In June 2019, the UK became the first major economy in the world to pass laws to end its contribution to global warming by 2050. The construction sector will need to reform to support this goal and the CLC Roadmap to Recovery has laid out proposals to secure the future of construction businesses nationwide, while setting the industry on a sustainable path towards recovery. But what does all this actually mean to projects in the finishes and interiors sector?
At the FIS conference last September, Adam Strudwick, Principal, Corporate Interiors at global design practice, Perkins+Will, discussed the sustainability approaches his company takes when it
comes to the finishes and interiors sector, bearing in mind that around 40% of the global carbon footprint is attributed to the built environment. The data is complex, but the fit-out of a building is responsible for around 40% of the energy within that building, and we know that every day, on average, about 300 tonnes of fit-out goes into landfill. We also need to deal what happens at the end of the life of projects, so late in 2020, Perkins+Will set a roadmap of how, by 2030, they will get to a position where they can design all interiors projects to be net zero embodied carbon.
This can’t be solved by one individual, vertical section of our industry. Designers have a big part to play and so do clients. Investors, potentially, have the biggest part to play at the beginning of the cycle when it comes to new projects and new developments. Adam said: “We put a lot of time and effort into work within the supply chain to understand how we can improve the process of designing more sustainable interiors, and it is really important that all of these different parts of our industry work together to make the big improvements that need to happen.”
Continue reading for our five reasons to use sustainable building materials
