SURVEYORS DECLARE THE SURVEYORS DECLARE INITIATIVE AIMS TO GET ALL SECTORS OF THE INDUSTRY ON THE PATH TO A TRANSFORMED INDUSTRY THAT IS MORE IN HARMONY WITH THE NATURAL WORLD AND A DECARBONISED BUILT ENVIRONMENT.
“
I
“WE ARE THE FIRST GENERATION TO FEEL THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, AND THE LAST GENERATION TO BE ABLE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.” – BARACK OBAMA
reland already had a binding 20%
infectious diseases. We need to halve our
For everyone working in construction and
target for greenhouse gas emissions
carbon emissions by 2030 if we are to have any
the built environment, meeting the needs of
reduction by 2020, but performed very
chance of averting dangerous climate change,
our
an absolutely huge challenge.
Earth’s ecological boundaries will demand a
poorly in attempting to achieve it. In 2018, then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said we were “climate
societies
without
breaching
the
paradigm shift in our behaviour, at work,
laggards”, and we haven’t exactly outshone
Decade of change
at home, everywhere we go and with everything
ourselves in doing better since.
This has to be the decade of change.
we do. If we are to reduce, and eventually
The World Economic Forum lists climate action
We literally have no choice! We have just under
reverse, the environmental damage we are
failure as the current number one global risk
a decade to address this global climate change
causing, we will need to reimagine our
in terms of impact, and number two global risk
emergency, or we risk catastrophic irreversible
buildings,
in terms of likelihood in the next 10 years
damage to the natural world. Without nature,
indivisible components of a larger, constantly
(extreme weather being number one). Climate
we cannot live.
regenerating and self-sustaining system.
action failure trumps everything else, including
Yet as the Earth’s life support systems come
Respecting Mother Nature must be at the
under increasing threat, the scale and intensity
centre of this. Biodiversity underpins our
FEATURE
of urban development, infrastructure and
economy, health and well-being, and plays a
construction globally continue to expand,
key role in the functioning of ecosystems, their
Eloise Heron Chair, SCSI Sustainability Group
resulting
resilience and their continuing ability to provide
28
SURVEYORS JOURNAL Volume 11, Issue 1, Spring 2021
in
greater
greenhouse
generation and loss of habitat each year.
gas
cities
ecosystem services.
and
infrastructure
as
