This month, we teamed up with Muse, engineering consultancy Cundall, and CBRE to launch an exciting new podcast, Future Foundations. This four part series takes a deep dive into the future of commercial buildings, exploring how we can keep them sustainable while meeting the ever evolving needs of modern occupiers.

It also covers our work at Island in Manchester; designed with ‘Happy Humans’ in mind this building has raised the bar for commercial workspaces – something we discuss in detail on the podcast.

Here, Lee Treanor reflects on some key discussions and shares additional insights from the series.

Island is HBD’s 100,000sq ft net zero carbon workspace, a home for forward thinking businesses that prioritise people, place, and planet. It’s been the focus of much of my work this year and given me plenty to talk about – including during a fortuitous recent conversation with Phil Marsden, Managing Director at Muse Developments in the North West.

Earlier this year, Phil and I found ourselves comparing notes on the challenges of developing sustainable buildings, me on Island and him on the Eden building at New Bailey in Salford. As the conversation went on, we had a bit of a lightbulb moment: why not work together on a podcast to share the discussion publicly? We realised that by talking openly about our learnings we could provide some insight into this ever evolving topic and it may help others avoid the pitfalls we encountered.

With the support of our teams, the idea quickly gathered momentum. Before long, we’d recruited Simon Wyatt from Cundall and CBRE’s Head of Sustainability, Debbie Hobbs. Rounding off the team was our brilliant host, Stacey Meadwell – former journalist at industry title Estates Gazette.

A few weeks ago, our keen group gathered in a Manchester studio to start recording, covering everything from sustainable design to the merits of retrofitting versus new builds (a topic Phil and I had plenty to say about!) and even the surprisingly engaging topic of opening windows; yes, really.

I know podcasts are everywhere these days, but I genuinely think we’ve created something unique here. It’s not every day you hear so called competitors sit around a microphone, being this open and candid. Phil and I both wore our hearts on our sleeves, talking realistically about what it takes to create buildings like Island and Eden, what we’ve learnt along the way, and – most importantly – how we and others can take the learnings to improve future schemes.

Stacey’s journalistic eye and deep understanding of the industry added an extra layer to the discussions, keeping the debate lively and insightful, while Simon and Debbie brought plenty to the table, sharing their own valuable experiences from different angles of the sustainability spectrum including the all important occupier perspective.

In fact, we found it hard to keep it to just four episodes, as there’s just so much ground to cover. Hopefully, this is only the beginning and we’ll be back for more soon.

The takeaway from all of this? Creating sustainable buildings isn’t just about competing, it’s about collaborating. If we’re serious about hitting Net Zero targets, we must set aside rivalries, work together, and share what we learn, from both our successes and our stumbles.

So, listen to Future Foundations, and join the conversation on our socials so that we can keep the dialogue alive, and keep creating spaces that prioritise people, planet, and progress.