Peter Hale: The Green Transition is about evolving from the ‘How’ to the ‘Why’

We’re long past the point where sustainability is a ‘nice to have.’ The Green Transition is a necessity – not just for the climate, but for how we live, work and interact in the built environment. The transition is pushing our industry to evolve from ticking compliance boxes to asking ourselves more difficult and meaningful questions. And the most important one is: why are we doing what we’re doing?

A building services perspective on the Green Transition

From my point of view, in Building Services we look at the Green Transition from an Urbanisation standpoint. Our focus is on how we can create places for people to live, work and thrive, within the constraints of designing and retrofitting buildings on a planet of finite resources and materials.

Zooming in on the role of our sustainability and performance teams, our designers and engineers have a specific focus on decarbonising the built environment. The key to success is in trying to understand what different technologies we can use to replace those heat generating gas boilers and biomass boilers that are burning fossil fuels.

That includes transitioning away from fossil fuel systems and improving the thermal performance of buildings. It’s about questioning every material, every process and every option beyond practicality alone to ensure we make value judgements as well as engineering calls.

Across the projects I’ve worked on over the years, three consistent themes have emerged:

1. Carbon – Reducing operational and embodied carbon is no longer optional. Clients want to build greener, but they also want clarity on what green really means. This is where holistic expertise in whole life carbon modelling and low-energy systems becomes critical.
2. ESG – With sustainable finance – and regulatory demands – evolving all the time, clients are facing increasing pressure to meet transparent, credible benchmarks. Initiatives like the UKGBC’s Net Zero Carbon Framework and direction from leading investment banks is vital in setting clearer standards.
3. Education – Perhaps most importantly, consultants must acknowledge their role as educators, above and beyond sharing technical knowledge. From developers to tenants, most people don’t care about the fine details of engineering – but they care about the results, and increasingly they care that those results reflect their commitment to ‘going green’.

Collaboration is key

Green buildings aren’t made in silos. At Sweco for example, our local expertise in the UK is powered by shared knowledge across Europe. If a client needs to understand heat pumps, material passports and circular economy methodology, we talk to our team in the Netherlands. If they want to explore district heat networks, our colleagues in Denmark lead the way. Collaboration across borders, disciplines, and project stages is the only way the Green Transition can be successful.

But collaboration within a building’s life cycle is equally vital. Design, construction, and operation are too often disjointed. Digital tools like Revit, emerging digital twin technologies and of course AI are helping bridge those gaps, enabling continuous optimisation from concept to occupancy – and using new innovations is freeing up more time for us to explore what ‘better’ can be when it comes to optimising spaces.

Adding emotion to intelligence

The power of artificial intelligence and digital modelling lies in speed and insight. Our AI-powered parametric tools allow us to test thousands of variables in hours – not weeks – letting us make smarter decisions sooner. But data alone doesn’t change outcomes, interpretation does. Clients need humans to translate models into meaning, which is again where our industry must keep bringing the ‘why’ into the room.

What does a successful Green Transition look like?

For me it’s cleaner air, quieter streets, greener cities where architecture inspires, not just performs. Places that make us feel better as well as function better. But to get there, we need to stop ‘patching’ the past and start designing for a future we want to live in.

We already have the tools, but what we need is intent. We need to rethink urban development not as a box-ticking exercise, but as a responsibility to our planet, our health and our collective future.

Why it matters to me

The Green Transition matters because it makes my work more meaningful than it ever has been. It makes what I do not just my job, but my purpose.

Early in my career, engineering was about pipework and plant sizes. Of course high quality engineering design still matters, but now it has evolved from focusing purely on systems and infrastructure to prioritising communicating with people, behaviour, and wellbeing.

The Green Transition marks a shift from simply making things work to solving problems empathy, emotional intelligence and creativity to every project. While sustainability was once treated as an afterthought or a box-ticking exercise, it is now central to the way we design and deliver buildings and that’s a really exciting place to be in.

It’s no longer just about what we do – it’s about why we do it.