About See Net Zero

In early 2023 a few long-time sustainability practitioners sat down to discuss why change was not happening, despite general consensus that we need to be creating commercial interiors in a more sustainable way.

We realised:

• • Incumbent suppliers are not changing, instead relying on greenwash to preserve the status quo. Low carbon/sustainable solutions are coming from new companies lacking the marketing budgets to be heard.
  • The built environment sector is focussed on the greenhouse gas impacts of building shell and core, largely ignoring the carbon emissions and other environmental concerns related to fit-outs.
  • Where low carbon interior solutions are used, their success is rarely being shared.
  • Many carbon-concerned practitioners (landlords, tenant project managers, agents, designers, consultants) are toiling alone within their organisations to create a better future, disconnected from others who share their passion, This isolation has been exacerbated by COVID lockdowns and greater working from home. And it means they have few resources to research beyond the greenwash.
  • Low carbon solutions must not compromise on look and feel – and property professionals and designers need to see this.

The logical answer is to showcase proven solutions through site visits to inspiring projects, along the way creating a supportive community. And we should have some fun along the way, to counter the heavy burden we share of transforming an industry.

So we set up See Net Zero, a non-profit organisation to do this.

We can’t do this on our own, so we are looking for like-minded organisations to share this initiative with their networks of built environment professionals.

With thanks to Rype Office who is kindly hosting this initiative on its platforms.

Dr Greg Lavery