Meet two young people in the Construction industry, Shane Orme and Serena Gugliotta of WSP. Pete the Builder spoke to both about the goal of net zero and the importance of collaboration in order to achieve it.

Shane Orme is the net zero lead for building services at WSP and Serena Gugliotta is a net zero change maker and Façade Engineer at WSP.

Shane is very motivated and believes that in order to meet 2030 and 2050 carbon targets, all new buildings have to be designed to be net zero and he is making it his mission to achieve this.

Shane is an engineering specialist who worked predominately on techno-economic feasibility studies for low carbon district heat networks.

It’s been a collaborative process from the beginning really. I mean, that’s almost kind of the whole point.

Each of us were developing our own individual kind of carbon assessment tools to try and figure out this the carbon footprint of our designs and advice..it just made so much sense to bring all of that knowledge together.

Serena believes that even small changes can result in huge differences. Working closely with Shane and other net zero leads, she propels net zero actions within her team and also to wider disciplines.

Working together they developed a parametric design tool called Daisy. This tool combines artificial intelligence, sustainability and digital.

Serena’s commitment starts from facades, she aims to address carbon emissions via sustainable design choices. Façades are responsible for controlling and mitigating the operational carbon during the building lifetime, hence she believes that a conscious design in the early stages of projects is key to tackle the challenges of today and meet the needs for the future.

But I think that the biggest point here is that we as consultants, we can do more than just advising. We can really push for a circular economy and all these concepts that we’re discussing today.

Because it’s a really collaborative approach, the one we have to push forward. And so we’re doing our best to work together.