For over two decades, The Green Register has trained construction professionals from all disciplines in the industry to build better, more sustainable buildings. We are independent, self-supporting and not-for-profit, grateful to the support of our membership and collaborators who work with us to improve construction industry practices. Our hand-picked training team embodies the work we do – a holistic approach to the built environment with a focus upon quality and sustainability.
Through our training, The Green Register supports you in reducing your building’s impact upon the environment and we aim to bring sustainable building practices to the fore across many aspects. Throughout the year, you’ll find interactive training and knowledge-sharing events that span topics such as healthy buildings, natural materials, energy-saving methodologies including Passivhaus, retrofit for older buildings and, key to optimal building performance – the management of heat, moisture and airtightness.
If you’re looking for training for yourself or colleagues, seeking to join us as a member or looking for a collaboration on your next project – we look forward to welcoming you.
Our story so far
The Green Register was founded in 2000 by Lucy Pedler, an ecological architect and key member of Construction Resources, the UK’s first environmental building centre.
With a growing client demand for building with lower-impact methods, there was an urgent need for sustainability skills and knowledge in the construction industry. Nowhere was a list of sustainability experts available for clients to confidently engage to deliver low-carbon construction projects, nor a resource for like-minded sustainability experts seeking collaboration on projects.
So, with a modest £5,000 start-up grant from Southwark Energy Agency, Lucy set about creating The Green Register – a publicly available list of professional members with a commitment to building sustainably.
A training programme was next. Having delivered a prototype course, ‘Ecological Building Services’, at Construction Resources the previous year, Summer 2000 saw the two-day training on key aspects of sustainable building expanded to audiences in Norwich, London, Sussex, Bristol and Sheffield. Among the first of its kind, the course drew acclaim from architects, contractors and other professionals as a necessary and objective guide to best practice in sustainable construction.
Building upon this strong foundation, we have expanded training across many topics in sustainable building – from airtightness to natural materials to low-carbon technologies. Through our considerable network of expert trainers, this has been delivered across many formats – workshops, conferences, online training, site visits and bespoke CPD.
Today, The Green Register continues to provide unique and independent training to update our community of construction professionals with new ideas, technologies, methodologies and legislation. And many within our valued community of trainers, supporters and members have in turn played a vital role in developing and delivering expert training.
From Lucy Pedler’s pioneering first steps in creating and sharing sustainable construction knowledge, innovation has played a major part in The Green Register’s mission. We remain the only UK training providers to deliver the WUFIPro software training for modelling and managing moisture in buildings. In 2014, ‘Retrofitting Traditional Buildings’ with Nick Heath was launched, and is among our most popular courses today. In 2018, under central government funding and in collaboration with Centre for Sustainable Energy, Futureproof retrofit training for builders was created. This was the precursor to 2024’s Retrofit Skills – a Level 2 qualification accredited by ABBE.
We like to keep moving – literally! The Green Register’s ‘Retrofit in Transit’ is a mobile training unit for outreach activities. This year, we’ve been parking up outside community centres, builders’ merchants, schools, and colleges to bring the concepts of sustainable building to these diverse groups. Inside, the trailer hosts low-carbon technologies, bio-based materials and build-up models of typical retrofit systems, such as roof insulation.
Where would you like to see us go next? We always welcome suggestions for training, projects or outreach activities. Help us to define the next stage in The Green Register’s journey and we’ll help you to build even better and more sustainably.
Collaborators & Clients
Over the years we have worked with many organisations including:
- Aereco
- Adaptavate
- The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products
- Bath College
- Bath & West Community Energy
- Bristol City Council
- Bristol Energy Network
- Centre for Sustainable Energy
- Cheltenham Borough Council
- City of Bristol College
- Cosy Homes Oxfordshire
- Dovetail Design & Build
- Earthwise Construction
- ech2o
- Ecology Building Society
- Ecological Building Systems
- Eight Versa
- Federation of Master Builders
- Future Leap
- The Good Homes Alliance
- Green Building Encyclopedia
- Greenheart Sustainable Construction
- Hawkland Construction
- JTP
- Low Carbon Homes
- Mike Wye
- NDM Heath
- Orium Design
- Parnosa
- PHC Renewables
- Pobl
- Pollard Thomas Edwards
- Retrofit West
- RIBA
- Somerset Council
- South Gloucestershire and Stroud College
- Southern Housing
- RICS
- 21 Degrees
- Spruce Retrofit
- Stride Treglown
- Unity Lime
- The Welsh Government
- West of England Combined Authority
- YTKO