Career Interview:
An interview with Dr. Ann Heywood, Principal, College of Estate Management and Chair of the RICS Presidential Commission on Sustainability
Issue 39 - Mar 2008

Dr Ann Heywood's reason for taking up her role as Principal, College of Estate Management was one of influence. While working for her own sustainability consultancy Principal Purpose she worked on many major development projects, but in her role as educator she is able to impress the importance and practicalities of environmentally sustainable construction and building management practice on upwards of 4000 students per year. Each of them then goes out to work on their own projects and what she describes as the "ripple effect" of the work of the College is far greater than a project by project approach.

Heywood comes to Asia this time wearing what she describes as three hats. The first is in her role as educator, making sure that people who are learning here are up to date with changes at the same time as learning about how educational needs and the environment might have changed. Her second role is to advance her personal mission of promoting sustainable business practices within the industry. And in her third role she wears her "commercial hat", something she is quite proud of. She was chosen by the College for her commercial background and is proud when people "accuse" their courses of being "near market". She views applied learning, without skimping on the necessary theory, as core to their approach.

As for theory and practice, she says that often one precedes the other. Coming to Asia on a speaking tour only two years ago, Heywood spoke to many business people in the field who were considering potential ideas relating to green buildings and sustainable management practices. These ideas were at that time already becoming common in the UK. Now she is pleased to find that these projects have come to fruition. "People are now talking about what they are actually doing".

When it comes to the environment she sees many industry subsectors that may have previously been overlooked as important. Facilities managers in particular have so much control over the environment in Asia's built-up centres. After all she says, management of a building over its lifecycle is far costlier and has far more impact on the environment than construction alone. However as a surveyor and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) representative Heywood is keen to emphasise the importance of surveyors in every stage of the building's lifecycle and importantly in every point "along the capital flow." From valuation of land through planning, designing, operating and managing projects on site, there are ways that sustainable business practices can be built into the process. So much so that now RICS incorporates a mandatory competency for their members ongoing education and Heywood was responsible for lobbying to have sustainability a priority throughout RICS's activities.

One area where surveyors can be particularly helpful is in providing figures and calculations on which better and greener decisions can be made. She uses the example of waste on a construction sites, where in the UK a figure of 20 mil tonnes of materials is over ordered and never used each year, becoming waste. This material becomes doubly expensive as each tonne of unused material must be taken to landfill and incurs landfill tax. Correct ordering by an experienced quantity syrveyor (QS) or project manager can reduce this cost and make the project significantly more environmentally friendly. She stresses that with the appropriate education surveyors have the ability to significantly alter the environmental impact of buildings. Those with an environmental background or speciality would be able to do things such as determine where on a site might be areas that act as a carbon sink (a location where soil, plants and other organic matter absorbs excess carbon dioxide from the air). Certain surveying specialities act in this way as specialists and with cost consultants can assess the benefits of various options for their clients over the building lifecycle.

In Asia, Heywood has observed that there are pockets of knowledge and areas where green building practices are relatively advanced. For example, in Beijing awareness and action has risen as a result of construction surrounding the 2008 summer Olympics. Though she recognises that there are markets where there is still a strong tendency for buildings to be developed at low cost for immediate sale, she believes government must enshrine best practice in legislation before wholesale acceptance becomes the norm. In the UK and Europe, where the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UK's Stern Review have been influential in the media and government, people are more aware and proactive.

Without wanting to become alarmist Heywood says that the threats of global warming are going up while the timescale for taking action are reducing. The Review estimates the annual costs of stabilising emissions to be around one percent of global GDP if action is taken now- a level it describes as "significant but manageable". The cost of inaction it describes as far, perhaps 20 times, higher. Now that economies are strong it is time to take action and even without taking into account power, waste and other energy, buildings in themselves accounted for eight percent of global warming in 2000. There is a great opportunity for people in our industry to make a difference.

The career path
Heywood's career has spanned 25 years. She became a surveyor because, having started in the public sector she saw that opportunities for promotion were improved with further qualifications. Early in her career she offered advice to Local Authorities as to the environmental impact of development proposals. After stints in the private sector and as a research fellow in 1986, Ann founded her own consultancy, CPM, which specialised in assessing the environmental impacts of development proposals.

She wanted to offer improved customer service whilst still giving professional and well-researched advice. Under her leadership the practice grew to 35 staff and though she later sold it, CPM is still running as a successful business. Her career's highlights involve many accolades for her ongoing environmental championship, including RICS electing her Green Surveyor of the year in 1998 for her work in balancing the competing environmental, land use and financial needs of land portfolios. Ann is Chair of the RICS Presidential Commission on Sustainability, whose mission is to increase sustainability awareness and good practice throughout the 120,000 members of the Institution, worldwide.

As Heywood prepared for her evening seminar on sustainability in this her first stop on her most recent Asian tour, she was hoping to impress the reasons for change onto the crowd of 200 former students and other interested professionals. "Climate change is here and happening", she said, "It is such a driving imperative for our industry." We must continue our professional education right through our lives, particularly if we believe, as we should that the profession is here to serve the public interest. Such is her belief in this cause that she is offering to help people as much as she can free of charge - for formal courses, unfortunately the College has to charge - but if you are interested, want information or want to change, "just pick up the phone". RFP

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