Construct - Issue 50

FM Conway brought together clients and partners to address some of infrastructure’s biggest challenges around people, planet and purpose. The message was clear: we need joined-up action to make genuine progress. The infrastructure industry is at the heart of delivering the government’s missions around driving growth, improving people’s lives and transitioning to a low carbon economy. However, the sector has some big mountains to climb to deliver its potential. As one of the UK’s biggest carbon emitters, it needs to find practical, scalable ways to achieve net zero and to do this quickly as the clock ticks down to 2050. Meanwhile, the construction supply chain is facing a skills cliff edge, grappling with an ageing workforce at the same time as it tries to attract the people needed to drive innovation and technological reform. And underlying all of this is the issue of funding, with public infrastructure operators navigating squeezed budgets. Against this backdrop, FM Conway hosted industry experts and supply chain partners at the capital’s historic Guildhall, to explore how the industry could pull together in the same direction. Despite the scale of the issues, the desire to tackle them head on was clear. Following a welcome from FM Conway CEO Andrew Hansen, Hannah Pathak, CEO at Forum for the Future, led a thought-provoking session on predicting and preparing for future trends. If infrastructure wants to boost its resilience and get itself on a sustainable footing, she explained, then it needs to change the way it thinks about long-term challenges and build consensus around meeting them.

Attendees then dived into specific topics in depth in a series of roundtable discussions on bridging the skills gap, reaching net zero and managing funding pressures. The issues were analysed and different possible solutions posed, but across all the tables one word clearly rang out: collaboration. One guest summed it up: “We’re prepared to be brave, but we can’t do it alone if others won’t.” Building on the conversations at the event and to harness the power of collective action, FM Conway has now unveiled a blueprint for next steps which establishes a new taskforce to take the ideas forward. The taskforce will provide a forum for engagement and ongoing dialogue between stakeholders and decision makers across the industry to help amplify its voice with policymakers in a consistent and joined-up way. Andrew Hansen, CEO at FM Conway, says: “We recognise that we’re stronger when we collaborate with our clients and partners in our drive for sustainable innovation. The challenges that infrastructure and construction face are too complex for one organisation to solve alone. Quite simply, we have to work together. “Getting the conversation started is one thing, it’s what comes next that is the hard but important bit. The event generated bold yet workable ideas, rooted in an understanding of the sector and what will practically make a difference. Our mission now is to take these forward, speaking with one voice alongside our clients and partners.”

FM Conway hosted industry experts and supply chain partners at the capital’s historic Guildhall

“We recognise that we’re stronger when

we collaborate with our clients

and partners in our drive for sustainable innovation.”

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