LABC celebrates one year of CIC’s Climate Action Plan

In Summer 2021, the Construction Industry Council (CIC) Climate Change Committee published 'Carbon Zero: the professional institutions’ climate action plan’; a plan for real action in the face of the climate and biodiversity emergencies which includes deliverables to pave the way to meeting net zero. At the heart of the plan are the ten Workstreams which reflect the main target areas for built environment professionals.

One year on from the launch of the plan, the Committee has reported some notable successes;

• 93% of professional standards setting bodies now require sustainability as part of the 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.
• Plan signatories have driven support for new initiatives such as the Climate Framework. The framework will enable the construction industry to easily access existing content developed by expert individuals and organisations across the international construction industry, as well as academics, governmental, and non-governmental bodies. This activity has already seen the release of new resources such as the ‘Energy and Carbon in the Built Environment’ module offering 25 hours of free CPD.
• Committee Chair Stephen Hodder MBE was invited to COP26 to present on the Action Plan in support of the Construction Leadership Council’s Construct Zero session which took place as part of the Cities, Regions and Built Environment Day. The plan has also been featured at Futurebuild and UK Construction Week.

CIC was glad to confirm at the June AGM and Council meeting that Stephen Hodder MBE will continue to coordinate the Climate Change Action Plan as Committee Chair. Stephen plans to build on the successes achieved 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 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 forum for collaboration where signatories - including LABC - can showcase and share new initiatives, the CIC Climate Change Committee has formally shown its support for the proposed Building Regulations ‘Part Z’ industry led campaign which urges 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.

The achievements of the ten Workstreams in the year since the Action Plan had been launched have been highlighted on the Workstream pages available on the CIC website here.