Putting nature at the heart of decision making

Lost Session 2 - Putting nature at the heart of decision making

Positioning ourselves for COP26 and beyond – a plan for the built and natural environment, in partnership with the Edge

Although the next Futurebuild event won’t take place until 2022, Futurebuild and the Edge has joined forces to explore the actions that we need to take to move from a condition of fragility to one that is more robust for people and the natural world.

The government’s declared aim is to ‘build back better’ and to reduce our emissions by 68% by 2030. We can do better - the industry’s plan for the built and natural environment.

3rd March 2021 -12 pm - 1.15 pm (GMT)

Putting nature at the heart of decision making

Paul Crutzen, meteorologist and atmospheric chemist who won a Nobel Prize for stratospheric ozone destruction died on 28th January 2021. He said in his Nobel lecture (1995) that ”…the experiences of the early 1970s had made it utterly clear to me that human activities had grown so much that they could compeer and interfere with natural processes.” Crutzen first coined the phrase ‘anthropocene’ as the epoch in which humans’ impact on the earth rivalled that of nature’.

Recognising that our economies, livelihoods and well-being all rely on Nature in 2018, HM Treasury commissioned Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta to explore the sustainability of our interactions with nature and identify what we must urgent do differently.

The final report published in January 2021 states that the world’s worsening biodiversity crisis is linked to a “deep-rooted, widespread institutional failure” to recognise the value of nature’ and that our demands on nature ‘far exceed its capacity to supply us with the goods and services we all rely on.’

The Office of Environmental Protection, the independent statutory body with the principal objective of contributing to environmental protection and the improvement of the natural environment, has been established with Dame Glenys Stacey as Chair. However, the Environment Bill has been delayed in Parliament.

And for construction and the built environment? From decisions as to where we should build, put transport corridors, protect resources and so on (which is why we need a land use framework for England) to the actual impact of construction on nature i.e. air pollution, climatic change, water pollution, landfill waste etc, it is clear that the construction industry has a major part to play in protecting the natural environment on which we all depend.

This Edge-Futurebuild session will explore key issues to identify the actions needed for systemic change.

Chair: Belinda Gordon, Strategy Director, Green Alliance

• Natural Environment Assessment and what we need to do- Sandy Sheard, Head of Independent Dasgupta Review Team
• Political perspective: Environment Bill and Office of Environmental Protection - Hatti Owens, Lawyer – UK Environment, Client Earth
• Why we need a land use framework for England. - Sue Pritchard, CEO, Food, Farming and Countryside Commission
• Built environment - IGNITION, Manchester - Sam Evans, Head of Natural Environment, Greater Manchester Combined Authority

Questions managed by Julie Godefroy, Director of Julie Godefroy Sustainability, Technical Manager for CIBSE and member of the Edge