The cafe’s

As in the previous series of Race to Zero focussed Collaboration Cafes, this series is inspired by the World Café Method.  Developed 30 years ago, this method enables us to bring different subsectors of the built environment together, to talk about the difficulties that are hard to share openly and the successes that we often ignore. The method supports insightful, collaborative and supportive knowledge sharing. Just like when we meet friends at a café. 

We start with fun, tension-relieving ice breaking and matching people for cross pollination of ideas and organised networking. We ask them to write insights from the roundtables in post it notes, organise those in harvest walls for live mapping patterns and ask them to share the most profound insights gained from the events, while gently approaching the elephant in the room. 

Voices of Knowledge  

at the end of sessions, a common thought openly shared was “I realise I know more than I thought I did! What a relief”

The mix of voices at the cafes covered a wide range of subsectors in the built environment, from academic, to local authorities, sustainability experts to constructors, product manufacturers to architects and designers and multi-disciplinary consultants, to policy and industry-focused NGOs.  

To understand our group, we sense checked how much the organisations attending knew about climate resilience. We asked people in the room to say if “they had no knowledge or heard of it”, “they had knowledge and taking action”, or “if they considered themselves as a guru on climate resilience”. Members said the level of knowledge they had was predominantly at the middle point at all five cafes – London, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow. However, at the end of sessions, when we make a main harvest of insights, a common thought openly shared was “I realise I know more than I thought I did! What a relief”…  

Insights from the cafe’s

What is climate resilience in the built environment for industry organisations

An image is better than a thousand words, here some pictures of the answer we’ve got: 

Did you notice the “oops”?…It may sound funny, but it’s also a very clear image: what falls out of climate resilience will ultimately mean that there is something to regret. 

The risks of inaction 

It is of course clear that action to implement climate resilience may not be as feasible, as fast or as a high priority as needed right now. Nevertheless, we have to make it priority. 

There is a lot going on right now, there is a sense of rush and workloads heavier than what we can easily handle. The world, humanity and ecosystems are experiencing deep crises. It is of course clear that action to implement climate resilience may not be as feasible, as fast or as a high priority as needed right now. Nevertheless, we have to make it priority. 

To make the point, we asked participants what inaction would mean for their organisation if it fails to implement resilience. We took those hundred insights and found some clear themes. The categories for the type of perceived risks were aligned to known frameworks (TCFD, IFRS), as well as new categories we’ve created (e.g. societal & environmental-related risk), following the values and guidelines we are looking at our Climate Resilience Roadmap project. The table below lists all the perspectives of perceived risks.  Are there any there that surprise you?

There are, of course, some differences found between the different locations where we hosted cafes.

There are, of course, some differences found between the different locations where we hosted cafes. While the findings depend on who attended these events and what the background and individual knowledge is of each attendee, the “cross pollination” effect from the method of the event give us an option to look at the results from a location perspective. Also, as other research has found, local culture can have a leading impact on how individuals approach sustainability (ref, and ref). 

Have a look in the interactive visualisation below to see what each city, as well as the average, said about what the major perceived risks for them are.

If there was no limit to resources, knowledge or capacity, what would you ask to make climate resilience possible for the built environment? What would you say?

Needs from the Industry 

If there was no limit to resources, knowledge or capacity, what would you ask to make climate resilience possible for the built environment? What would you say?  

That wasn’t quite the question we posed, but we did ask what their organisation needed to achieve climate resilience in the built environment. In a similar method to how I described we used for the risks analysis, we looked at the answers to this question. These were the categories found in the table below. 

To me, conceptual and behavioural needs are as important as the practical and technical aspects of needs and therefore, capacity to act. It was particularly interesting to note the difference in what members said was most needed. See the visualisation below for their perspectives:

To me, conceptual and behavioural needs are as important as the practical and technical aspects of needs

There seem to be some distinctive needs for the industry. Do you agree? 
What I can say right now is that we are working hard at engaging policy makers to support climate resilience in the built environment, we continue to engage and train leaders and the wider community to empower individuals to feel knowledgeable and take bold action, and we are definitely working hard to provide guidance, metrics, while encouraging stakeholder alignment and systemic change with the Climate Resilience Roadmap Project.

Action: where are industry organisations?

