The UK’s construction industry: delivering a better and more sustainable future for all
Mike Kagioglou, the new President of the Chartered Institute of Building, has chosen the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as the theme for his year in post
Throughout his distinguished academic career Mike Kagioglou has been passionate about bridging the gap between industry and academia.
“I’ve never seen myself as a traditional academic,” says Professor Kagioglou, who is Pro Vice-Chancellor Research and Business Innovation at De Montfort University (DMU) in Leicester.
“There’s this perception of academics locking themselves in a dark room, furiously typing up reports and then nothing happening as a consequence, but I’ve always developed research and worked with industry, NGOs and stakeholders to make change through evidence-based work.”
Professor Kagioglou recently took up his role as the new President of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), the world’s largest professional body for construction management and leadership, with 50,000 members in more than 100 countries.
As well as strengthening the links between the construction sector and academia, he plans to use his platform to drive greater focus in the industry on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He has chosen the SDGs as his theme for the year and believes the construction sector needs to focus on targets like building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and fostering innovation.
Adopted by all United Nations members in 2015, the SDGs aim to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. The goals address the global challenges the world faces, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.
“The SDGs are about sustainability in the broader sense,” says Professor Kagioglou. “They are about the quality of our lives, access to justice, economic growth and productive employment.
“They also provide a framework that can help the construction industry become more innovative and sustainable. They are relevant to all the major issues construction is facing.”
He says that all 17 SDGs have continuing relevance for the construction industry but he is particularly interested in goals 9, 11, 13, 14 and 15 – those that highlight climate change, conservation and biodiversity as well as developing sustainable cities and communities, building resilient infrastructure, promoting sustainable industrialisation and fostering innovation.
“Sustainability is such a critical part of society,” he says. “It’s of existential importance to us. But I think sometimes the notions of sustainability and development have been considered as mutually exclusive, which is bizarre.
“The SDGs enable us to bring the two things together – so it’s about development, but it’s about sustainable development. That’s why I chose the theme – because it’s important to change the narrative and the dialogue around not just sustainability in terms of climate and biodiversity but also about development.”
The CIOB is in the process of establishing a task force of large construction companies – “key players in the industry at a senior level” – who are interested in starting a conversation about “meaningful change in the sector” and in mapping their organisations’ performance against the SDGs.
There will undoubtedly be challenges in achieving the SDGs, particularly around cost and the fragmented nature of the construction industry, which has many tiers of companies operating within it. However, Professor Kagioglou is keen for the sector to move away from the age-old narrative that if something is sustainable it must be expensive.
“The degree to which you can ensure that the supply chains as a whole are addressing these issues is challenging – as well as the fact that a lot of the companies are very small,” he says. “I guess what I am looking for is for some of the larger organisations, the Tier 1 companies and the Construction Clients’ Group in particular, to be the driving force behind some of that change.”
Professor Kagioglou believes that the higher education sector has led the way in demonstrating a commitment to the SDGs and would like to see the construction industry follow suit.
“Around 2,000 universities have adopted the SDGs and every year they take part in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, global performance tables that assess universities’ performance against the SDGs,” he says.
“What would it look like if we as a sector adopted this, if we had construction companies and other groups taking part and demonstrating their commitment to the SDGs?”
Prior to joining De Montfort University, Professor Kagioglou was Dean of Engineering, Design and Built Environment and Pro Vice-Chancellor, Global Development (UK &EU) at Western Sydney University in Australia, which has taken the top spot in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings for three years in a row.
Meanwhile De Montfort, his current university, is the only higher education institution in the country to be a global hub for SDG 16, which is about promoting peaceful and inclusive societies, providing access to justice for all and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
Professor Kagioglou has also called on the new Government to help the construction sector to achieve its goals and drive improvements forward.
“If I’ve got my stats right we’ve had 15 housing ministers and 16 construction ministers in the last 10 years so I think the first thing the Government can do is to have consistent leadership and stewardship for the sector,” he says. “The sector can then feel confident that our priorities are going to stay in the long term.”
Other significant issues that he believes the Government can help with include the skills agenda (particularly ensuring that the sector has the skills, resources and support to ensure that construction work is delivered to a high standard of quality and safety), the reform of the apprenticeship levy and the green skills strategy. “How are these things going to start really moving forward?” he says.
Professor Kagioglou wants to hear more about the Government’s ambitions to improve the UK’s built environment through driving housebuilding. The Government has pledged to build 1.5 million more homes in the next five years but he points out that “what we have at the moment is a target. What we don’t have is a policy and the whole kind of implementation plan around that”.
Another area that he would like the CIOB to work with the Government on is a refurbishment and retrofit strategy. With the growing focus on energy efficiency and environmental conservation, retrofitting is regarded as a significant solution for improving the sustainability and functionality of existing buildings.
“We can do the best we can in terms of the new infrastructure we create but we all know that a building will be repurposed 10 or 20 times in its life cycle,” he says. “So it is really important that we put more effort into a national strategy around retrofit.”
Professor Kagioglou began his career as an integrated systems engineer – he’s still proud of the first transformer box he created as a young undergraduate at Manchester Metropolitan University. He went on to specialise in advanced manufacturing and new product development, exploring new ways of designing, delivering and optimising successful projects.
He has worked in a variety of different sectors, including nuclear, steel, telecoms, construction and health, but has always focused on “benefits realisation” and the importance of “delivering good outcomes for society and businesses”.
“I’ve done quite a bit of work with the Department of Health and the estates and facilities group around new hospitals and new development. One thing that became evident through all the work is that we’re very good at putting infrastructure in place but we’re very poor at assessing the benefits that we have delivered as a result of that infrastructure.
“Coming back to the SDGs, perhaps that’s something that could happen a few years down the line – assessing the benefits to see the difference that our work around the SDGs has made.”
As he begins his term as President of the CIOB, Professor Kagioglou is looking forward to focusing on his key priorities.
“It’s such a privilege,” he says. “I’ve been a fellow of the CIOB for many years and it’s an organisation I’ve worked with in a number of capacities so I can’t overestimate how humbled I feel at becoming the President. I’m dead chuffed really. I can’t wait to get on with it.”
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