Issi Rousseva with Julie Hirigoyen, CEO of UKGBC
With the right combination of industry expertise, community engagement and a clear steer from government, we can build places that work for everyone.
That's the headline message of the UK Green Building Council's new report: Building Places That Work For Everyone. Koru's architect Issi Rousseva attended the policy paper launch on 28th February 2017 at the Houses of Parliament. The launch event was chaired by Julie Hirigoyen, CEO of the UK Green Building Council, and also included talks by industry leaders and politicians George Freeman MP, Stephen Kinnock MP and James Heappey MP.
Issi particularly enjoyed the talk by Dan Labbad, CEO of Lendlease, a global property and infrastructure company. Dan spoke about how to be successful, sustainability must be right at the core of business operations - never an after-thought simply to tick boxes. Issi also enjoyed speaking with Mark Harper MP about the potential of the circular economy, and she was interested to note that many of the delegates were relatively new to sustainability but were determined to make a difference in their own businesses and organisations. This is a welcome change from the tendency of green events to be full of experts and long-time enthusiasts 'preaching to the choir'. This highlights the fantastic outreach and engagement work the UK Green Building Council have been doing.
The report covers how sustainable building can contribute to key government priorities around homes, energy, industry, jobs and social wellbeing. It also contains best-in-class example projects, insights from industry leaders, key statistics and practical policy recommendations. Koru Architects supports their recommendations and we hope to see the government using this paper to inform more effective policymaking.
