On International Women’s Day, CITB is calling on construction professionals to follow the lead of 2013 Women in Construction Green Leadership Award winner Isabel McAllister, and gain the right skills to succeed in low carbon construction.
Ms McAllister, Sustainability Director at Mace, has herself taken advantage of CITB training and qualifications in the past, and underlines the role environmental efficiency has to play in construction.
Ms McAllister commented: “While many things about the future of low carbon in the UK are unclear, it’s obvious that environmental performance will remain very high on our industry’s agenda for the foreseeable future. It’s important that construction businesses of all sizes possess not only the technical skills to carry out low carbon work, but also the facilitation skills to manage the links between cost, client demand and programme targets.”
Tony Howard, Head of New Business Development at CITB said: “Isabel is a great example to construction professionals that want to become leaders in sustainability. CITB-ConstructionSkills’ Cut the Carbon campaign supports any firm or individual that wants to gain the low carbon skills and training they need to profit from the UK’s green future.”
Ms McAllister continues: “Construction and property have the biggest environmental impact of any industry in the UK; we can make the biggest difference to overall environmental performance targets. The demand is also there from clients and end users. An increasing number require sustainability measures as standard, so firms that don’t have the right skills and training will miss out on this work.”
Isabel became Sustainability Director at Mace in February 2012. She won the Green Leadership Award in February 2013 for her work leading the development of Mace’s global sustainability strategy and introducing a programme of sustainability training and awareness courses.
The Cut the Carbon web portal - at www.cskills.org/cutcarbon - provides up-to-date information on legislation and regulation, as well as details of training courses available and updates on low carbon news.
The National Construction College runs a number of low carbon specific courses including courses on insulation and building treatments, Low Carbon Retrofit and the new Green Deal Customer Service Plus course.
More details on the National Construction College and the courses it offers can be found at www.cskills.org/supportbusiness/courses.