Episode 48: A Look At The Highlights Of 2022

As some of our loyal listeners know, 2022 was the very first full year of Constructive Voices. And what a year it was!

From Ireland to Australia, and from Brighton Beach to the United States of America, 2022 has been an amazing year thanks to the magnitude and diversity of our global guests.

We have explored some big topics, such as climate change and sustainability, and how they relate to the built environment. With our expert guests, we have endeavoured to talk about the solutions and challenges to Net Zero and its related topics. While these have been huge discussion points for many years, the team at Constructive Voices and our collaborators, have been investigating these subjects in the arena of the built environment.

Listen here:

We finished our first few months of existence of 2021 with an event that looked at the roadmap post COP26 with Victoria Kate Burrows, Director of Advancing Net Zero of the World Green Building Council. Along with a panel of distinguished guests.

Little did any of us know that in the early part of 2022, that Russia would invade Ukraine, resulting in a war that has also changed the playing field when it comes to energy, in a number of countries. Depending on your perspective, this might have hindered the journey towards Net Zero or encouraged it to be accelerated. Not long before that, in the second episode of the year, we spoke to Gilbert Lennox King about how to measure and offset embodied carbon – a topic of huge relevance to all involved in the built environment.

For our special for International Women’s Day, we featured a small selection of leading lights, such as Farah Naz:

I think it starts from home. And it starts from very early age, high school is too late, we really as an industry should start going to primary and middle schools to actually having those conversations with the young children. I also think that our school system, our teachers also need support in having those conversations with their students. I strongly feel that as an industry, where we are working as architects, engineers, urban planners, we also have a role to play to support our teachers and our schools, to go and spend that time and really speak to them about the leadership that they can play. Especially, we are in the middle of a climate emergency. And all these professions have a very important role to play.

Undoubtedly one of the big highlights of the year was FOOTPRINT+ which was our first live event as a media partner, in Brighton, UK.

It is hard to imagine meeting a more positive group of people who wish so much to align their expertise and collaborate on the road to Net Zero. We spoke to many of these industry leaders live at the event and brought a number of insightful episodes to you after it.

But the reality is that we have had so many defining moments during 2022.

It doesn’t do the year justice to try to write about them here and we can’t pack everything into one episode. But we have one our best to give you a flavour!!

While climate change is central to our focus, we are also very aware of mental health 

There’s a silence issue with mental health, and particularly the stigma that comes with it, particularly in the construction industry, mainly because people aren’t open about this, speaking about mental health traditionally has been very much a trade as weakness.

With the help of an amazing man, Richard, we produced an Addiction Special, which the experts feel has the potential to save lives. Be sure not to miss the Addiction Special.

After COP27 we had an insightful panel session to look at the roadmap ahead for the built environment.

Plus there are so many more nuggets that you need to discover by listening to this punchy, 32 minute 2022 End of Year Special.

PS: Did you know about the Rats and Other Disasters in the Palace of Westminster