We were delighted to host our second International Presidents Roundtable on 12 February 2020.
Presidents of seventeen national institutes and international organisations, representing architects from across the world, joined the RIBA President Alan Jones at 66 Portland Place.
The presidents came together to discuss achievable ways to make this world a better place, supporting and guiding our members and built environment professionals to place climate change at the heart of their work.
The discussion focused on three key areas:
- is the climate emergency the greatest challenge facing the built environment?
- as a global crisis, does it require internationally coordinated action?
- are architects the right people to take a lead?
At the end of the meeting, attendees agreed to explore and work towards:
- closing the performance gap – currently our buildings do not meet the energy performance that they are designed to achieve
- better international collaboration – at present we have a range of competing sustainability standards and methodologies for measuring energy performance and embodied carbon
- increasing skills – across the construction industry, there is a need to develop the skills, knowledge and expertise that will enable us to meet the targets for energy consumption and embodied carbon, like those set out in the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge, that will deliver a net zero built environment
The institutes agreed on the need to act locally to influence national regulations and raise standards in design practice and construction procurement, to exchange information, compare performance data and share knowledge.
