The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the globally agreed method to address sustainable development by 2030. But how do these relate to emerging regenerative development aims?

Adrian is exploring this with friends at [Y]our2040 to understand what a set of Regenerative Development Goals (RDGs) might look like, and how they could be used to accelerate change.

changebuilding was shortlisted as part of The Positive Collective for the UN Habitat sponsored Climate Smart Cities Challenge competition for new business models to help Bristol deliver affordable net zero carbon homes.

Rather than present yet another short term technical fix to a really complex problem, he teamed up with Igloo Regeneration, Bristol Community Land Trust and We Can Make to develop civicXchange: a hyper-local systems approach to reset the financial and technical basis for housing design and delivery that works with and for local communities.

Adrian developed the bespoke framework and targets to suit The Gallery’s strategic plan and help them on their path towards net zero carbon.

He has worked to help inform the business case and inform the technical solutions developed by the design team across key environmental sustainability themes.

The project is an important investigation into how to improve the performance of listed heritage assets and de-risk future climate impacts.

You can find out more about the project and other strategic sustainability work here.

Adrian is a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor of sustainable development and climate impact at The University of Southampton. He is helping The Engineering School integrate sustainable and regenerative development into the engineering curriculum.

The accompanying essay to his inaugural lecture will be available soon setting out some ideas on how to respond to the shock of the awareness of humans as agents of The Anthropocene.

It has been a long process, but Charlton WorkStack in Greenwich is finally nearing completion.

This light industrial cross laminated timber (CLT) building addresses a number of the critical issues facing the industry in adopting bio-based materials to lower embodied carbon impacts such as fire safety, durability and robustness.

Adrian consults back to his old mates at Arup to help realise the project he started back in 2015 with his other old friends at dRMM Architects and helping new friends at Parkinsons with delivery.

Adrian has been working for Laing O’Rourke Construction to help them understand and develop approaches to rapidly decarbonise projects delivery.

He helps identify both goals and methods and helps assess their impacts on cost and programme that are still used by many as key indicators of supply chain added value.

Through multiple projects engagements across both building and infrastructure he has helped develop understanding, broader competence in carbon, and innovative methods to help meet their clients’ own ambitious decarbonisation agenda.

A new joint paper with Dr Robrt Hairstans of Napier University and Giuilia Jones of MACE in September’s issues of The Structural Engineer on how Offsite Manufacturing (OSM) might be refocused to address issues of the climate crisis.

It’s free to download from the link below.

Adrian co-authored this paper for The Structural Engineer futures edition in January 2020 with Matt Cooper of Arup and Andrew Waugh of Waugh Thistleton Architects.

The paper explains different approaches to offsite construction and why climate change has to become a much more central issue in approaches not just productivity.