The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has 36 founder members including Barratt Homes, Kingspan, Wilmott Dixon, Sir Robert McAlpine, Arup, Schroders, HBOS and Hanson plc. Each has committed £30,000 to fund the organisation for its first two years.
At the launch, chairman Peter Rogers of Stanhope plc, said the only way to achieve a “sustainable built environment” was for the “highly fragmented construction industry to unite around core goals”.
“We have the expertise and technology in the UK to become world leading in sustainable development and we must now rapidly achieve this,” he said.
“We need nothing less than a radical transformation in the way we approach the creation of a sustainable built environment.”
Among the organisation’s objectives are: to provide leadership to the UK green building movement; ensure sustainability is “built-in”; transform the market for genuinely sustainable products; provide a pan-industry voice to government; and facilitate research and innovation.
In its first year it aims to appoint a chief executive, provide a forum for the development of “sustainability assessment tools” and create a “sustainability knowledge bank”.
Kingspan Insulation marketing director John Garbutt said the UKGBC would welcome timber sector members.
For further details visit www.ukgbc.org.
