Professor Tim Broyd's travel diary

Within twelve days in mid November, Professor Tim Broyd completed responsibilities in both Egypt and Australia.

Travelling to Sharm El Sheikh, I was an invited keynote speaker at an event in COP27. In a workshop on ‘Multi-stakeholder Participation in Building a Near-zero Community’ organised by the China New Energy Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by the China-based Vanke Foundation, I gave a presentation on ‘Building for a Low Carbon Future’. This was followed by my participation in a discussion session on Joining Perspectives of Technology, Environment and People in Developing Zero Carbon Communities. I am grateful to Professor Xi Liang at the BSSC for identifying this opportunity and arranging his invitation.

Leaving COP27, I travelled directly to Sydney to chair a strategic review of the School of Project Management (SPM) of the University of Sydney. The SPM was founded as a separate entity in 2022, and is building on work undertaken for many years in their Department of Civil Engineering. The Head of School, Professor Jennifer Whyte, left Imperial College to take on this role, and the review was undertaken to provide her and her colleagues with a critical analysis of their proposed strategy. I was supported in this review by:

Professor Martina Huemann, WU Vienna
Professor Mark Dodgson, University of Queensland
Professor Jeffrey Pinto, Pennsylvania State University

In addition to chairing the review, I also gave a seminar on the topic of ‘Innovation and the search for low carbon buildings and infrastructure’.

Whilst carbon intense, these separate events provided much food for thought about two significant areas of need and activity as we struggle to understand how to develop and deliver infrastructure projects that have a substantial and lasting impact on reducing both embedded and operational carbon“.