‘Rising deal with resilience throughout the constructed surroundings’, finds UKGBC report

The UK Inexperienced Constructing Council (UKGBC) revealed its Tendencies Report 2025 on 9 December, detailing main shifts that formed the constructed surroundings this yr together with key themes to look out for in 2026.

Drawing on insights from sustainability and innovation consultants throughout trade in addition to UKGBC matter leads, the third version of the annual report identifies 20 rising traits and options and divulges an trade reframing sustainability as worth and resilience amid a altering market context.

In opposition to a backdrop of political uncertainty, financial stress and heightened scrutiny of the web zero agenda, this yr’s report finds conversations in 2025 more and more centred on the resilience – reflecting a broader sense of vulnerability throughout communities, organisations and provide chains.

Trying to 2026, UKGBC anticipates a sector grappling with speedy technological advances, the interconnectedness of sustainability challenges and alternatives, and the rising significance of nature, adaptive capability and community-centred approaches. These will sit alongside pressing wants akin to scaling retrofit and reforming vitality methods.

Key traits within the report embody:

Elevated deal with resilience – this consists of not solely local weather resilience, however social and monetary resilience, shaping design, funding and operational priorities.

A transfer in the direction of motion – with extra organisations coming into the implementation part of transition plans, exposing the hole between strategic ambition and the realities of supply.

From values to worth – shoppers and buyers are more and more demanding proof of business, social and environmental returns, shifting the sustainability dialog from rules to efficiency.

Know-how growth – speedy advances, significantly in AI, supply highly effective instruments for optimisation and decarbonisation, whereas introducing new vitality, water and useful resource challenges.

Scaling-up – innovation in supplies, development methods and digital platforms continues to broaden, however adoption stays constrained by capability, belief and fragmented markets.

Grid capability and vitality methods – regardless of substantial nationwide funding, native constraints and lengthy connection queues persist. With rising battery storage and buildings performing as lively vitality belongings, the constructed surroundings’s position in system flexibility continues to extend.

Yetunde Abdul, Director of Trade Transformation, UKGBC, mentioned: “As a community that brings collectively innovators, practitioners and thought leaders from proper throughout the constructed surroundings, UKGBC is uniquely positioned to identify the shifts shaping our sector. This report distils the insights we hear on daily basis from our members, companions and trade who’re working at the vanguard of supply. We publish it annually to assist trade navigate complexity and to shine a light-weight on the options and approaches gaining actual traction.”

Emily-Rose Garnett, Senior Advisor – Options & Innovation, UKGBC, mentioned: “The insights on this report are grounded in what we’re listening to on the bottom: organisations understanding easy methods to responsibly use know-how and AI, scale retrofit, shut efficiency gaps, rethink supplies, interact provide chains and construct local weather resilience. It paints an image of an trade that’s working to transition from intent to motion, however grappling with the challenges required to realize this. As we enter 2026, our hope is that trade and authorities recognise the size of the chance forward, and the transformative affect we are able to unlock via collective motion.”

Obtain the report totally free right here.