What is the key action your organisation could take to implement climate resilience in the built environment? What would be your answer? 

We worked with the insights collected, and even though this is a very personal perspective, which will vary depending on multiple factors, this is what the overall members said would be their next step:

While there are several caveats to these results, this image is confirming that our members are at different levels of action and are indeed aware. It also shows that industry organisations are adopting a systemic view, embracing collaboration and knowledge sharing, which are crucial for the industry’s collective and convergent climate resilience action. 

Hearts and minds for action

In the mind, love is a concept. In the heart, love is an action.” 

John-Roger, DSS 

I’m feeling encouraged. Facilitating these events, witnessing the industry’s passion, and analysing the data myself have reassured me that we’re on the right path. It’s clear that, collectively, we have what it takes to keep moving forward. 

The main takeaways, similar to our previous series, are that we often feel shy to acknowledge our knowledge or intuition, hindering our progress on critical issues like climate change. Everyone is at a different stage—individuals and organisations alike. But as a collective, we’re in the right place and ready. Besides, isn’t passion one of the most basic yet powerful tools for success?  

Lastly, it’s great to come back to think about the reasons we have to continue using the café method for these events. It’s because real action happens when the mind (knowledge) and the heart (feelings) come together. And that’s what we’re all here for. 

Let’s get to action. 

Want to learn more about Climate Resilience with UKGBC? You can catch up with the latest on our Climate Resilience Roadmap here or join us for a short course on Climate Resilience here.

Climate Change Adaptation

As the climate crisis intensifies and extreme weather events become more common, the UK’s buildings, cities and critical infrastructure, and the communities that use and occupy these, are in increasing danger. It’s vital to address how our buildings and infrastructure can be adapted to remain fit for the future.

View more

UK Climate Resilience Roadmap

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.

View more

The post Unveiling the Climate Risks: Voices from UK’s Built Environment  appeared first on UKGBC.

This Collaboration Cafés series will bring together groups of UKGBC members across our Local Area Networks, with the view to hear from the wider geographical scope of members within the UK, while convening a diverse multidisciplinary group.

Collaboration Cafés will be held bi-monthly and are open to UKGBC’s members only. For more information on becoming a UKGBC member, please see this page.

What is a Collaboration Café?

Collaboration Cafés will follow the World Café Method , a global movement creating collaborative dialogue around questions that matter. They offer an informal and uncompetitive space for UKGBC members to share insights, synthesise lessons and tackle shared challenges they face at the organisational level.

See how previous Collaboration Cafes looked like in this UKGBC post.

Who should attend?

This event is for UKGBC members based in respective regions only – up to two attendees are invited to register per organisation, with places limited on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. If you are not a member within the region, UKGBC reserves the right to politely decline your registration. All levels of knowledge and experience on the topic of resilience are welcome to attend.

If you have doubts with regards to the best café to attend, contact events@ukgbc.org.

Why are we focusing on Resilience for the built environment?

The climatic and environmental crises are the largest and interlinked threat to modern human existence, caused by our activities and actions. The impact inflicted is resulting in widespread and rapid and extreme weather events and global climatic changes in every region across the globe. For the built environment, this will have a consequential impact on our buildings, infrastructure, environment and way of life.

Climate action failure, extreme weather events and biodiversity loss rank as the three most potentially severe risks for humankind for the next decade. It is of the essence that built environment organisations take a proactive approach towards creating a resilient world, tapping into the leading role already demonstrated to support the climatic crises.

Therefore, we are calling all our members to support our ambition that “by 2030, all buildings and infrastructure will, throughout their lifetime, be climate-resilient and maximise environmental net gains, through the prioritisation of Nature-based Solutions”, and join us to this collaborative discussion and swift action.

How do the Collaboration Cafes fit in the bigger picture within the industry?

The actions needed to build a resilient world start by raising awareness and knowledge on this aspect among organisations and individuals within the built environment. Sharing knowledge and tapping into the large diversity of experiences and expertise will ultimately enable finding the required collaborative solutions and interlinked pathways to establish the best next steps. The Collaboration Cafes will support just that, besides collaboratively finding the best descriptions to how resilience looks like for the built environment, it will facilitate raising awareness, sharing knowledge, and open the door to possibilities.

