Rebecca Lovelace of Building People and CIOB EDI Individual Award Winner 2022

[edit] Guest Editor Rebecca Lovelace, Founder and Chief Dot-joiner at Building People CIC

Rebecca Lovelace, from working in the homelessness and international humanitarian aid sectors to construction, and founding Building People, describes herself as a ‘Chief Dot-joiner’ in a sector struggling with skills shortages but lacking joined-up connections to the many organisations working with people from under-represented groups that help to plug these gaps.

Building People’s mission is to improve representation across the built environment by enabling and empowering a collaborative movement for inclusive change. The social enterprise has brought together a ‘Network of Networks’ of over sixty organisations that provide built environment careers support to people from under-represented groups, with areas of focus including race and ethnicity, gender, youth, LGBTQ+, refugees, criminal justice, ex-military and disability, neurodiversity and wellbeing.

Through Building People, Rebecca’s passion is to bring people, needs and organisations together, enabling joined-up connections to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) resources and opportunities. Whether it’s simplifying access to careers opportunities for individuals and enabling employers to widen talent pools, with a laser focus on under-representation and inclusion, or lobbying industry groups to drive behavioural and cultural change together, the Building People commitment is to reduce fragmentation, avoid duplication and to drive collaboration.

[edit] Could you tell us why you have chosen the particular news articles from the site and from the web for this week’s features?

[edit] Three year equity, diversity and inclusion action plan

I mention this article below. It’s the first true example of broad professional body collaboration that is seeking to drive change in equity, diversity and inclusion that I have witnessed in my 20 years plus in the sector. What I particularly like is the active commitment from the institutions leading the action plan to share their expertise with others, especially the professional bodies, and I’m able to play a very small part in supporting this through my role as Deputy Chair of the Construction Industry Council’s EDI committee, and through work with the Construction Leadership Council.

[edit] Diversity and inclusion

It’s the landing page for the People Wiki and contains just a selection of the many articles available to support the sector to become more equitable, diverse and inclusive. One example is also given below.

[edit] Building Peoples Network of Networks

Amplifying the voices of organisations that work with under-represented groups There are many disparate organisations that provide construction and built environment careers support to people from diverse and under-represented groups.

Building People brings these organisations and initiatives together to facilitate discussion, collaboration and change. We amplify the voices of the under-represented, empowering and promoting a ‘Network of Networks’ that has the reach into the people our sector needs.

This network is open to all organisations and initiatives that work with under-represented groups to facilitate construction and built environment careers. More here.

[edit] Construction Leadership Council’s Industry Skills Plan 2023-2024

https://www.constructionleadershipcouncil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/CLC-Skills-Plan-2023-24-FINAL.pdf

This is a vitally important link to the Construction Leadership Council’s ‘Industry Skills Plan Update’ as it includes a commitment to developing ‘the first ever comprehensive Equity, Diversity and Inclusion plan for the construction and built environment sector’. This is big news. It’s not new news and it’s not easy news, but it exists as a commitment to bring about change in an area where leadership and coordination is sorely needed.

[edit] Construction Industry Council's diversity and inclusion panel

https://www.cic.org.uk/committees-and-networks/diversity-and-inclusion-panel

Complementing the work of the Construction Leadership Council (above), this page from the Construction Industry Council is recently updated and so important as it references the vital ‘one voice’ approach and support to existing sector initiatives that is so needed – not reinventing the wheel, nor duplicating effort, but promoting and enabling collaboration on all matters equity, diversity and inclusion across the built environment sector. Joining the dots makes me happy.

[edit] Can you tell us a little about your background, activities and interest in buildings?

[edit] Including the under-represented

I have worked in the built environment for over twenty years. I started my career in the homelessness sector, then moved into international humanitarian aid and very accidentally ended up working on a construction project in central London. That small role began my built environment journey, which has consistently been about collaboratively joining the dots between a sector struggling with skills shortages and the many organisations working with people from under-represented groups that should be more successfully filling these gaps.

[edit] Accessibility through equality, diversity and inclusion

Last year, I was honoured to win CIOB’s inaugural Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) award and had an unexpected question from the presenter asking why EDI is so important in the built environment. My honest answer was that I wanted to leave the event that evening, walking from the venue to the railway station and then to my car, and get home safely without feeling scared and vulnerable, because my journey home had been designed, planned and built by people like me. Diversity of workforce means diversity of thought and action.

