This month’s guest is Will Arnold. He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, head of sustainable materials at Useful Simple Trust and author of Future Build: How Construction Can Heal Our Planet.

He told NCE news editor Lee Kenny how a secondment to Rwanda in 2018 changed his understanding of sustainable construction, why the environmental impact of building materials needs greater attention and engineers can help the industry move towards regenerative design.

Arnold described how construction materials could be used more sustainably, a subject he explored in Future Build, which was published in early October.

He explained that the book was intended for a wider audience than the engineering community, particularly clients who can influence the way projects are designed.

Arnold said engineers should question project briefs rather than automatically deliver what clients initially request.

Arnold also discussed the environmental impact of construction materials, saying that as buildings become more energy efficient, embodied carbon accounts for a growing proportion of their lifetime emissions.

He said a typical home built today has an approximately 50-50 split between emissions associated with operational energy and those generated by construction, compared with around 80% from energy use for a typical home built 30 years ago.

He encouraged engineers to look beyond reducing the environmental damage caused by construction and consider how buildings could have a positive impact on the planet.

He said his research had made him more positive about the industry’s ability to change for the better.

“I’m really optimistic,” he said.

“One of the nice things about writing the book was that it gave me more hope that we can change, more hope than I had before.”