Comment

Birmingham 20 in 20: The green edition

As we near the end of our year celebrating two decades in Birmingham, Head of Sustainability, Colin Morrison considers how, over time, the industry’s response to sustainability issues has shifted from compliance to proactivity.

For my Sustainability team and I, 2020 has been one of significance for so many reasons, not least that it has now been at least seven months since I have seen my friends and colleagues in person. Of course this is a minor inconvenience compared to that suffered by others but I look forward to enjoying that team dynamic once again.

COVID aside, my colleagues in the Planning team have celebrated 20 years in Birmingham during which time they have established themselves as the principal planning consultant within Birmingham. Their list of exemplar major and high profile projects is extensive and it’s been a pleasure to work alongside them.

I have been with my Birmingham co-owners for only 10 of these 20 years and look back fondly on a hugely successful period for both Planning and my Sustainability team.

Sustainability at Turley

I was attracted to Turley for a number of reasons not least of which was our strong national presence and an ability to influence projects at the very outset of development planning.

The introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework and the ‘golden thread’ of sustainable development undoubtedly brought greater opportunities for the provision of commercially and technically focused sustainability advice, and we quickly expanded to a team of eight (shortly to be nine) working with an excellent number of core clients across the UK whom are committed to the delivery of ever more sustainable development.

During this time we also welcomed a new Head of EIA to our team, Andy Ricketts, whom has enhanced our existing strong offer and now has a team of six (shortly to be seven) delivering exciting projects for clients across the UK. They are also at the forefront of the new EIA Regulations and the Environment Bill and no doubt they will share more of their thinking in the new year.

However, it is the past two years that I look on most fondly as the issue of sustainability and climate change has leapt to the top of the political and planning agenda. The change has been dramatic and of course welcome, and arguably started when Bristol City Council became the first local authority to declare a climate emergency in November 2018. Other local authorities swiftly followed suit and at this moment in time over three-quarters of local authorities have declared a climate emergency. In conjunction with this declaration many authorities also declared a commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions ahead of the national target of 2050. Our core cites such as Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and Manchester are adopting similar planning policy frameworks to that in Greater London and this is resulting in real focus and action.

Unsurprisingly, our work has grown even faster during this time. Some of our (and our clients') achievements are:

• We are supporting over 20 million square feet of logistics development across the UK as the industry demonstrates climate leadership and fully embraces the net zero opportunity.  
• We are designing and creating a new tranche of sustainable, low carbon and climate resilient new communities totalling some 35,000 new dwellings.
• At this time we are developing (or have implemented) strategies in place to remove over 1.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions from the environment.

At a regional level it is fantastic to see organisations such as the West Midlands Combined Authority launch an ambitious programme of environmental leadership following their declaration of a climate emergency. I fully support their ambitions but particularly their aim of kick-starting a green revolution in the West Midlands to drive sustainable economic growth. There are clearly huge economic opportunities for the region as a result of the transition to a net zero economy. With the right planning and public / private partnerships, we can utilise our globally significant engineering, research and manufacturing infrastructure to generate green jobs to spearhead inclusive growth.

The scale of opportunity

As an example of the scale of opportunity for the private sector, the recently released National Infrastructure Strategy  confirms that every year approximately 1.7 million new building heating systems are installed and by 2030 these must be ‘net zero ready’, which means either heat pumps or hydrogen. We could add electric vehicle charging points to this along with battery technology, renewable energy systems, hydrogen infrastructure etc. The midlands has the opportunity to future proof its economy for decades to come.

So as I mark my ten years at Turley I am hugely optimistic for the future as more and more clients develop their Environmental, Social Governance strategies to embrace the opportunities from a net zero economy. The shift from compliance to proactivity and leadership has been quite extraordinary.

If we can achieve so much in Birmingham out of one office and a highly motivated team then who knows what we can achieve in another ten years.

For more information on sustainability issues please contact Colin Morrison.

18 December 2020