Dr John Connaughton, Professor of Sustainable Construction, School of Construction and Management Engineering, University of Reading

Dr John Connaughton is Professor of Sustainable Construction in the School of Construction Management and Engineering at the University of Reading. Prior to that he was a Director at Davis Langdon, an AECOM Company, which he joined in 1985. At Davis Langdon he played a leading role in the development of the firm's Management Consulting arm, providing a wide range of consulting services to both public and private sector clients. In addition to an earned PhD from the University of Greenwich in the field of investment decision making, John has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Dublin Institute of Technology. 

John has worked in the construction sector for over 30 years, 27 of which have been spent in management and related consultancy. His involvement in sustainability in construction dates back to the mid 1980s and since then John has been instrumental in the development of Davis Langdon’s Sustainability Services, and was responsible for the development of the firm’s Environmental Management System (ISO 14001 certified) and key initiatives in the areas of learning and training in sustainability.

John was also heavily involved in the firm’s other consulting services, and has particular expertise in the areas of Business Improvement and Market Intelligence. He has ongoing research interests in innovation in construction, and managed a significant element of the UK Department of Trade and Industry’s Construction Research and Innovation programme from 1998-2005. He has also focused on improving the procurement process and was lead author on a number of industry guides produced by the Construction Industry Board following the Latham Review of UK Construction in 1994. He was one of the founding members of the UK Board of the Movement for Innovation (M4I). More recently John has led the development of the National Change Agent for Social Housing (www.ncahousing.org.uk), a major initiative in the procurement of capital works for affordable housing.

Munish Datta, Head of Property Plan A, Marks & Spencer

In a Marks & Spencer career spanning 15 years, Munish has worked in Stores and various roles in Head Office. In the last 7 years he has lead the delivery of store modernisation and development construction projects and more recently has been heading the creation of a strategy and delivery of Plan A, M&S’s well known sustainability programme, within the Property Group. Within its built environment, the highly successful plan has enabled the retailer to become 28% more energy efficient, divert all waste from landfill, become an industry leader in sourcing sustainable materials and launch award winning sustainable learning retail stores. Munish contributes to several industry task Groups and is a member of the governments Green Construction Board Buildings working group. He speaks regularly at industry events and conferences and is a regular guest speaker at the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainable Leadership. To learn more about the lessons, achievements and outcomes from applying Plan A to the M&S built environment go to www.marksandspencer.com/construction. Munish loves to exchange ideas on twitter @MunishDatta.

Louise Ellison BSc MPhil MRICS

Louise is a Chartered Surveyor with many years experience focusing in particular on the relationship between sustainability and property worth. She joined Quintain in January 2011 as Head of Sustainability and is responsible for developing and implementing sustainability across the company’s urban regeneration and asset and fund management activities. She represents Quintain at the Better Buildings Partnership and is a member of the Investment Property Forum Sustainability Interest Group and the British Property Federation Sustainability Committee. She Chairs the Valuation and Demand Working Group of the Green Construction Board, the Property Industry Alliance Research Committee and the Better Buildings Partnership Transaction Agents Working Group.

Miles Keeping, Partner, Drivers Jonas Deloitte

Miles is a Partner in the Sustainability team at Drivers Jonas Deloitte, working with clients to identify and manage the sustainability risks associated with their property assets.  He has a deep understanding of different businesses’ preferences for sustainability within buildings as well as the relevant regulatory drivers affecting their interests.  Miles’ work involves leading a team which helps clients to set and achieve appropriate environmental targets and wider corporate responsibility strategies in order to achieve business efficiencies.  He is also regularly involved in helping the UK government to understand how best to develop and implement regulations affecting the sustainability of property.

Miles combines his role as a sustainability consultant with those as: 

- Chairman of the Green Deal Commercial Property Group
- Chairman of the Investment Property Forum’s Sustainability Interest Group
- A member of the UK Green Building Council’s Policy Committee and a UKGBC Ambassador
- A member of the British Council for Offices Environmental Sustainability Group
- A member of the Association of Real Estate Funds Environmental Sustainability Group

Prior to joining Drivers Jonas Deloitte, Miles was a Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, where he spent 11 years undertaking consultancy work, researching and teaching about property sustainability issues. He sits on the editorial boards of the “International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development” and the “Journal of Property Investment & Finance”.

Miles is a Chartered Surveyor as well as a Chartered Environmentalist and is a Fellow of the RSA.

