Submitted by Tess S on Thu, 10/15/2020 – 10:45

Twenty years ago The Green Register (TGR) was conceived at my kitchen table after months and months of mulling over an idea I’d had to create an independent, sustainable building training organisation.

I had identified three issues I wanted to address, that is to provide:

– unbiased technical information;

– a register of professionals committed to sustainable building available to potential clients;

– a network for like minded people who could support each other and share ideas.

I worried about what this organisation would look like: how could I get this started, who I could persuade to become trainers, would our training be effective and how on earth it would be funded? Two decades on and I’m honestly bowled over by how things have turned out.

We’ve provided training and guidance on sustainable building practices to many thousands of construction professionals around the UK and have grown from a tiny south London outfit to a nationwide independent training organisation. We even brought our training to Gibraltar one year and wondered how much further we might travel…

Global domination plans aside, here in 2020 I have the immense satisfaction of knowing that we have helped to inform and encourage many construction professionals in all aspects of sustainability. But I think what really carries me through challenging times – just like now with Covid-19 – is the fact that everyone I work with, from our wonderful, small-but-dedicated TGR team, to all our knowledgeable trainers through to all the like minded organisations that we work and collaborate with is that there is so, so much good will.

I have never had any reason to doubt that all the colleagues and associates we work with are in the business of sustainable construction for the same reasons as we are. And that is to effect positive change, to build beautiful buildings, to protect our one-and-only planet and to share all that fantastic knowledge that inhabits the minds of all our trainers as widely as possible. And oh yes, to be able to earn a decent living doing so.

As a marker of twenty years and to share some of our success, we’ll be making a donation to Fareshare (https://fareshare.org.uk). Fareshare is a charity that, like TGR has, taken three problems – in their case, poverty, food waste and poor nutrition – and created a solution that has a really positive real effect.

Here’s to the next twenty years.

Lucy Pedler, director and founder, The Green Register