Moreover, this series of Collaboration Café on Resilience is part of the principal piece of research and engagement work that falls within UKGBC’s Climate Resilience and Nature Programme. We will use the learnings from the Collaboration Cafes as the baseline of knowledge, interest, challenges and gaps to progress the industry’s work. The learnings and insights collected from the Collaboration Cafes will be used to shape key content for UKGBC’s upcoming Resilience Roadmap project.

More about the Resilience Roadmap:

This project aims to ramp up climate adaptation action in the UK built environment by developing science-driven, industry-wide targets for climate resilience, alongside key policies for Government and actions for built environment stakeholders. More details on this project to come.

The post Climate Resilience: Insights from the Collaboration Café series  appeared first on UKGBC.

The Resilience & Nature programme works to embolden industry action on the climate and nature crises and drive our industry to adapt to climate change impacts and mitigate against biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse. Taking into consideration target setting and reporting initiatives such as the TNFD and working closely with relevant government departments on key policies and recommendations there are two key areas of the programme:

Climate Resilience and Adaptation : Increasing the built environment’s resilience to physical climate hazards, expanding climate adaptation across our buildings, infrastructure and environments

Nature and Resource Use: Working towards a nature-positive built environment, embracing responsible resource use, sustainable procurement and creating green and healthy environments. By adopting circular economy principles across the industry, we can mitigate and reverse the harmful impacts the built environment has on nature from habitat loss due to extraction and processing of materials, to biodiversity loss in our town towns and cities.

We also welcome expressions of interest from organisations wishing to partner on either ‘Climate Resilience and Adaptation’ or ‘Nature and Resources’ aspects of the programme for a partnership fee of £15K.

Enquire here

Kai Liebetanz Head of Nature

Email Kai

Enquire here

Hannah Giddings Head of Climate Resilience and Adaptation

Email Hannah

Nature

Nature is in crisis.  The built environment has a critical role to play in protecting and restoring nature and moving to a regenerative model of development.

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Climate Change Adaptation

As the climate crisis intensifies and extreme weather events become more common, the UK’s buildings, cities and critical infrastructure, and the communities that use and occupy these, are in increasing danger. It’s vital to address how our buildings and infrastructure can be adapted to remain fit for the future.

View more

The post Resilience and Nature Programme appeared first on UKGBC.

Our climate is changing, rapidly and dangerously. In the UK, climate change is causing hotter, driers summers and wetter, windier winters that are having increasingly severe health, economic, and social impacts for our built environment and communities. It’s vital to address how our buildings and infrastructure can be adapted to remain fit for the future.

 

Individually, built environment professionals have a key role to play in adapting to the climate, from assessing risks to built assets and creating actionable plans, designing buildings that can handle the impacts of extreme weather, to funding extra resilience measures for our cities. In addition, a significant gear shift is required to drive systemic and institutionalised change across the industry, with a focus on delivering the scalable and widespread actions necessary to increase the UK’s resilience to climate change.

This event is a collaboration between Hoare Lea, UKGBC and BCO. The event will showcase the Soapworks development in Bristol, exploring the ESG credentials of the project and the links to climate resilience and adaptation. We will also hear from a panel of experts, discussing climate resilience and adaptation, chaired by the new UKGBC CEO, Smith Mordak. The panel discussion will be followed by networking and opportunity for further discussion.

Who should attend?

Built environment professionals based in the South West.

Find out more about UKGBC’s work on Climate Adaptation here.

As the climate crisis intensifies and extreme weather events become more common, the UK’s buildings, cities and critical infrastructure, and the communities that use and occupy these, are in increasing danger. It’s vital to address how our buildings and infrastructure can be adapted to remain fit for the future.

View more

Resilience & Nature Partners

Our climate change adaptation work is supported by our Resilience & Nature Partners.

The post Building Climate Resilience in Bristol appeared first on UKGBC.

As part of UKGBC’s Resilience and Nature Programme, we are launching a project with the built environment industry to co-create a sector roadmap for climate resilience in the built environment. By developing science-driven, industry-wide targets to be achieved in the short, medium and longer term, this project could help to fill the urgent and critical gap identified by the CCC – investing in and optimising our built environment for a climate resilient future. This project will follow a similar path of UKGBC’s Whole Life Carbon Roadmap project which provided both the industry and government a common vision and agreed actions for achieving net zero carbon in the built environment.

