David Clark, partner at global sustainable engineering and design consultancy Cundall, has left for new grounds in the form of his own sustainability consultancy, Positive Zero. It’s a bid to collaborate more widely, share knowledge and “work with companies that really want to make a difference”.
The consultancy will work on corporate strategy, knowledge guidance, and buildings and infrastructure, basically “anything in the built environment”.
“By being a small boutique business, I can work with anybody,” he tells The Fifth Estate. “If you want minimum compliance, don’t call me! I have a moral duty to make a difference, and help anyone else who wants to make a difference also.”
Talking over the phone in the middle of packing boxes, Clark gives us an invaluable piece of business advice: “If you are going to start a business, don’t do it in the middle of moving house!”
To clarify – he’s not packing boxes due to his move from Cundall. He is leaving “on very good terms” and plans to still do a couple of days of work for the consultancy every week. He’s still got steam to keep driving Cundall projects like the Zero Carbon Design 2030 initiative, which he set up a few years ago.
His work at Cundall has spanned almost 18 years and he previously worked for companies like Sinclair Knight Merz, Mott MacDonald, and Connell Wagner. Clark has been around “since the formative period of sustainability consulting”, he says, and even worked on the first Green Star rating tool in 2001 with the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA).
“We face some pretty huge challenges around climate, biodiversity, and resource extraction. I wanted to set up a business specifically to tackle those challenges in the built environment.”
He’s been working on a project with the GBCA, a guide to building electrification that will explain the issues, drivers and challenges “without oversimplifying it”.
Clark is also the author of the book What Colour is your Building?: Measuring and reducing the energy and carbon footprint of buildings, which in the next reprint will be made available for the public free of charge to encourage knowledge-sharing.
The goal for his new consultancy, Positive Zero, is to really tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges head-on, and make the biggest impact that he can.
“We face some pretty huge challenges around climate, biodiversity, and resource extraction. I wanted to set up a business specifically to tackle those challenges in the built environment.”
The challenges we are facing, he says, are like climbing a steep mountain.
“We have huge strides to take, but we need to take everyone along with us. We can’t expect everyone to be able to climb the cliff. We need to build steps up to the top. Because if we set the bar too high, people won’t even try to get over it.”
“We have huge strides to take, but we need to take everyone along with us. We can’t expect everyone to be able to climb the cliff. We need to build steps up to the top. Because if we set the bar too high, people won’t even try to get over it.”
The business will tackle the challenge in three areas. First, to help corporates set ambitious yet achievable ESG (environmental, social and governance) goals. Second, to work on buildings and infrastructure and “get it right from the start”.
Third, to collaborate and share knowledge freely.
“We have so little time to tackle these challenges. We won’t solve them through competition, we need to share.
“There is so much work to be done here. You can only work on a certain number of projects in your career – but if you can influence others, your impact is much larger.
“I’ve been in sustainability for over 20 years… Unfortunately, we don’t have another 20 years to figure this out.”
David Clark says that in the past year or so, there’s been a significant change in the market – from box-ticking, to “oh actually, we really need to do something here”.
He has worked on a range of projects. From the Sydney Opera House, to rugby stadiums, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and Federation Square; he has worked in areas ranging from structural engineering, to building services, to sustainability.
“We have so little time to tackle these challenges. We won’t solve them through competition.”
He says that this diverse range of projects all have one thing in common – they start by identifying the problems, and then solve them. It’s simple, really.
Well, actually… “It’s complex, there’s a lot of technical issues to solve, and you have to communicate those issues in a way that people understand. It can get complicated very quickly. You can’t do everything, so in the midst of all this, how can you break it down and communicate it – communication is really important.”
He often tells people that the easiest project would be the world’s greenest building. Because in that case, they’re already committed to the goal, so no one needs to be convinced.
“It’s complex, there’s a lot of technical issues to solve, and you have to communicate those issues in a way that people understand.”
For the average organisation or individual, it’s a matter of helping them to understand the business case for sustainability – understand that it’s going to benefit the business, and engage and inspire them to make a difference.
The challenge he is facing isn’t to create “the world’s greenest building”. It’s to improve what’s already built, and encourage those planning new buildings to improve the sustainability in their design and construction.
And that comes down to knowledge sharing and collaboration. So no one needs to climb that mountain alone.