Anil Sawhney, Fabrizio Varriale, Kisa Zehra and Katherine Pitman of the RICS Sustainability Team on the importance of surveyors in delivering sustainability outcomes
From climate change and biodiversity loss to resource constraints and resilience, sustainability challenges are increasingly shaping decisions across the global built and natural environment.
Across the UK, significant efforts are underway to reduce emissions, improve energy performance, strengthen climate resilience and protect nature. Achieving these ambitions will depend not only on policy and investment but also on the quality of decisions made every day across the built and natural environment.
Surveyors are already playing an important role in those decisions. Whether advising on the retrofit of existing buildings, assessing climate-related risks, supporting decarbonising strategies, managing natural assets or guiding investment decisions, the profession is helping to shape more sustainable outcomes for people, places and assets.
As expectations from clients, investors, policymakers and society continue to evolve, sustainability is becoming increasingly embedded in professional practice. The question is no longer whether sustainability matters but how it can be applied consistently and transparently, based on robust evidence.
Sustainability is already part of everyday practice
Sustainability is not a new consideration for the surveying profession. Across the built and natural environment, surveyors are helping clients reduce carbon emissions, improve resilience, enhance resource efficiency, support biodiversity, improve social outcomes and deliver long-term value.
These responsibilities span the entire lifecycle of land, buildings and infrastructure, from planning and investment through to construction, operation, regeneration and end-of-life decisions.
Surveyors are already helping to deliver sustainability outcomes across the built and natural environment.
However, the context in which decisions are being made is changing rapidly. Increasing demands for transparency, the growing availability of performance data and the emergence of new sustainability frameworks are creating both opportunities and challenges for professionals across the sector.
Creating the foundations for better decisions
RICS is helping create the conditions for better sustainability outcomes by connecting professional expertise with trusted standards, robust data and industry collaboration. This approach is evident in the recent RICS UN Global Compact Communication on Engagement report, which highlights the profession’s contribution to addressing environmental, social and economic challenges and advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The report reinforces the importance of equipping professionals with the knowledge, standards and partnerships needed to support sustainable outcomes and create long-term value for clients, communities and society alike.
Responding to this evolving landscape requires more than ambition alone. It requires professional expertise, trusted standards, reliable data and practical guidance that can turn sustainability aspirations into informed action.
This is the context behind the recently published Sustainability Practice for Surveyors guide. Developed to support professionals across surveying disciplines, the guide provides a common framework for understanding and applying sustainability principles in practice.
Rather than presenting sustainability as a specialist discipline, the guide recognises that environmental, social and economic considerations increasingly influence decisions throughout the asset lifecycle.
It explores climate change mitigation, climate adaptation and resilience, circularity and resource use, and biodiversity and ecosystem health, while providing a practical workflow that helps integrate sustainability into everyday professional decision-making.
Sustainability is no longer a standalone consideration. Increasingly, it is part of what defines good professional practice.
Connecting standards, data and transparency
Guidance is only one part of the frame. Across the built environment, industry collaboration is helping to establish the foundations needed to support better sustainability outcomes at scale.
The UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard is creating a common framework for assessing and verifying net zero carbon performance, helping bring greater consistency and confidence to decision-making. RICS is proud to be a partner in this industry-wide initiative.
At the same time, the Built Environment Carbon Database (BECD) is strengthening the evidence base available to industry.
Convened by RICS and its partners and built to support the RICS Whole-life carbon assessment (WLCA) for the built environment professional standard, the database provides robust carbon data to help organisations understand performance, benchmark outcomes and prioritise interventions that deliver the greatest impact.
Transparency is equally important. Initiatives such as the Coalition for Life Cycle Emissions Alignment & Reporting (CLEAR) are helping organisations improve the way sustainability performance is measured, managed and communicated, thereby supporting greater accountability and informed decision-making across the sector.
Together, these initiatives reflect a growing recognition that delivering sustainability outcomes requires not only ambition but also common frameworks, trusted information and clear reporting.
The growing role of technology
Digital technologies are also transforming how sustainability information is generated and applied. As building performance, carbon and environmental datasets become more accessible, digital tools and artificial intelligence have the potential to help professionals identify trends, evaluate options and generate insights more efficiently.
However, technology alone cannot determine what constitutes a sustainable outcome. The value of digital innovation will depend on the quality of underlying data, the standards that support its use and the professional judgement applied in interpreting the results.
Looking ahead
Delivering a more sustainable future is not solely about new technologies, regulations or targets. It is about enabling better decisions. Surveyors are already making a significant contribution to sustainability outcomes across the built and natural environment.
The next phase is ensuring that professionals have up-to-date access to the guidance, standards, data and transparency needed to navigate increasing complexity with confidence.
By connecting professional expertise with trusted frameworks, robust information and collaborative industry initiatives, the profession can continue to support decisions that create long-term value for clients, communities and society alike.
In doing so, surveyors will remain central to delivering a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable future for people, places and assets, while contributing to the wider ambitions reflected in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
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