While I was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) between 2017-19, the Institute declared a climate emergency and we began the process of equipping the profession with appropriate tools to help them deliver our contribution to the essentially collaborative effort of de-carbonising the development industry. We published guidance in the form of a sustainable outcomes guide, plan for use guide, updated plan of work and a framework called the 2030 Climate Challenge supplemented with advice on how to introduce this to clients.

Most architects are pretty environmentally conscious and I believe most housing developers and businesses are too. But it has been slow going so far. More than  340 architectural practices had signed up to RIBA’s 2030 Climate Challenge by the end of last year.