I was glad to see my rallying cry echoed in the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ new annual sustainability report. It cites skills shortages, gaps in knowledge and inadequate training as key barriers preventing the construction industry from adopting sustainable practices.

After quizzing UK built environment professionals on the challenges they faced, 40% named these issues as the second biggest problem behind building material costs, and above lack of demand from clients and stakeholders or a lack of government support. The RICS wants industry, professional bodies and academia to prioritise training programmes, certifications and apprenticeships that focus on enhancing sustainability skills and knowledge for professionals across the built environment sector.

Although it’s not ideal that we’re all having to repeat the same message about inadequate training, it certainly proves that Murton&Courses, our new training programme to give inexperienced rookies and trainees the confidence to conduct independent assessments, is on the right track. Hopefully, the RICS will now liaise with Skills England as this is exactly the kind of empirical evidence the skills body will need to develop appropriate courses for the growing army of skilled tradespeople in the energy efficiency sector. It’s even more pressing as the government announced last week that it’s pushing millions of pounds into the Warm Homes Plan, allowing 300,000 homes to apply for green improvements grants in the next year.

The RICS also flagged up cross-disciplinary training and knowledge-sharing among architects, engineers, urban planners and surveyors as crucial to upskilling the energy sector, in order to help everyone understand sustainable practices as a basis for developing skills. Knowledge sharing and collaboration has always been very much on Murton & Co’s agenda, and our work with Purrmetrix, Ecotest, Bradley Mason, Centric Energy and Pulse Systems to name a few is testament to how this can benefit both the client and our companies by expediting work and becoming better informed about best practice.

This urgent need for upskilling will become more vital as tenant and investor appetite for green buildings grows, and which 60% of UK professionals flagged up, according to the RICS. These energy efficient buildings can demand a rent and price premium compared with non-sustainable assets as many tenants appreciate the lower risks, better returns and strengthening balance sheets. This is certainly something we’ve recognised in our clients over the last few years. Indeed, demand from clients, stakeholders and customers is by far the key driver of Environmental Social and Governance investments, says the RICS, ahead of legislation. It’s proof that carrots as well as sticks are prompting companies to take action.

Another key finding in the report was that more than a third of companies weren’t measuring embodied carbon during building projects, despite the built environment accounting for almost 40% of global carbon emissions – which is surprising and disappointing. In response, the RICS wants the government to make carbon assessments compulsory for all built environment projects to help reduce emissions throughout the value chain.

Meanwhile, ministers are still consulting on changes to the Building Regulations in England to bring in a Future Homes Standard that would require all new homes to be built with low-carbon equipment such as heat pumps and solar panels, while we’re also waiting for news on how EPCs will evolve, which is likely to take embodied carbon into account. It feels like although much of the built environment sector is singing from the same hymn sheet, without legislation and deadlines, there’s only so far that developers – as well as landlords and tenants – are prepared to go towards decarbonising building stock and investing in retrofit. Along with instigating better training to improve skills, the government must set national targets and provide subsidies and incentive schemes to drive investment so that we can all work towards a common net zero goal.