Exclusive | Lower Thames Crossing boss Matt Palmer to use new CLC role to urge for swift action on emissions reduction

Palmer is one of four sponsors announced today by the CLC to lead delivery of its long-term priorities set last autumn - building safety; people and skills; net zero and biodiversity; and next generation delivery.

He told NCE his focus in his new CLC role will be on engaging with construction industry leaders to ensure actionable outcomes. He would be using workshops, round-tables and “all forms of engagement” to drive his message, he said.

“The top line priority for me is about challenging construction leadership to make [net zero] the centre of their agenda and to ensure it is not a peripheral activity done by the sustainability director. This needs to be front and centre for every contractor,” he added.

Palmer has a proven track record delivering low carbon outcomes. He told NCE that incentivising contractors on the first phase of LTC resulted in a 30% emissions reduction - followed by a further 50% at a later stage.

National Highways is aiming for LTC to be the “greenest road ever built in the UK” and be a carbon reduction pathfinder project. It has committed to be zero carbon in operations from 2030 and zero carbon maintenance by 2040.

Palmer’s role at CLC would be “symbiotic” with his LTC role, he said.

He added: ”What we're doing on LTC is the reason why I've been asked to do this for the CLC. It comes from a deep-rooted passion that we can make this industry low carbon.

“CLC isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel here. This is about signposting, encouraging and chasing. There's enough thinking out there for everyone on net zero construction, so this is about movement as opposed to doing another study.

“We need to move net zero from a theoretical technical piece, to where CEOs in the construction industry see it's part of their core leadership. It's like safety used to be; once we used to have a safety expert ‘over there’ and it's now become the core part of our business.

“As an industry we've got to recognise that we need to get on and do this and it needs to be CEOs talking about it, MPs talking about it and everyone doing it."

Palmer stressed the urgency of action: “We’re running out of time.

“In the UK from a construction industry perspective we've got the sixth carbon budget [2033 to 2037] and it's only 10 years away. We are a high carbon industry, so if we don’t change, we won't be building anything.”

Part of his role will be to amplify the CLC’s Construct Zero initiative “into the corridors of power” through a joined-up approach, he told NCE.

“There's a lot of going on in this space. It's not joined up and clients need to come together, but so do the contractors need to come together as a response. The whole industry needs to get more aligned. There's no need for more data or more thinking about how to do it. It's about just getting on with it.”

He added that he would be encouraging construction leaders to think about performance in new ways.

“I was hoping Covid-19 would break that relationship between the past and the future,” he said, adding however that the tendency to revert to old models persisted. “What we've got to do is make people understand that your performance going forward is not going to be related to how you were doing it last year.

“One of the most polluting aspects of construction is the carbon in concrete. We don't really factor it into our thinking. We price it into our planning and continue do the same for next year.”

He said he would also be focusing on the potential of low carbon equipment, citing UK machinery manufacturer JCB’s recent hydrogen-powered releases. Ensuring that decision makers were phasing low carbon equipment into their investment plans would be a plank of his agenda.

He added that it was important to note that his new CLC role also entailed protecting biodiversity. He said while biodiversity lagged behind carbon reduction in people’s minds it was of critical importance and closely linked with carbon reduction.

In addition to Palmer’s appointment, the CLC’s other three industry sponsors announced today are Karl Whiteman, divisional managing director, Berkeley Group overseeing building safety; Nick Roberts, CEO of Travis Perkins, overseeing people and skills; and Isabel Coman, director, engineering and asset strategy, Transport for London who will focus on next generation delivery.

CLC has also appointed five young ambassadors to promote young professionals in the council’s work.

Meanwhile among the new appointments are four industry chairs who will lead its infrastructure, domestic, housing and buildings and places sector workstreams.

They are Mark Thurston, CEO, High Speed 2 Ltd (infrastructure); Anna Scothern, CEO, National Home Improvement Council (domestic); Mike Woolliscroft, Vistry (housing); Helen Hare, director of projects, Great Portland Estates Plc (buildings and places).

CLC co-chair and Mace Group chair and CEO Mark Reynolds and CLC deputy co-chair and CEO of Atkins UK and Europe Richard Robinson said in a statement that the appointments represented “a significant milestone as we look to accelerate the change needed to address the building safety changes, help deliver a green economy, drive productivity, and enhance our skills to achieve growth across UK construction".

“We welcome our industry chairs and young ambassadors and now look forward to working with our industry sponsors whose experience and expertise will be invaluable to the CLC and its wider network,” they said.

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