Announcing The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction

This evolution of the School reflects our trajectory over the past twelve years. The School was founded in 2009 when Professor Peter Morris (now Emeritus) took the helm of a new unit created around the undergraduate BSc in Project Management for Construction along with our MSc in Construction Economics and Management (CEM) and our MSc in Project and Enterprise Management (PEM).  BSCPM was to focus on the commercial management of construction projects and building programmes and became an international centre of excellence in this area.  

Over this period, the construction industry has seen massive changes, including a revolution in digital construction technologies, an increasing awareness of the urgent need for sustainable construction practices and materials, and a renewed focus on built assets over the whole-life cycle, which naturally also directs attentions to the major outputs of construction: housing, commercial real estate, and infrastructure (including public works). The School has reflected that growth and change in the addition of seven new courses, ground-breaking research, multiple international academic and industry partnerships, new centres of learning, a current number of 75 members of staff, over 900 students and thousands of proud alumni.  

In re-naming ourselves the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, we want to emphasize the importance that sustainable construction practices will play in the Low Carbon Transition to Net Zero, which means ensuring that our curriculum educates students about embedded carbon and life cycle assessment modelling, sustainable materials and structures, and the role of circular economies in addressing the industry’s long-standing problems with solid waste, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions (especially over the supply chain) and air pollution.

In addition, we also want to emphasise that we are advocating for a sustainable future for the construction industry and a sustainable vision for the outputs of construction, including sustainable housing, commercial property, infrastructure, and the role that all these play in building sustainable cities.

Professor D'Maris Coffman, Director of the Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management, said: 

“As with BSCPM, BSSC is a very broad tent, which is reflected in the range of research centres concerned with digital innovation and digital twins, real estate, infrastructure project finance and public private-partnerships, engineering for international development, megaproject delivery, organisational routines, and networks and supply chains. We also hugely value the contributions of nearly a hundred honorary staff members, who represent a wide variety of stakeholders, all essential to delivering on our educational and research missions.

Although we recognise that the next two decades will bring many challenges for human societies, we firmly believe that the BSSC will play a leadership role in constructing a sustainable future for all stakeholders and we look forward to what the future holds.”