Navigating an Evolving Sustainable Built Environment - by Rachel Waggett & Mei Ren (Paperback)

About the Book

Navigating an Evolving Sustainable Built Environment is a practical overview of sustainability practice in the built environment, and a guide to major developments, current practice and future opportunities. It is suitable for a broad audience, including engineers, architects sustainability consultants and clients

Book Synopsis

Navigating an Evolving Sustainable Built Environment: Delivering Net Zero Carbon and Climate Resilience aims to provide an overview of sustainability practice in the built environment, drawing together the interrelated strands of sustainability policy and practice with reflections on past, current and future opportunities for practitioners. The book aims to empower and inspire readers to begin or strengthen their integration of purposeful sustainability into all aspects of their work. Framework thinking is introduced where the book seeks to inspire readers to begin or continue to develop their own path to purposeful integration of sustainability in their practice.

In this book, the authors assess evolution of the definitions of sustainability goals and matrices of measuring sustainability approaches in the built environment, and use a range of international leading examples across five continents of different scales to illustrate their implementations with details from the viewpoints of developers, designers and end users where possible, identifying their transformative impact. Three transformation capacities are used: Vision and Technology advancement, leading in Action and Governance to showcase each case study's impact on sustainability transformation.

It provides an assessment of the emerging trends including climate adaptation, health and wellbeing, design for performance, net zero and circular economy and tools and processes that aim to accelerate the changes towards the end goals of sustainability. What does the future hold for us? The authors attempt to provide a synopsis of gazing to the future exploring the twin major forces of change, climate and AI and their impact on future living, future energy and indeed our humanity at end of this century. This book aims to show how we have got to this place in our journey and how we can begin to take the next steps with optimism and purpose.

About the Author

Rachel Waggett is a Chartered Environmentalist and sustainability leader with a career spanning research, consultancy and the public sector. Beginning in environmental building services research, she moved into consultancy, working with both small and major firms to deliver innovative, practical sustainability solutions across diverse project scales. Her expertise bridges strategic policy-making and hands-on implementation, with a portfolio including advisory roles on both design and client sides. A long-standing BREEAM assessor, Rachel contributed to the development and piloting of schemes including BREEAM Infrastructure, helping shape the future of sustainable built environments. As Lead Officer for Environment at the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Rachel works with stakeholders, partners, and peer authorities to accelerate sustainability action across the region. She is also closely involved in community energy initiatives in her local area, reflecting her commitment to grassroots climate action.

Mei Ren has worked for a number of international engineering consultancies. She has over 25 years of experience in the construction and built environment industry, with particular interest in developing and implementing practical solutions of sustainability and climate resilience strategies and design approaches for the built environment and infrastructure. Mei started her career as a researcher at the UK's Building Research Establishment before undertaking a PhD study on building physics. She is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE). She has led a range of major projects across many sectors. She was awarded the inaugural NCE/ICE's Sustainability Champion of the Year in 2014 and was appointed a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in Environmental Sustainability at the University of Manchester in 2015-2018. She is currently a Partner at Buro Happold.