Wednesday marked the last formal FIS Working Group meeting for 2023 with the FIS Sustainability Leadership Group descending on Clerkenwell, kindly hosted by Troldtekt in their showroom. As host Steve Mansell kindly acted as Guest Chair (this Chair for this group rotates between the members).
Action: If you are interested are a contractor and interested in sustainability and haven’t could you please complete our survey here (it is helping to inform our work).
The meeting was a chance to reflect on key work programmes associated with supporting sustainable transformation and a net zero approach within the finishes and interiors sector.
As in all aspects of our activity the FIS focus of this group is observation (understanding the challenges and opportunities), standardisation (encouraging consistency), normalisation (collective action) and representation (ensuring external barriers are understood and removed).
Led ably by FIS Sustainability Champion Flavie Lowres, the Leadership Group reviewed progress against the plan. This is an important area of focus and it is becoming increasingly so as clients start to interrogate in more detail the impact work.
The meeting zoned in on the area of re-use with the first live demo of the pre-refurbishment audit tool that FIS has been working to develop with the University of Hertfordshire (built around the standard Audit protocols FIS has developed and is currently working with NBS to turn into a specification standard). We also discussed the re-use initiative, our plans to set up a pilot collective re-use hub on the outskirts of London.
At the heart of all FIS does is collaboration and we have and are doubling down on our partnership with the Supply Chain Sustainability School in 2024 with a number of targeted training interventions:
| Upcoming sessions | Dates |
| Introduction to Modern Slavery webinar | 16th January at 10 – 11am |
| Using Lean for Continuous Improvement and Problem Solving workshop | 23rd January at 10am – 12pm |
| Net Zero , SBTs & Carbon Offsetting webinar | 1st February at 10 – 11am |
| Introduction to Circular Economy webinar | 15th February at 12 – 1pm |
| Embedding Sustainable Procurement workshop | 21st February at 9:30 – 11:30am |
| Business Case for FIR workshop | 12th March at 10am – 1pm |
| Building Level Assessments webinar | 21st March at 12 – 1pm |
| EPD webinar | Date TBC |
The plan is also to work with the School to help benchmark activity within the sector based on a framework that has been developed (in consultation with FIS). More on this in the New Year.
We had brief updates on the ongoing work around establishing a more consistent approach to information exchange and how we can better embrace social value in the work (the fourth discussion this week about the failure of Section 106 clauses to deliver positive outcomes and something we do intend to take on in 2024 – initially with the work we are doing with the City of London and the Skills for a Sustainable Skyline Taskforce).
We also had an update from Iain McIlwee, FIS CEO on why FIS is supporting Ska Rating as a mechanism to support the measurement of project impact within the sector. Iain has recently joined the Ska Board to help encourage uptake of and support investment in the next stage of development for what is already a fantastic process for measuring impact of refurbishment projects in retail, office and higher education.
We’d like to thank all members who have supported the Sustainability Leadership Group and provided inspiration, imagination, expertise and time to help shift the dial and we look forward to working with you all to deliver on your ambition in 2024.
The FIS sustainability group has grown since I started at FIS 2 years ago. It is very interesting forum where participants can share and collaborate on the topic of sustainability. The strength of the group is that it includes all the stakeholders from the fitout industry and all different levels of knowledge of sustainability.
If you are interested in getting involved in the FIS Sustainability Leadership Group in 2024 or just want to find out more about our activities, email flavielowres@thefis.org.
Action: If you are interested are a contractor and interested in sustainability and haven’t could you please complete our survey here (it is helping to inform our work).
Activity Map and update 2023 – FIS Sustainability Leadership Group.
Visit the FIS Sustainability Hub here