FEATURE ROUNDTABLE REPORT
ADDRESSING THE CLIMATE RESILIENCE GAP A recent roundtable hosted by MPA Precast, sought to understand the pressure points surrounding precast concrete and the role it plays in creating buildings that are durable, structurally robust and can withstand future climate shocks.
1 WITH CLIMATE RESILIENCE rising across the built environment agenda, the roundtable exposed a gap between what the industry already knows and what it is prepared to deliver. The discussion examined where precast and offsite approaches can make a practical difference and the importance of better policy decisions, clearer market signals and improved delivery culture. Climate resilience is no longer a secondary technical issue sitting outside mainstream design and delivery. Flooding, overheating, storm intensity, water scarcity, wildfire risk and wider infrastructure disruption are all moving closer to the centre of the built environment conversation. Yet this roundtable made clear that the industry still does not treat those risks with the same urgency or structure that it now applies to embodied and operational carbon.
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Issue 4 April / May 2026
Resilience is rising but still not embedded Convened to examine how the precast concrete sector can support the design, delivery and long-term performance of more resilient buildings
and infrastructure, the session quickly moved beyond a simple material argument and into a harder question – if the risks are increasingly clear, why is resilient delivery still so inconsistent?
ATTENDEES • • • • • • •
Facilitator: Darren Richards, Managing Director, Cogent Consulting Yetunde Abdul, Director of Industry Transformation, UKGBC Vincent Bolton, Editor, Industrialised Construction Journal Suzanne Davenport, Associate, Studio Partington Mark Gilliland, Structures Sales Director, Creagh Concrete Jon Hall, Senior Associate, Hoare Lea Dr Elisabeth Marlow, Sustainability & Resilience, Cundall
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Ryan Millican, Sales & Estimating Manager, FP McCann Helen Raymond, Senior Sustainable Design Architect, The Concrete Centre Derek Russell, Director of Innovation, Product Development & Sustainability, Techrete Mark Shepherd, Director, MPA Precast and MPA Masonry Elaine Toogood, Senior Director, MPA Concrete and The Concrete Centre
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