…in providing client-focused sustainability advice across the public and private sectors, Richard has added value to large and small projects in fields such as the corporate, education, health and industrial arenas.

Our specialists have unsurpassed expertise in all aspects of managing carbon emissions from new or existing buildings. Their contribution to new projects regularly allows clients – such as architects, developers and investors – to reduce emissions dramatically, often to net zero, and save significant sums of money, in respects such as material costs, between stages such as detailed design and practical completion, for example. Our work can also help protect or enhance the market value of clients’ developments and ensure they comply with ever-tightening law and regulation.

Reacting to his appointment, Richard said: “I’m delighted to be joining Green Box Thinking for a number of reasons. The most important is decarbonisation, which couldn’t be a more vital or urgent quest for humanity overall, as the recent horrific wildfires in Hawaii, USA, and British Columbia, Canada, for example, demonstrate.

“But, more than that, the built environment is easily the biggest source of carbon emissions, both in the UK and worldwide. The construction industry has therefore, in my view, been crying out for an organisation like Green Box Thinking, which offers a unique combination of experts steeped in the sector’s highly specialist circumstances and top-quality client service.

“I firmly believe the key to ensuring low or no emission outcomes is establishing clear carbon strategies at the start of design processes, that provide clear direction to design and construction teams. I know Green Box Thinking shares this philosophy, so I’m relishing the prospect of helping its clients benefit from this enlightened approach.”

The built environment supplies almost 40 per cent of all worldwide carbon emissions, through a combination of embodied and operational discharges. Embodied emissions are those locked-in during the construction process, through the use of materials such as concrete or cement, and comprise about 11 per cent of global outflows. The operational type are those generated during buildings’ day-to-day running – through features such as heating, lighting or air conditioning systems – and account for around 28 per cent of worldwide discharges.

…after a multi-disciplinary course covering topics such as pollution science, environmental management, biodiversity and ecological appraisal, in 1997. He was awarded a master’s degree by the University of Nottingham, in environmental law and science, three years later.

…with a year-long stint performing noise surveys and workplace air monitoring with Caerphilly-based environmental service company National Britannia. He later spent two years as a contaminated land consultant with QDS Environmental, a Guildford-based soil and water remediation specialist.

Richard was then with the Environment Agency for five years, in roles including environment officer and water resources officer.

Following this, he became an environmental sustainability consultant for three years with Blue Sky Environmental, a consultancy based in north-west England, undertaking assessments of the built environment through tools such as those developed for the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method.

Richard was subsequently a senior consultant, delivering sustainability advice, with the UK arm of global property and construction consultancy Gleeds for six-and-a-half years.

He then became a senior sustainability consultant with two Leeds-based employers, before joining Legal & General Modular Homes: leading building physics engineering consultancy Yonder, where he spent almost two years, and construction industry sustainability consultants GWP Project Services, where he worked for 14 months.

Yonder’s experts improve aspects of non-domestic constructions’ internal and external performances, compared to their base concepts or previous results, in aspects such as environmental-friendliness, thermal comfort and power consumption.

…in developing and delivering our services relating to carbon emissions. He’ll have a particularly pivotal responsibility for advising clients on the setting of demanding but achievable targets and verifying their evaluation procedures.

He explained: “Our targeting service helps clients plot paths to net zero emissions. We operate at the levels of their overall businesses or particular buildings and developments.

“We bring to the targeting table our extensive understanding of current regulations, guidance and best practice, plus lengthy sector experience and widespread knowledge of the results that have been achieved by other organisations or at previous developments.

“Competitors who lack our knowledge or insights can only set targets based on industry standards and benchmark figures, which tend to be less demanding. They’re therefore not as effective in reducing emissions and thus in interesting investors or occupants and maximising a building’s value.”