure).
In addition, the constant churn of construction ministers leads to endless councils, taskforces, hubs, groups and workstreams plus a constant stream of reports, reviews, strategies, plans, pipelines and playbooks but with little real improvement (although with lots of backslapping and self-congratulating plus congratulating from all the bluffers and chancers that are just happy to raise their own profile by being in the pointless meetings with the minister).
The constant churn in construction ministers also illustrates how little government and MPs with aspirations value the construction minister position as they see it merely as a stepping stone to a position that they consider more important. Given that construction is an industry that directly employs more than 2 million people in a construction supply chain that employs over 3 million people, as well as being critical to delivering more homes, Net Zero transition and the ￡700-775 billion infrastructure pipeline plus it provides the wider UK economy with economic and productivity growth. Construction deserves far better.
We hope you've found the content of this newsletter useful and relevant. In each edition, we'll focus on bringing you the latest news and topics around sustainability and construction. If there are any news articles you would like us to feature, or if you would like to be a guest contributor for Construction Voices, please get in touch with us .
Find out more about our new Sustainability and Construction team here .