Kayla Friedman
The built environment encompasses all of the physical places that are created from the finite natural resources that we as humans depend upon. There is a dependent relationship between the two that is intimately connected to our ability to live successfully on the planet.
In fundamental terms, there is no material that our built environment is constructed from that is not extracted or made from some aspect of our natural environment. With global population numbers expected to reach 10 billion by 2061[1], that means there will be 2 billion more people who need homes, places to work, places to be educated, places to pray, places to heal, and the associated infrastructure that will allow those places to function and let people move between them. What does their future look like?
To help understand the scale of the challenge, I like to share this visualisation that I learned from one of our CISL Fellows, Will Day. He notes that Greater London has a population of just under 10 million people. It has a mixture of high-density and low-density areas. It has built areas and natural recreation areas, cultural areas, and arguably everything people need to thrive in a diverse community. Although many people prefer not to live in cities at all, Greater London probably offers a range of living environments that most people would find agreeable. For us to accommodate 2 billion people to the standard of living that is provided by a place like London, we would need to build 200 of them by 2061, or about one Greater London every nine and a half weeks- give or take.
This is not particularly good news for the planet, given that in 2019 it was calculated that the built environment was responsible for 39% of global energy related to carbon emissions- 28% from operational emissions and 11% from materials and construction[2]. Between 40-50% of resources extracted for global materials are used in construction markets, and as much as 32% of landfill waste comes from construction sites[3]. We have not been very good stewards of the planet, and the strain we have put on it is evident through climate change and the degradation of the natural environment. We are using up resources faster than we are replenishing them, and we need to not only reverse this trend for ourselves, but for an additional 2 billion inhabitants in the future. It is an enormous challenge.
This challenge is compounded by the fractured nature of the built environment as an industry. As a sector of the economy, it employs a vast range of professionals and individuals, from finance, consultancy, construction, and the public sector, amongst many, many others. This was recently well illustrated by work from the New London Architecture, highlighting the lack of clear understanding of the scale and significance of the collective whole[4]. Unfortunately, these professions have a long history of not working particularly well together, and certainly not thinking of themselves as all working in the same industry. Publications such as the 1994 Latham Report in the UK[5] and work from RICS in 2008 on the Vicious Circle of Blame[6] have highlighted the adversarial nature of industry relationships, yet these challenges still persist.
“We use education to empower individuals and organisations from across the world to change their own actions, rethink their purpose and performance, and work to change the system itself.”
It is easy to feel overwhelmed by these matters, but the scale of the challenges also holds the secret to the opportunities.
At the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, we recognise that transforming places to meet the needs of people in the future, in terms of their physical environment, infrastructure, and socio-economic conditions, is a fundamental component for building a sustainable economy. We sit in a unique position within one of the world’s greatest educational institutions and use that position to build a network of global change-makers from across the private sector and government to create a sustainable and resilient future. We deliver this through education, innovation, research and fostering collaborations between the private sector and policymakers.
Our headquarters, Entopia, is a unique hub fostering collaboration between academia, startups and corporates and is now becoming a ‘Living Lab’ with researchers, startups and corporate innovators using it to innovate, pilot and demonstrate new solutions for sustainability in the built environment.
“Ensuring that our built environment is fit for the future of humanity is a fundamental challenge facing us today.”
We use education to empower individuals and organisations from across the world to change their actions, rethink their purpose and performance, and work to change the system itself. We do this through targeted, traditional for specific organisations and through accredited, non-accredited and online programmes. In my role as programme director in our postgraduate education team, I lead on our accredited built environment offerings, including the Postgraduate Programme for the Built Environment.
Unlike traditional professional pathways, our master’s and postgraduate certificate programmes assume that our students are already experts in their chosen fields. We offer ‘next-level’ education opportunities that are routinely excluded from siloed professional courses. One of the fundamental aspects of our programmes is that our students come from across the professional disciplines that make up the built environment professions and that they study together. This may not seem particularly radical or innovative, but perhaps surprisingly, we are one of the few programmes, globally, that engage with the industry in this way. It is imperative that we support professionals in overcoming siloed thinking and help them to work together effectively. We create a safe educational space for people to ask honest questions of each other, and to help them understand each other better, so that when they return to their professional spaces, they are better equipped to collaborate with the other stakeholders they engage with. Our students gain a professional network beyond their disciplines that endures after their time with us. Many of our alumni tell us that they are still in touch with their colleagues and continue to use their diverse expertise to support their professional engagements.
“We have not been very good stewards of the planet, and the strain we have put on it is evident through climate change and the degradation of the natural environment.”
We also support students in developing the skills to understand and evaluate emerging technologies and innovations. The world is rapidly changing, and what is true today may not be true in ten, five, or even two years. What professionals need is the skillset to understand and evaluate emerging opportunities. Being grounded within the academic context, we use the principles of academic rigour to support evidence-based decision making. This is important for two reasons. First, that our students feel capable of evaluating the opportunities today and in the future for the benefits and risks associated with change. Applying an academic mindset to information helps to remove bias and ensure a holistic approach. Second, we use an evidence-based approach to support students in communicating their findings to other key stakeholders. We stress the need for impartial and clear evidence when building the argument for change, as it is far more compelling and convincing than relying on charisma or seniority.
We do all of this while providing current teaching on the challenges of sustainability and resilience in the built environment and looking at current and emerging technologies and innovations in order to address them. We teach professionalism, interdisciplinary practice, and leadership, focusing on the concept that any member of a team can find moments to step up to lead, regardless of contractual position or seniority. We explore the many professional or ‘soft’ skills required to positively engage and collaborate with other stakeholders. We look at decision-making across the lifecycle of projects and challenge our students to understand how the decisions they make on their part of a project can have impacts on others. We deliver all of this with evidence-based teaching so that students experience how this approach to knowledge is used, and we provide opportunities for them to engage in evidence-based assignments so that they gain experience in this skill set to bring back to the workplace.
Ensuring that our built environment is fit for the future of humanity is a fundamental challenge facing us today. We need leadership across the disciplines to seize the opportunities available and convert problems into action. I feel fortunate to play a role in helping numerous professionals from around the world feel more confident in stepping up to the challenge to build a true momentum for change.
“We are using up resources faster than we are replenishing them, and we need to not only reverse this trend for ourselves, but for an additional 2 billion inhabitants in the future. It is an enormous challenge.”
Biography
Dr Kayla Friedman is the Course Director for the University of Cambridge’s Master’s and Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainability Leadership for the Built Environment (IDBE) and a Programme Director in the postgraduate education team at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL).
References
[1] https://populationmatters.org/news/2024/07/the-road-to-10-billion-world-population-projections-2024/#:~:text=The%20United%20Nations%20(UN)%20has,billion%20in%20the%20mid%2D2080s.
[2] https://worldgbc.org/climate-action/embodied-carbon/
[3] https://worldgbc.org/article/an-integrated-approach-to-a-sustainable-built-environment-the-co-benefits-of-resources-circularity/
[4] https://nla.london/insights/skills-for-places-inspiring-future-city-makers
[5] https://constructingexcellence.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Constructing-the-team-The-Latham-Report.pdf
[6] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263782010_Breaking_the_Vicious_Circle_of_Blame_-_Making_the_Business_Case_for_Sustainable_Buildings