I simply want to see a world that is designed and built by and for everyone; a world in which we can all live, work and play, with safety, health and happiness integrated into the fabric of our built environment. Having greater representation at all levels across the workforce is a crucial step in creating a more inclusive built environment. There’s lots already in place, which, for me, means my interest in the sector is all about enabling collaboration, creating connections, reducing fragmentation and ensuring no duplication of effort.

[edit] Do you think there are specific areas of knowledge that are lacking across the industry?

I’d say that it’s less about specific areas of knowledge and more about reducing the fragmentation that prevents the sharing of knowledge. Paul Morrell identified this at a recent CIOB lecture I attended, with a list of problems that include: a sector composed of silos, too many transactional relationships, no feedback loop and – crucially – no one owning the whole process. My take on this – through an EDI lens – is a lack of joined-up expert leadership when it comes to inclusion and representation in the sector: too many players running their own initiatives, with insufficient leadership, knowledge and coordination throughout the process.

[edit] Do you think there is value in sharing knowledge across disciplines and institutions? And what are the main barriers to sharing and applying knowledge?

Yes – see above!

[edit] Courage is where culture and collaboration meet

Sir James Wates put this well when he said that ‘courage’ is at the intersection of ‘culture’ and ‘collaboration’. I firmly believe that we need to collaborate to change the culture of the sector, but this does seem to go so strongly against the grain of how we operate. We need to be brave too.

[edit] The connection of building safety and marginalisation

An example that I often use is around building safety: it’s historically been hard to stand up and challenge unsafe practices and procedures, and whilst this may now be easier than in the past, given the investment in the sector to create incident- and injury-free workplaces, plus the horrific examples of what happens when corners are cut or poor standards are accepted, how much harder is it to speak up if someone is already marginalised because they come from an under-represented part of the workforce? We can’t separate inclusion from building safety, let alone from any other parts of the sector, so sharing and applying knowledge across disciples and institutions is vital.

[edit] Joint action plans in the right direction

I do feel heartened by the collaborative approach of six of the institutions that have committed to a joint action plan to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive built environment sector. It’s a strong and much needed approach and probably the link that I share most often!

[edit] How did you first discover Designing Buildings?

When I first came up with the idea behind Building People – one place that brought together the many organisations and initiatives driving representation and inclusion across the sector – I was seeking a way to share knowledge. There was certainly no point in reinventing what already existed, so forming a partnership with Designing Buildings through the People Wiki was just a simply brilliant way forward.

[edit] The People Wiki

The People Wiki brings together articles on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Social Value, and Skills and Careers. It’s delivered with the Building People and one of my huge frustrations is the limited amount of capacity we have at Building People to ensure that resources from our network are also captured within the Wiki. So many dots to join, and just not enough time.

[edit] Do you browse the homepage features or receive the biweekly newsletter? And do you like or dislike about the site, its content or its functions?

One of my favourite parts of the site is the area in which students can share their research. This came about because of regular requests to complete ‘women in construction’ surveys that often focused on the same questions, seeking to research areas in which conclusions and ideas already existed, but with no access to the final report. We created this research area in which students could share their dissertations and would like to see this populated in time through the universities. Another goal that forms part of the big ambition…

[edit] Do you have any favourite themes relating to buildings and construction, particular eras of construction, styles, technical areas or any favourite building that springs to mind?

[edit] Incorporating of true accessibility into building design

Any space that has been designed and built with accessibility in mind, not just on a physical level, but also taking into account neurodiversity, culture and – as before – health, happiness and safety. A space that welcomes all and makes our interaction with the built environment one that benefits society.

[edit] Could you give us a little feedback on how you found the experience of being our guest editor.

Sitting down to focus on the guest editor slot presented me with a good opportunity to recognise that key milestones (the Construction Leadership Council diversity plan commitment and the joint institutes’ collaborative action plan are the two that really stand out for me) have been achieved, and these activities were nowhere on the radar when I founded Building People in 2017.

I’m really proud of the Network of Networks that we have created and want to see greater resource put against the individual organisations that form it, but also to enable the vital leadership and coordination needed. Of course, a huge amount remains to be done but – for me – the first step is committing to do the work together and it finally feels as if growing numbers of people across the sector are stepping up with the courage needed to collaborate, and to truly drive culture change together.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• Balance for better: why lack of diversity is an issue for everyone.
• Charter for diversity and inclusion in construction and special report launched by CIOB.
• Diversity and inclusion.
• Diversity in the built environment sector.
• Diversity in the construction industry.
• Inclusivity in engineering.
• Industry Skills Plan 2023-2024.
• LGBTQ+ Community.
• Research: Diversity, skills and social value.
• Skills shortage.