UKGBC Cancellation and Refund Policy

Please see our website for more details on our cancellations and refunds

Other Information

Session length: 1 hour

If you’re unsure if your organisation is a member, please check our Members Directory.

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Who Should Apply?

UKGBC forums are a membership benefit. This forum will be particularly appealing to:

• Project team – especially consultants, architects and engineers.
• Supply chain – contractors (including demolition), manufacturers, and those involved in recovery, reuse and recycling of materials
• Developers, asset owners/occupiers and facilities managers.

The post Resource Use Forum x Nature appeared first on UKGBC.

Who Should Apply?

UKGBC forums are a membership benefit. This forum will be particularly appealing to:

• Project team – especially consultants, architects and engineers.
• Supply chain – contractors (including demolition), manufacturers, and those involved in recovery, reuse and recycling of materials
• Developers, asset owners/occupiers and facilities managers.

The post Resource Use Forum x Supply Chain appeared first on UKGBC.

What legacy does Starmer’s government leave behind for our sector?

One of the clearest successes was the publication of the Warm Homes Plan – the first long‑term national strategy of its kind, and something UKGBC and industry have long called for. With ÂŁ15bn committed this Parliament, the plan finally set out a coherent approach to tackling fuel poverty, scaling heat pumps, expanding rooftop solar, and supporting low‑income households – but Starmer has stepped down just before the most important phase: delivery. The next government must build on this strong strategic platform, embedding real‑world lessons from local authorities, community groups and place‑based pilots, and ensuring resilience is not treated as an optional extra.

The Future Homes and Buildings Standard was another milestone. Starmer’s government chose the more ambitious option: no new gas boilers, mandatory rooftop solar, and improved energy efficiency for new homes. This shift will cut emissions from new build homes by around 75% and gives industry long‑awaited certainty. It’s a strong foundation, but there is more to do. Developers are already building to higher standards, and Burnham’s government will need to build on this momentum to close the gap on climate resilience, embodied carbon and long‑term affordability.

The Planning Bill passed, and the first update to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) made welcome improvements: stronger support for Local Plans, better design guidance, and encouragement of higher‑density development on brownfield land. But the reforms didn’t fully rise to the scale of the climate and nature crises. Climate, nature and community resilience still risk being treated as add‑ons rather than core principles. And the response to the latest NPPF consultation ·É˛ą˛ő˛Ô’t completed before Starmer’s departure, leaving the new administration with the chance to provide clarity for local authorities and strengthen the planning systems role in delivering high‑quality, climate‑ready places.

Starmer’s government made meaningful progress on housing quality. The Renters’ Rights Bill, extension of Awab’s Law to the private rented sector, and reforms to the Decent Homes Standard will all strengthen protections for tenants. Crucially, MEES were strengthened across both private and social rented homes, aligning standards and tackling fuel poverty more consistently. The reform of the EPC system was another overdue improvement, moving toward multiple metrics and better alignment with modern policy priorities. Taken together, these reforms represent one of the most comprehensive boosts to housing quality in recent years.

For non‑domestic buildings, the long‑awaited uplift to MEES finally arrived: commercial buildings over 1,000m² must reach EPC B by 2031. After six years of delay, this announcement addressed a major uncertainty for industry and takes a significant step toward decarbonising commercial stock, but the job is not done yet. Burnham’s government should build on this progress, with in-use performance measurement and reporting, as well as measures like practical support for SME decarbonisation.

Despite welcome progress on retrofit and energy efficiency, Starmer’s government left a major gap on climate resilience. The CCC’s adaptation reports were unequivocal: the UK is not adapting fast enough, and action on resilience remains under‑resourced, under‑funded and fragmented. UKGBC’s Climate Resilience Roadmap sets out exactly what needs to change — clearer accountability, smarter investment, and integration of resilience across planning, building standards and retrofit. But national policy has yet to catch up. The Warm Homes Plan made a start with a nod to year-round comfort, but the UK still lacks a comprehensive adaptation strategy capable of protecting communities, buildings and infrastructure from escalating climate risks. This is one of the clearest opportunities for Burnham to accelerate progress.