At this in-person event, UKGBC’s newly appointed CEO, Smith Mordak, will introduce the scope, objectives and aims of this project and chair a panel discussion with experts on topic of climate resilience, followed by audience Q&A.

Who should attend? 

Built environment professionals with an interest in climate resilience and adaptation. Technical knowledge of climate resilience is not a requirement. 

Find out more about UKGBC’s work on Climate Adaptation here.

As the climate crisis intensifies and extreme weather events become more common, the UK’s buildings, cities and critical infrastructure, and the communities that use and occupy these, are in increasing danger. It’s vital to address how our buildings and infrastructure can be adapted to remain fit for the future.

View more

Resilience & Nature Partners

Our climate change adaptation work is supported by our Resilience & Nature Partners.

The post Building Climate Resilience in the UK Built Environment appeared first on UKGBC.

Louise Hutchins, UKGBC Head of Policy and Public Affairs, said:

“Extreme heat, flooding and drought hitting Europe right now leaves little to the imagination about what climate catastrophe will look like, and makes clear that the UK’s homes and buildings just aren’t designed for this new normal.

“While the third National Adaptation Programme is an important step forward and sets out some welcome new initiatives including mandatory water efficiency labelling, it needed be an urgent and ambitions plan to adapt to increasingly severe, frequent, and extreme weather like last year’s heatwaves which took nearly 3,000 lives in the UK. That nationwide approach to adapt our homes and workplaces is largely missing. We need a national effort to install measures like shutters, insulation, reflective paint, and water-efficient fixtures and fittings in our homes and buildings and shady trees and green spaces in our neighbourhoods.

“The Adaptation Programme points to the importance its forthcoming planning National Planning Policy Framework reforms for some of the answers. But the Government has an open goal in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, currently in its final stages in Parliament, to accept UKGBC-backed amendments that would align the planning system with our climate change and nature restoration goals, and put an end to a range of measures that make no sense given the climate emergency, such as new homes being built on flood-planes without proper protection.

“Over the next few months, UKGBC will be collaborating across the industry and with the government to build on this Programme and accelerate our pathway to greater climate resilience.”

The post Action to tackle overheating in our homes is largely missing from the National Adaptation Programme appeared first on UKGBC.

Assessing climate-related risks is becoming a legal requirement for asset owners. 1,300 of the largest UK-registered companies and financial institutions are required to disclose climate-related financial information on a mandatory basis, using guidelines from the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). This requirement is likely to expand to include smaller organisations by 2025. Now is the time to develop the skills and knowledge to assess physical risk across your portfolio.

UKGBC’s Framework for Measuring and Reporting of Climate-related Physical Risks to Built Assets was written to support organisations to assess their risk, and report in line with TCFD recommendations.

Following the success of UKGBCs Physical Risks Lab, we’re now launching an open learning programme for our members and wider industry to develop the skills and knowledge needed to measure and report risk.

About the course 

This practical course, spread across three months, invites delegates to use UKGBC’s Physical Risk Framework and Reporting Tool on one of their own assets. Following an introductory workshop, at which the key concepts with be introduced along with a detailed explanation of the framework and associated materials, delegates will use the assessment tools on a real asset within their portfolio. They’ll use the framework to work through the process of assessing physical risk, learning through practical application and with the support of UKGBC experts and peers on the course.  

The course will involve a series of peer group check-ins to discuss the challenges they’re facing and find solutions and will wrap up with an online session for delegates to share their successes. 

Upon completion, delegates will have a physical risk assessment for their chosen asset, and the knowledge and skills to assess the risks to other assets in their portfolio.   

Climate Change Adaptation

As the climate crisis intensifies and extreme weather events become more common, the UK’s buildings, cities and critical infrastructure, and the communities that use and occupy these, are in increasing danger. It’s vital to address how our buildings and infrastructure can be adapted to remain fit for the future.

View more

Resilience & Nature Partners

Our climate change adaptation work is supported by our Resilience & Nature Partners.

The post How to Assess Physical Risks in the Built Environment appeared first on UKGBC.