Leading construction sector carbon management specialist appoints experienced sustainability advisor to senior role

One of the construction industry’s leading environmental experts has said reports the government may dilute its green agenda substantially make it even more important that the sector decarbonises.

Rob Gill, managing director of specialist building industry carbon management consultancy Green Box Thinking was reacting to widespread speculation in recent days that the government may try to create a clear dividing line between itself and the opposition political parties by backtracking significantly on its environmental plans, including steps aimed at the UK achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Green Box Thinking also counsels on and actions the purchase of appropriate carbon credits. These can be used to balance and offset any remaining emissions after all possible design measures, such as using environmentally friendly building materials or managing on-site operations astutely, have been implemented. This is because the credits are effectively investments in projects proven to deliver environmental benefits.

The involvement of Green Box Thinking in construction projects regularly allows clients to reduce emissions dramatically, often to their targets of net zero, and save significant sums of money, through material costs being reduced between the detailed design and practical completion stages, for example.

Reacting to his appointment, Mr Tucker 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.”

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 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.

Mr Tucker graduated at the University of Bradford, 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.

His working life began 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.

Mr Tucker was then with the Environment Agency for five years, in roles including environment officer and water resources officer. He was next 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.

He 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.

Mr Tucker 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.

Welcoming Mr Tucker to Green Box Thinking, founder and managing director Rob Gill said: “Richard is a vastly experienced and dedicated sustainability professional. I have no doubt his substantial expertise and highly customer-friendly approach will prove invaluable, both to our clients and our business in the time ahead.”