‘Carbon blindness is a big issue across the industry’

In fact, the group gave a talk at Digital Construction Week in London entitled ‘F*ck Roadmaps’ – such is their strength of feeling on the matter. It was a title designed to grab the attention and make their point that roadmaps to decarbonisation are well intentioned but far too slow.

The group ZERO Next is part of ZERO, a larger organisation researching ways to achieve a net zero carbon construction sector. Modus spoke to ZERO Next’s co-leads to find out what the group’s aims are and how it hopes to achieve them. They are Tasha Greenfield, design coordinator at Natural Building Systems; Owen Jackson, safety, health, environment and sustainability coordinator at Thomas Sinden; and Giulia Papi, marketing manager at Inndex.

Tasha Greenfield

Owen Jackson

Giulia Papi

We talked about setting up ZERO Next, as a separate space within ZERO for people who are new to the industry. We meet every two weeks and talk about our employers and issues in the construction industry. Young professionals might not have as much experience as those who’ve been in the industry longer but it’s still really important to enable those people to have a voice and feel confident in their own opinions.

Giulia: We don’t want to preach and tell people what to do, but instead say we’re here and we have an opinion that is valid, so please listen to us.

Look at 2050 targets in another way – you have nearly 30 years to generate emissions for free before you have to stop. That really loads on the damage we’ll be doing for another 30 years. Roadmap to 2050 targets give some people a policy-based way out.

Take The Line in Saudi Arabia, for example. If we were really serious about making massive carbon reductions now, The Line wouldn’t be a project we’d be considering doing because of the sheer amount of resources needed to create it.

Another of the key themes we talk about is education and the skills shortage in the industry. At the current rate, in 25 years there will be no bricklayers left, no one wants to be a bricklayer any more. We need to work out ways of doing things differently and make it more attractive to the next generation.

Giulia: We want construction to become the most attractive industry to work in, where students and apprentices are all looking to start a career. The industry needs to market itself better, it doesn’t talk about all the work that goes on around the physical construction of a building. There are so many tech companies emerging in the sector.

Upfront costs are an issue too, because cost is often valued more highly than carbon. To reduce carbon in a project takes money because the technology needs to be more advanced or the materials need to be more carefully sourced. The methods involved may require more funding at the start and the benefits over the lifetime of a building aren’t always considered because what matters to businesses right now is having adequate cashflow.

There’s also not a great carbon literacy in business and among the public. If there’s no real agreement on what carbon means or a measurable unit of carbon that can be valued that works universally, it can be hard to make an informed opinion about a project and understand the impact it will have.

We still build with the same type of concrete, same pouring and groundwork as we did 30-40 years ago. We met someone at a workshop event who owns a concrete pouring company and was inspired to change because three employees came to him and raised their concerns about the company’s environmental impact. He listened to them and learned more for himself. Everyone’s got a different motivation to change.

Tasha: The decisions to change in the construction industry can cost a lot more than other industries. A café might switch to organic milk at a certain cost but if a construction company tries to do something sustainable in the way it builds you could be looking at millions of pounds.

Giulia: Many roadmaps to sustainability are not as scalable to construction as they are to other sectors. Construction is the biggest global industry and generates around £11.5tn a year. Green changes might bring added costs that companies aren’t willing to face yet because they don’t have the right incentives.

There is a degree of seniority among decision makers in the industry and most of them are going to be retired by 2050, so there is a lack of motivation to effect change immediately.

Tasha: If we stand here and say ‘here’s one reasonable target and here’s another reasonable target’ we’re not going to get anyone’s attention. We’ve got to be ambitious. We recognise our aim that carbon will be more important than cost may not happen by 2030, but we need to start thinking differently and having those conversations now.

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