The Building Podcast with Mark Wakeford
Mark Wakeford is a Director of the National Federation of Builders, Strategy Director of the Global Solar Council and Chair of the West Midlands Solar Taskforce. He has run a large regional building contractor and now chairs Evoenergy, one of the UK's foremost renewable companies, bringing low carbon solutions to corporate Britain.
Mark talks to leading experts from across the construction sector to discuss issues facing the built environment. He explores various challenges with his guests, who offer solutions, information and ideas that listeners can apply to their own situations, be it in a company, on a project or studying at college.
The Building Podcast aims to provide 'CPD on the go'. Supporting the sector with easily digestible ideas to support a rapidly changing industry!
Episodes
139 episodes
Net Zero – Mandatory Change and Massive Opportunities for the Early adopters in Construction
The seventh Carbon budget has just been accepted by the UK Government. This tracks progress towards our net zero ambition by 2050 and is now a mandatory target. Government will publish its plans to achieve this. Construction a...
Community Energy – A powerful tool to bring communities together through renewables and energy savings
Community Energy Schemes have been around for over a decade, providing access to energy investments to local communities. They continue to gain in popularity and the movement continues to gain momentum as more and more organisations look ...
Low Carbon Economies and Land Use – Energy, Health and Survival all have the same answer
Prof. Paul Behrens is the face chosen by The National Emergency Briefing to talk about food, land use and climate change. There can be no one more suited to the job. Paul is a British Academy Global Professor and works in the Oxford...
Banking on Solar: What makes a project investable?
Finance is required for all projects, whether this is provided by the project sponsors or externally through one of many funding institutions. Thankfully, money is the ultimate universal commodity, however, banks, development banks and ot...
Testicular Cancer – Something that we all need to know about
The Building Podcast is doing something different for its listeners and publicising one of those cancers that affects young men in their prime. They will be making their way in life and think that they do not have time to stop and think a...
The 'Just Solar Transition' - Is it all about better conversations with our communities?
Large scale solar seeks to change lives for the better, but many communities simply do not have the information or the expectation that they can discover balanced and intelligent knowledge to help them determine and make best value of a local d...
Global warming and civil society – What are the impacts on us all?
Lt. General Richard Nugee CB, CVO, CBE is one of the ten experts who present peer reviewed papers as part of the National Emergency Briefing. His experiences as a soldier inform his views on the implications of national security within th...
Deploying Solar at Scale and Pace - The crucial role of Mayors around the world
Global warming creates ill health, extra costs and inefficiencies across economies. One challenge remains on who and how to take national policies and deliver them on the ground within real communities. Enter the elected Mayors arou...
Clean Energy Partnerships - One way to the Just Transition to a low carbon future for Local Authorities Worldwide
Coventry City Council has entered into a fifteen-year partnership with Eon to support its transition to a low carbon future. The Partnership focuses on four key themes of clean energy, creating sustainable jobs and careers, supporting inn...
Building Energy Management Systems - Reduce Energy Consumption and Improve your EPC - What is not to like?
The Building Energy Management System (BEMS) is the central nervous system of any building. It provides the intelligence to operate a building efficiently and effectively, whilst creating the optimum environment for its occupants. ...
Australian Solar and Battery Storage leads the World with the highest rates per capita - How does that happen?
Australia has shown the world how to encourage homeowners to install solar and battery storage on a scale not seen anywhere else in the world. With over 1.7KW per person and 5% of all eligible homes installing battery storage last year, A...
Fraud – The most common crime in the UK – Make sure that you are not caught out!
Fraud accounts for 43% of all recorded crime and costs the UK around £1.3Bn each year and this figure continues to climb. Kate Grove of the National Crime Agency talks through the extensive work of the agency, and the four Ps that they fo...
Construction Skills - Government is trying to help - Get involved to secure your legacy and the future of your business
Construction skills remain a challenge for the industry. Construction is recruiting fewer new recruits, and our average age of tradesperson continues to increase. Where and how is our sector going to find the people with the skills ...
Decentralised and Democratised Energy - How to get your Community Energy scheme off the ground and onto site
Community Energy is heralded as the best way to mobilise communities to develop and invest in their own energy schemes, the easiest being wind or solar. A project starts with the germ of an idea and a group of keen and curious individuals...
GB Energy – Driving an energy revolution through community energy schemes
GB Energy has been created to drive the renewable energy revolution through out the United Kingdom. One element of this is the near £1Bn fund for 1,000 community energy schemes to be delivered nationally by 2030. This fund will gene...
Construction Robots – How to be part of a £300Bn industry by 2030 – Fact or Fiction?
Government is planning for a £200 - £300Bn industry by 2030 and Agnes Wamagui is in the epicentre of this aspiration. Agnes is the Knowledge Transfer Manager for Robots within Innovate UK, the Government’s agency for funding and promoting...
Protecting Your Greatest Asset: Why Safeguarding matters to us all
Companies often state that people are their biggest and most important asset. The UK construction industry has the highest suicide rate of any sector, so we might argue that we are not looking after this asset at all well. Couple this wit...
Solar for the Support of Civil Society
Solar, supported by battery storage, is the technology of choice to keep civil society functioning close to the front line in war torn Ukraine. Its decentralised nature makes targeting by the enemy far more difficult, and it allows users ...
One solution to the skills crisis - Tackle it early in schools with real construction examples
The UK construction market needs an additional 50,000 people to join the sector every year till 2030 if it is to provide the services to which it is contracted or will be contracted. Many of these people will be expected to join from scho...
Mark talks to Dean Hill - The Big Solar Co-op Ltd
The solar sector has to deliver competent solar arrays as scale and at pace if it is to achieve the goal of 55GW by 2030 and support the worldwide target of 8TW of generating capacity. In the UK, Government has stated that it wants everyo...
Employee Health - A crucial element for any successful business
Tabassum Hussain talks about the corporate mantra that our employees are our biggest asset is often said, but it is unclear how far companies ought to go to protect these assets. If a company is to get the best from its staff then they ne...
Mark talks to Dr Olga Kozlova - Oxford University
The rate of change that businesses face continues to increase. Whether this is due to technology from iphone to AI, Covid-19 and the rise of the mental health challenge, wars in Europe and the Middle East, or climate change. Each is...
Mark talks to Kamil Kluza - Climate X
Climate change is creating risks for construction clients around the world. What do we build? How do we make it resilient? Where do we build and what are the long-term risks from climate change that I need to take into account...
Mark talks to Rakesh Maharaj - Global Solar Council
The Global Solar Council is the worldwide trade body for the solar sector. It exists to promote solar and battery storage around the world and it has members in every continent that include regional trade bodies, individual corporates and...
Mark talks to Simon Berry - Anchor
When responsible for 56,000 dwellings that are almost exclusively for vulnerable people towards the end of their lives, security and maintenance of building assets becomes a vital service. Your customers depend upon an effective and affor...
