Built to Last: Sustainability’s Business Case in Turbulent Times

Periods of geopolitical instability have a habit of reminding us how reliant modern economies are on global resource flows, and how exposed they still are to fossil-fuel volatility in particular. Over recent years, repeated energy shocks have rippled through prices, supply chains and business confidence, turning energy security from a strategic risk into an immediate commercial concern. For construction, that exposure is especially clear. When fuel costs rise sharply, the effects are quickly felt through plant, logistics, materials and temporary site infrastructure.

Energy shocks expose an unfinished transition

In the UK, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have sharpened an argument about whether turbulence strengthens the case for the transition to a lower-carbon economy or weakens it. Volatile energy prices have renewed calls for more domestic drilling, particularly in the North Sea, as the answer to energy insecurity. Meanwhile, the cross-party consensus that once surrounded the 2050 target has fractured, with the Conservative leadership stepping back from it in 2025, and Reform UK going further by pledging to scrap the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero altogether.

And yet, what recent shocks have actually shown, repeatedly, is not that the transition has gone too far, but that our economy remains highly exposed precisely because it has not gone far enough. The vulnerability being felt across markets and businesses is the product of continued dependence on globally traded fossil fuels, with all the price risk and geopolitical febrility that brings. The Climate Change Committee’s March 2026 analysis, published as oil prices surged past $100 a barrel, found that the total cost of a single fossil fuel shock on the scale of the 2022 crisis is likely to equal the total additional net cost of the entire net zero transition to 2050.

Why business hasn’t retreated from sustainability

It’s easy, in moments like this, to mistake political noise for economic direction. Yet the evidence of a wholesale retreat from sustainability remains thin. Reuters IMPACT: Global Sustainability Report 2025 found that 75% of C-suite leaders rate sustainability as a top priority, up six percentage points in six months at the end of 2025, while organisations scaling up sustainability goals still outnumber those scaling them down by more than three to one. Indeed, over the past year, multiple research studies have come to a similar conclusion: businesses are not walking away from their sustainability commitments, rather, they’re reframing them around business imperatives of “efficiency” and “resilience”. That shift in language is not a reversal — it’s a strategic recalibration. It looks more like a market that is maturing and becoming disciplined: less of a communications exercise, more of a driver of resilience, competitiveness and long-term value.

For construction, that discipline should feel familiar. Whole-life value, operational performance, reduced exposure to volatile energy costs and stronger long-term asset resilience are not abstract ideals; they are increasingly central to what customers are asking for. The same shift is visible in the growing emphasis on performance statistics and assurance: 85% of the FTSE 100 now obtain some form of third-party ESG assurance, a sign that credible evidence increasingly matters as much as ambition.

Construction’s role in proving commercial value

The reality is that both science and economics continue to underpin the business case for corporate sustainability. The UK climate has been warming at around 0.25°C per decade since the 1980s. Climate disruption is no longer a future scenario; it is a present-day risk, with direct implications for infrastructure, insurance, supply chains and asset resilience.

The economics are just as clear. The world added nearly 700GW of renewable capacity in 2025. Solar and wind power are now consistently cheaper than fossil fuels, often dramatically so. Climate tech investment attracts 20% of global tech funding, and the UK’s net zero economy grew at more than three times the rate of the wider economy in 2024. These are not passing trends. They are structural shifts in capital, technology and economic value.

For construction, this moment is therefore both an opportunity and a test. The sector sits at the intersection where long-term growth, infrastructure renewal and resilience meet. The UK Government’s 10-year infrastructure strategy sets out at least £725 billion of funding over the coming decade, designed to provide greater certainty for investors, supply chains and delivery partners while supporting growth, public service renewal and a more resilient built environment. This is not a market stepping back from ambition. It is a market becoming more exacting about what good delivery looks like.

From declarations to delivery

Customers are not looking for broad statements of intent. They increasingly expect measurable outcomes, dependable performance and evidence that assets will remain viable, efficient and attractive over the long term. This creates an opportunity for contractors to demonstrate low-carbon delivery, credible data, verified performance and a practical response to energy volatility, offering something more commercially robust in a market that is still growing, but becoming more discerning.

Increasingly, that means showing not only how buildings are designed and delivered, but how they perform in use. Willmott Dixon’s Energy Synergy® service, now monitoring 22 projects and supporting customers to optimise in-use building performance, is one practical example of that shift. The next phase will favour organisations that deliver, not just declare. Energy saved, carbon reduced, waste prevented, performance verified: these are increasingly the differentiators that separate leaders from followers, and that customers will pay for. The assets being built now will still be in use fifty years from today. How they perform in a more volatile, climate-exposed world is not a future question - it is already being priced in.

Political headwinds are real, but they have not changed the underlying trajectory. The right response is not to lose confidence in the transition, but to make the case for it more crisply on commercial grounds, with evidence, and without apology.

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Julie Hirigoyen is a non-executive director at Willmott Dixon Holdings Ltd and has 25 years’ experience in property and construction across private, public and third sector roles.

She is also Senior Advisor at Systemiq, special advisor to CBRE and Non-Executive director at fund manager Thriving Investments. Julie was previously CEO of UK Green Building Council which, under her tenure, transformed in scale and profile to become the building industry’s voice on sustainability.