Starmer’s government made a promising start on circular economy by commissioning a special task force, and on embodied carbon by responding to the AECOM report. However, we are yet to see the circular economy strategy, and there has been no further steps taken to regulate embodied carbon – leaving the new government with a well-defined area where further action could unlock major whole-life sustainability benefits for our sector.

For now, starmer’s legacy is a reminder that intent is not the same as action.”

The past two years have shown that high-level strategy can take shape quickly, but real-world delivery takes time. Industry is ready to invest, innovate and deliver, but only when government sets a stable course. As Burnham makes some welcome cabinet appointments and starts with promising policy interventions to address the cost of living by reducing the cost of electricity, the UKGBC policy team will be watching closely and preparing an analysis of what this new era means for our sector.

For now, Starmer’s legacy is a reminder that intent is not the same as action: his government established the right direction, made meaningful progress across many parts of the built environment, and leaves Burnham with a strong foundation to turn ambition into the tangible outcomes our homes and places urgently need.

Policy & Advocacy

Since 2007, we have been bringing together some of the most influential leaders in politics, business, local authorities, civil service and NGOs to accelerate action for a green built environment.

Learn more

Thank you to UKGBC’s policy partners for supporting our advocacy work this year.

The post High Hopes, Half Built: Starmer’s Built Environment Legacy appeared first on UKGBC.

Who Should Apply?

UKGBC forums are a membership benefit. This forum will be particularly appealing to:

• Project team – especially consultants, architects and engineers.
• Supply chain – contractors (including demolition), manufacturers, and those involved in recovery, reuse and recycling of materials
• Developers, asset owners/occupiers and facilities managers.

The post Resource Use Forum x Managing Risk appeared first on UKGBC.

In this webinar, we’ll walk you through the proposal and the key questions we’re seeking feedback on. This is your chance to help shape the future of the industry.

Who Should Attend?

This event is designed for anyone who may be interested in responding to the Regenerative Places Framework consultation, particularly those involved in housing development or retrofit. It is an opportunity for all built environment stakeholders to provide feedback. We encourage anyone with an interest in regenerative design in the built environment to join this webinar and respond to the consultation, from experienced professionals to those with a general interest.

WITH THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS

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In 2022, UKGBC launched the System Enablers for a Circular Economy report, which highlighted secondary materials markets as one of the eight key enablers to the circular economy. A secondary materials market was defined as a marketplace for materials and construction products that had a previous life and are easy to procure from. These marketplaces help overcome these barriers to material reuse:

• Limited availability of secondary materials
• Limitations on storage of secondary materials
• Difficulties in the procurement of secondary materials
• Risk being pushed onto contractors

Secondary materials marketplaces seem to fall into either physical or digital marketplaces. Physical reuse hubs provide storage, spaces for materials to be tested, certified and physically inspected, enabling wider use of reclaimed materials.Ěý Equally, digital platforms can provide key documentation or materials passports , and allow materials to be uploaded and collection time-matched between projects.

 

 

barriers to delivery and implementation, and risk, insurance and warranty, makes secondary materials more difficult to use on projects compared to new materials.”

Procuring reused materials from physical or digital marketplaces is not common practice and something that the supply chain is not used to. This means they often face barriers to scaling successfully, as often seen with innovative solutions. The Scaling Sustainable Solutions for the Built Environment: Barriers & Enablers report highlighted that these barriers are often systemic rather than technical. However, many new pilots and initiatives aim to tackle these barriers, hopefully enabling material reuse to scale and become part of business as usual.

One example is tackling the challenge of time-matching materials between projects. The in London has been bringing project teams together, looking at where timelines are complementary, enabling materials to be reclaimed from one project and used on another. During this process, the physical inspections of materials have been an important consideration to ensure they are able to be used on the recipient project.

The lack of storage for secondary materials has also been a barrier to scaling material reuse. There are a few reuse hubs across the UK, such as in Carlisle, and more are opening across the country. The is trialling a circular construction hub in the Scottish Central Lowlands region, aiming to cover several cities and rural areas. The has piloted a reuse hub specifically focused on suspended ceilings and luminaries. In London, , who use circular practices as a materials-first approach to designing and building, have been founders alongside and to open in Newham. This meanwhile-use site is planning to expand to cover more of the site over the next five years, looking at the testing and refurbishing of materials to enable them to be reused. They are looking at materials which do not already have a defined route and experimenting with packaging up materials to enable design within constraints.

