The future(s) of construction: a sustainable built environment for now and the future

The global construction industry creates high-profile structures and critical infrastructure systems, yet is frequently rebuked for its frequent poor performance and lack of forward thinking and future planning. Looking to the future, the industry is likely to be driven by a combination of evolving national and international policy on sustainability, the legacy of the local and global economic problems and the increasing pace of technological innovation. In the longer term, a more complicated and inter-related collection of drivers is at play, including demographic shifts, policy and societal evolutions, energy and water security, as well as sustainability pressures such as the changing climate and its effect on the resilience of our critical infrastructures. A more futures-orientated and inter-connected approach to global construction, projects and practices, is therefore required in order to create a truly sustainable industry, and hence planet, for all. Only by planning ahead for the longer term, and working together at a local and global level, can the global construction industry hope to move forwards collectively to creating a truly sustainable and resilient built environment, fit for purpose, fit for now, but also fit for the long term.