How CISL alumni are transforming the built environment

Built Environment

29 May 2024 -  As part of our focus this month on the built environment, Network Manager Jennifer Greggs explores how CISL alumni are shaping a sustainable future for the sector 

Leadership for transformation is needed across all parts of the economy – and above all in the built environment.  The sector’s scope encompasses the operation, maintenance and construction of our buildings, towns and cities.  Together, these impose huge pressures on natural resources.  The volume of raw materials used for building is rising sharply.  The built environment also ranks among the biggest greenhouses gas-emitting sectors.  As global urbanisation accelerates, the sector’s impacts on the environment are projected to increase further.   

At the same time, opportunities abound for the built environment to exemplify the new sustainable economy. 60% of the buildings that will exist by 2050 have not yet been built, meaning that architects, engineers and construction professionals have huge scope to shape a climate-positive and regenerative future built environment.   

Leadership stories 

Many CISL alumni are active in the built environment sector, working to turn a linear system circular, to eliminate waste, and to regenerate nature.  We spoke to two alumni who are leading the way: Joyanne Manning and Jennifer Breault. 

Joyanne Manning – Resources Business Leader 

Joyanne has wide-ranging experience of successfully delivering programs and projects across a range of civil infrastructure and the built environment.   A Fellow of CISL’s Shaping a Sustainable Future Executive Education programme for Arup, she is a passionate advocate for circular economy approaches and dedicated to achieving systemic change in her sector.   

“A lot of people say our system isn’t broken because a linear economy has been really effective.  It has delivered economic prosperity and human wellbeing.  But it is broken because it’s come at a huge cost to our environment and our planet.  We have a finite planet and an ever-increasing demand on the ever-decreasing pool of finite resources.”   

This is evidenced the built environment’s demands on materials:  In 2022, we globally consumed 100 billion tonnes of materials. The real estate and infrastructure sectors used about half of these - and wasted up to 60%.     

Joyanne insists that we need to think differently about waste: “Waste is a resource – and that is at the centre of what we do at Arup.”  

Instead of treating waste as something to be discarded, we must move to a circular system in which waste simply does not exist: “We need to transform our economy from being linear to being circular, where we keep everything in circulation at its highest value.”  As well as addressing environmental concerns, this is an enabler for the built environment to manage costs – a pressing concern at a time when inflationary trends have sharply driven up the cost of materials. 

Transformation of the built environment needs more than new practices and technologies.  It requires leadership.  “My form of leadership is very much inclusive leadership, or even servitude leadership,” says Joyanne, recognising the need to collaborate broadly to achieve system transformation.  “To lead in this space and to advocate for change is something I feel very privileged about.” 

Jennifer - Senior Architect and Sustainability Change Agent 

A Senior Architect at SSOE and a tutor on CISL’s Sustainable Real Estate programme, Jennifer describes herself as an unapologetic advocate for sustainable, regenerative design within the real estate sector.   

Aware that the mandate for the built environment extends beyond decarbonisation, Jennifer actively seeks opportunities for truly regenerative design. “That is really about how we’re supporting the biodiversity of the regions where we’re building,” she explains.  Jennifer believes that the built environment can become an example for a new kind of economy that doesn’t seek only to limit environmental harm, but that goes further by restoring nature. “My vision is about focusing on positive actions rather than simply trying to mitigate negative actions.”   The built environment can be reconfigured so that it respects and protects biodiversity. Some construction and development projects already incorporate habitat creation – and there is potential for this to become a new normal in the sector. 

Like Joyanne, Jennifer emphasises the need for leadership in the sector. That leadership can come from everyone working in the built environment, not only those in senior positions. “We need leadership within all levels of our organisations, and that means from our executive management teams to the project management teams, through to our new hires, whose voices are really being heard louder than ever.”  

Reflecting on the difference she wants to make, Jennifer’s sets out a powerful vision of a positive future built environment: “I really want my impact story to be that I contributed in a meaningful way to build inclusive, equitable communities and also respect and protect the biodiversity of our planet.” 

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