Willmott Dixon’s head of energy services Rob Lambe, UK Green Building Council chief executive Paul King and Hammerson’s head of sustainability Louise Emmerson were among new recruits to the government’s Green Construction Board who attended their first full board meeting yesterday.
The industry-government board, executive first set up in October 2011 and which is co-chaired by business minister Michael Fallon and Mike Putnam, Skanska UK president and chief executive, has had an injection of fresh blood while seven industry figures have left.
Other new additions include Rob Pearce, head of design and specification at Marks & Spencer and Steve Wignall, business leader at Laing O’Rourke and a director of its Crown House Technologies division.
In February, the government confirmed that the GCB would continue its work for a further two years, giving it responsibility to to deliver the carbon-cutting targets enshrined in Construction 2025, the industrial strategy for construction.
The GCB has seven work streams, and several of the new recruits have been actively involved in these working groups.
Lambe is chair of its knowledge and skills working group. In February, it announced that it had commissioned a study to examine how sustainability data collected by the construction and property industries can be better used to influence change. The study is due to be completed in mid-2014, and will aim to make information more readily usable and available, particularly at project and company level.
The UKGBC’s King has been chairing the buildings group, which is planning to focus its efforts in 2014 on “closing the performance gap” in non-domestic buildings. In February, the group also said it would revisit a shelved plan to establish an “Existing Buildings Hub” to emulate the success of the Zero Carbon Hub in overcoming barriers to zero carbon homes.
Hammerson’s Louise Ellison is chair of its valuation and demand group, and Rob Pearce of M&S is chair of the “greening the industry” group.
Paul King said: “The GCB can play an important part in bringing Government and industry together, in particular focusing on ways in which cutting costs and carbon can go hand in hand to deliver the target of 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. The refreshed board includes influential leaders of some of the most progressive construction firms in the UK and I look forward to working with them to support that important goal.”
Meanwhile, James Wates, chair of the CITB, and architect Sundand Prasad are among seven members standing down from the group.