Collaboration and engagement with the supply chain have consistently appeared as key enablers for delivery material reuse and trialling innovative approaches. Engagement with the design team and supply chain to communicate why this matters for the project can help ensure the material reuse is achieved. Equally, having conversations early allows for identification and mitigation of risks, enabling stakeholders to be bought into the approach. Anecdotally, talking to people to understand why processes are done one way and if they can be approached differently can lead to positive results. Engagement across the sectors is also important to enable marketplaces to scale and create space for collaboration, as demonstrated through a recent

Collaboration and engagement with the supply chain have consistently appeared as key enablers.”

The expansion of reuse hubs and platforms will help tackle part of the problem when reusing materials. However, understanding how to reclaim materials from buildings in a condition which enables them to be reused and working with the supply chain to ensure they have a route to be tested, certified and warrantied, can still be very material-dependent. It is also important to consider this when designing buildings now, to ensure they are designed for disassembly, enabling material reuse and recovery in the future.

System Enablers for a Circular Economy

A toolkit that examines the barriers to a circular economy, and presents eight key enablers…

Resource Use Technical Report

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Engaging the Supply Chain: A Practical Guide to Delivering Sustainability Outcomes

This guide is a practical starting point for anyone wishing to work with the supply chain to deliver positive transformational sustainability outcomes in the built environment.

Climate Change Mitigation Guidance

Circular Economy Implementation Packs for Products as a Service and Reuse

UKGBC has published implementation packs on reuse and Products as a Service to assist built environment projects adopt circular economy principles.

Climate Change Mitigation Resource Use Guidance

Resource Use

In the UK, construction, demolition and excavation account for 60% of material use and waste generation. Meanwhile, prices of construction materials in the UK rose by 4.9% between 2017 and 2018. Adopting circular economy principles offers a €1.8 trillion opportunity to the EU between 2015 and 2030.  Ěý

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Circular Economy

The built environment needs to move away from the linear economy and embrace circularity. This will reduce waste, carbon emissions and our impact on the natural world.

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The Resource Use forum will explore circularity and material reuse, allowing members a space to share experiences of this and discuss ways to enable more circular construction projects. The forum session will look at core themes around supply chain, value, risk, and innovative approaches.

The first session will shape the programme for the remaining five sessions, identifying priority topics to explore in depth and giving members the opportunity to become a chair for the upcoming ones.

The forum will start 1^st June and run every 6 weeks, finishing next spring. By signing up to this first session, members will be enrolling for the whole duration of the forum.

We will host three special sessions on financial value, supply chain engagement and nature. Other members will be able to join these sessions as one-offs, depending on which topic is most interesting to them. Specific dates will be announced soon.

Who Should Sign Up?

The UKGBC Resource Use Forum is open to individuals from UKGBC member organisations who have demonstrable knowledge or practical experience in resource use and circular economy principles. Participants are expected to actively contribute to discussions by sharing insights, challenges, and best practices, while also representing their organisation’s work and perspective on the topic.

This forum is open to members with an interest in resource use. It will be particularly appealing to Building Developers, Building Owners, Building Systems Engineers (M+E), Architects, Structural Engineers, Asset Managers, Insurers, Contractors, Secondary Materials providers and Project Managers.

The post Resource Use Forum appeared first on UKGBC.

Access the Report by filling out the form below:

This report is intended as a signpost for industry to key developments and reflect what ĚÇĐÄĘÓƵ hearing from industry and in research by others.Ěý While this is a summary of some of the notable trends, solutions and examples of which UKGBC has become aware, there are likely to be others that are not mentioned. UKGBC does not formally endorse any of the individual solutions listed.ĚýĚý

Solutions and Innovation

At UKGBC we take a collaborative approach to identify sustainability challenges across the built environment and help source and implement the solutions to them.

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