Ask ten people in construction what sustainability means to them, and you will likely get ten different answers. That is a good starting point for a meaningful conversation. And it is precisely why Women in Construction Sussex and G4C in Sussex brought a room full of professionals together last week for an honest conversation about where the industry really stands.
Titled “Sustainability in construction: dream versus reality,” the evening brought together a cross-disciplinary panel drawing on perspectives from planning, architecture, building services, sustainability consultancy, and contracting – reflecting the reality that no single discipline holds all the answers.
ECE Group was proud to have two of our own contributing to the discussion: Megan Smith, Associate Planner at ECE Planning, and Toine Hodgkiss, Associate Architect at ECE Architecture, joining a panel led by Kemi Owoeye, Technical Lead in Sustainable Design at Willmott Dixon.
What the conversation revealed
Several themes emerged across the evening that felt both grounding and genuinely useful.
Early engagement came up repeatedly as a cornerstone of sustainable delivery. Toine spoke to the value of establishing a clear sustainability brief with clients from the outset – not only to align expectations, but to reframe the conversation: away from upfront costs and towards the longer-term value that considered, sustainable design delivers.
Lisa Hocking, Intermediate Building Services Engineer at Tournay-Godfrey, raised a point that deserves wider industry attention. Our collective responsibility does not end at practical completion. Monitoring energy efficiency post-occupancy is where real, evidence-based learning happens – understanding how buildings actually perform once people are living and working in them is essential to making better decisions on every project that follows.
Sophie Rowson from Delta Green Environmental Design encouraged practitioners at every level to ask questions with confidence, whilst Ben Coombs, Managing Director of MacConvilles, offered a grounded commercial perspective – a timely reminder that ambition should be tempered with an honest understanding of what clients can realistically achieve.
Kemi brought the evening to a close with a thought that felt quietly powerful: Not every project can do everything, but every project can do something.
Progress in sustainability rarely arrives in sweeping gestures. More often, it is built through incremental, collaborative effort – one project, one conversation, one informed decision at a time.
Thank you to all speakers, attendees, and the Constructing Excellence Sussex Club for their generous sponsorship. We look forward to the next one.
Interested in how ECE Group approaches sustainability across planning and architecture? Get in touch with our team.
