Futurebuild 2026 (12 – 14 May at Excel, London) is inviting visionary thinking from young industry professionals to tackle the green skills gap for a built and natural environment led by sustainability.
LinkedIn’s latest Green Skills Report highlights that the global workforce is not equipped to sustain the climate transition – particularly in the construction sector. Futurebuild is compiling a conference programme to give the next generation of expert, passionate professionals a voice and an opportunity to share knowledge and tools.
Martin Hurn, Event Director, comments: “The Arena Conference is designed to bring strategy and delivery together in a way that feels relevant to the challenges the industry is facing. It’s vitally important that we give young professionals the platform to influence how we respond to some of the biggest challenges of our time.”
With this in mind, the session Chair, Simon Rayner – a Policy Analyst at the Climate Change Committee – is posing the question: ‘What should 2030+ look like?’ to an impressive panel of ambitious Futurebuild 2026 speakers.
Participants include the Building the Future Awards’ Young Planner of the Year 2025, Munashe Mhemba, and Darcy Arnold-Jones – circular economy lead at architectural practice, Marks Barfield.
Also joining the discussion are Kimberley Ertl, an Engineer and Senior Sustainability Consultant at Expedition Engineering; Thomas Yunqing Bai, an Associate at Ares Landscape Architects and a member of the LI Knowledge and Practice Committee, alongside Ahmed Gilani, VP Construction Society and University of Reading and Constructionarium alumnus.
Architect Darcy Arnold-Jones (pictured above), who has experience in regenerative design and retrofit, specialising in material reuse and whole life carbon, comments: “I have a keen interest in climate conscious design and as a member of the Circular Do Tank, ACAN and The Edge I’m proud to be having some influence on the future of our profession. I implore anyone coming into the industry to leverage platforms, like Futurebuild, to establish cross-disciplinary collaboration and connections that allow for continual and collective improvement.”
A voice for young professionals
Young professionals are being given a voice over several stages across Futurebuild’s Main Conference and The National Retrofit arenas, as well as throughout its CPD-accredited knowledge programme.
A new fringe event being run by a collective of industry groups including ACAN, Architects Declare and Arc, is also providing a dedicated platform for up-and-comers to play a part in delivering content their peers care about and can act upon.
Furthermore, with organisers strategically collaborating with UK Construction Week London and The Stone & Surfaces Show, visitors can access 700+ high profile speakers across 11 stages – making it Futurebuild’s richest content programme yet.
Register to access all three events for free at futurebuild.co.uk
