Yesterday, three representatives from Kier Construction visited the Green Skills Lab at Bromley Campus to speak to students about sustainability in the construction industry.
Over 20 students, all enrolled in STEM courses, heard how Nahid Haque, Sam Benmansour, and Onyx Hamilton from Kier came to work in the field of sustainable construction, summarising their career histories to date.
Providing an overview of the impact of the built environment on overall global carbon emissions, they shared the strategies that Kier are taking to repurpose current buildings, and create new buildings, which operate more efficiently in order to reduce the negative impact on the environment.
Students participated in a number of interactive activities to evaluate their current knowledge of sustainability in construction, and fed back ideas for making buildings more sustainable, both during construction and throughout their operational lifetime. A variety of measures were suggested by students including solar panels, modular construction, timber frame buildings, and rainwater harvesting.
Sam Benmansour, Senior Environmental Advisor at Kier Construction, said: "The construction industry has the most work, but also the biggest opportunity, to reduce carbon emissions. It is really important to educate young people going into this industry that we all must get involved in this effort to secure a sustainable future."
Nahid Haque, also a Senior Environmental Advisor at Kier Construction, added: "The students we've been speaking to today are the construction experts of tomorrow. They will be the ones carrying on the legacy that people like us are trying to create."