Bond student Mr Peter Glynn has been invited to present a paper to the International Constructed Environment Conference, Chicago in October this year. As a PhD student within the Institute of Sustainable Development and Architecture, Mr Glynn’s paper addresses the employment and workplace impacts from climate change policy in the built environment.
The Chicago conference will discuss a wide range of critically important themes relating to the past character and future shape of the built environment. It will bring together researchers, teachers and practitioners to discuss the past character and future shape of the built environment. The presentations will be a blend of the theoretical, empirical, research and application, market pragmatics and social idealism.
“Climate change will have a considerable impact on industry, the workplace and communities. The construction industry is labour intensive, highly regulated and a significant adopter of the latest technology,” said Mr Glynn.
“Policies and regulations made with regard to construction labour have future implications for the availability of climate adaptive property. For these challenges to be met it is important that policy responses deliver economic outcomes that are socially just and environmentally sound.
“Research internationally and for the Australian situation establishes that although aggregate employment should increase in the move to a low carbon economy, many jobs will be lost, new occupations will be created and skills required in many existing occupations will change. If skill shortages in the construction sector are to be avoided, planning to meet the changed labour market requirements needs to be initiated as a priority.”
The Conference provides an excellent opportunity to participate in development of the theory and practice at the international level, and to then introduce that experience into the debate in Australia.
Mr Glynn’s paper is co-authored by the Institute’s Professor of Environmental Management, Dr Ros Taplin.