Paul King, Chief Executive, UK Green Building Council

Paul became the first CEO of the UK-GBC in May 2007. Previously he worked for WWF-UK where he was Director of Campaigns, and formerly Campaign Director for WWF's One Million Sustainable Homes campaign and co-founder of One Planet Living ®. Paul is Chairman of the Zero Carbon Hub and is a member of the Zero Carbon Homes 2016 Task Force.  He is Chair of the Green Construction Board Buildings Working Group. He is a member of the Technology Strategy Board’s Low Impact Building Programme Steering Group, the Government’s Housing Sounding Board and the Igloo Regeneration Sustainability Committee.  He was previously a member of the Low Carbon Construction IGT, Sustainable Buildings Task Group, Code for Sustainable Homes Steering Group and the Egan Review of Skills for Sustainable Communities. On an international level he is a Board member of the World Green Building Council and Chair of the World GBC Europe Network.

Isabel McAllister, Director of Sustainability, Mace Limited

Isabel joined Mace in February 2012, and is responsible for sustainability activities throughout all Mace business operations both in the UK and overseas. Prior to joining Mace, Isabel gained 15 years’ experience in sustainable property and construction and has worked with a range of clients including regulators, funders and delivery teams. Clients have included CLG, British Land, Crown Estate, Great Portland Estates, Hertfordshire County Council, Olympic Delivery Authority and Wates Group. Since joining Mace, Isabel has developed a group wide sustainability strategy that includes a range of demanding targets. In addition to being responsible for delivering the sustainability strategy, Isabel is also the director responsible for Mace sustainability consultancy services.

Dr Diana Montgomery, Chief Executive, Construction Products Association

Dr Diana Montgomery joined the Construction Products Association as Chief Executive, in April 2012. She has been quick to champion the importance of UK construction manufacturing to the whole construction supply chain and the value it delivers to UK. In addition, she has worked with others in the sector to highlight the value of investment in infrastructure, housing and repair and maintenance in the built environment. Diana is particularly enthusiastic about how UK manufacturers innovate to deliver process and product improvement that deliver benefits to customers in improved performance, value and reduced impact on the environmental through the product lifecycle.Recently she has also been encouraging government to provide real incentives for energy efficiency measures in domestic and commercial buildings.

Before joining the Construction Product Association Diana worked for the Chemical Industries Association where she raised the profile of Chemical manufacturing in the UK and established its pivotal role in the delivery of the UK Government's sustainability targets. Prior to the CIA Diana led the sustainability agendas in companies including Centrica, the AA and Johnson Wax. She is a non-Executive Director of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, a Chartered Environmentalist and has degrees from Oxford University and Imperial College in Chemistry and Environmental Management.

Jenny Pidgeon, Director of Property, Responsible Property Investment (RPI)

Jenny is responsible for managing Henderson’s Responsible Property Investment programme. She coordinates all aspects of their sustainability approach, working with fund and asset managers, development team, property managers, tenants and suppliers to promote the good management of social and environmental issues across core business activities.

Jenny joined Henderson in 2011 from Upstream Sustainability Services, where she worked with several leading investors on their sustainability strategies and was involved with industry research into the relationship between sustainability and investment performance.

Jenny represents Henderson on industry forums including the Better Building Partnership, IIGCC property working group and AREF environmental & social governance committee (whom she represents on the Green Property Alliance) and contributes to initiatives including GRESB and EcoPAS.

Ben Wielgus, Senior Manager, Climate Change and Sustainability Services, KPMG

Ben has been a member of KPMG’s climate change and sustainability advisory group for almost 8 years.  He currently heads the sustainability strategy team.  During his time at KPMG, he has worked with a wide range of clients, helping them understand the evolving sustainability agenda.  His clients come from all three sectors of the economy, ranging from global infrastructure businesses and retailers, to universities, Government departments and national charities. 

Ben specialises in helping organisations understand how the risks and opportunities from the sustainability agenda, particularly climate change, can affect an organisation’s strategy, working with them to build suitable governance and embed responses to the challenges. He is a frequently requested speaker at national events focussing on sustainability reporting, management and organisational cooperation.  He also regularly contributes to the debate on emerging carbon legislation including working with government departments and with sector associations to help them understand  how this legislation will affect their members.

Ben has worked with his largest client, a global infrastructure business, since 2010.  The focus has been on embedding their highly ambitious sustainability roadmap at an operating company level across more than 20 operating companies in seven countries.  This has involved holding more than 700 conversations with leaders and managers from around the business to help them see the benefits of the agenda.   His smallest and perhaps most interesting client, was a local Northern confectioner, where Ben spent his time helping them see how they can differentiate their product, excite their employees and enhance their brand value through sustainability initiatives.

For the last 5 years, Ben has also led KPMG’s support to clients preparing for the CRC by developing a number of solutions that help them understand the impact of the legislation, their preparedness to comply and developing good practice solutions to individual challenges.  This includes trading strategies, monitoring and reporting and building board buy in and helping organisations structure appropriately to address the challenge of the sustainability agenda.  So far him and his team have helped more than 400 clients understand and prepare for this legislation, and he has managed nearly 90 CRC Readiness Review engagements to help clients prepare in a systematic and detailed manner.