An effort to skill up the UK workforce to tackle the climate crisis opened this week in Roehampton, as the University unveiled its new sustainable engineering centre.
The Dorothy Buchanan Building – a £6 million facility funded by the Office for Students – welcomed its first students in September and began full teaching this month. It’s the university’s answer to what experts are calling a national emergency: the UK is short more than 200,000 workers with the green skills needed to hit the government’s 2050 net zero target.
The building is named after Dorothy Buchanan, a Scottish civil engineer who in 1927 became the first woman in Britain to qualify as a professional engineer. She worked on iconic structures including Newcastle’s Tyne Bridge and Sydney Harbour Bridge. “I felt that I represented all the women in the world,” she said at the time. “It was my hope that I would be followed by many others.”
Nearly 100 years later, the building bearing her name is designed to train those followers—the construction workers, engineers, and architects who will retrofit Britain’s homes, design low-carbon buildings, and construct the infrastructure needed for a green economy.
The 3,000-square-metre centre includes workshops for engineering and fabrication, environmental and digital labs, project studios, and computer-aided design facilities. The building itself was constructed using sustainable design, converting existing university buildings rather than building from scratch.
“Over the next five years, an additional 266,000 skilled workers are needed to address employer demand in the built environment industries,” said Dr Richard Keogh, the university’s Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and External Engagement, when the funding was announced in 2022.
The shortage is particularly urgent in construction and the built environment, which together account for 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions. Without enough trained workers to retrofit homes, install heat pumps, and build renewable energy infrastructure, the government’s legally binding net zero commitment is at risk.
The new centre offers courses in civil engineering, architectural technology, construction management, and architectural engineering. All programmes put sustainability at their core, with students working on real-world projects that tackle climate challenges. The university plans to launch degree apprenticeships next year, allowing people to earn while they learn on the job.
Leading the department is Professor Stephen Pretlove, who has spent 30 years teaching in built environment courses across the UK. His team includes construction engineers, architects, and sustainability experts who joined specifically to launch this new centre in 2024. Many bring decades of industry experience – from designing hospitals to managing major construction projects – into the classroom.
Unlike traditional lecture-based courses, students here work in mixed teams across different years and programmes to solve design challenges, mirroring how the construction industry actually works. The teaching explicitly links to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, connecting classroom learning to global climate action.
The centre sits on Roehampton’s parkland campus in southwest London, which serves around 13,000 students. The university traces its roots back to 1841 when Whitelands College was founded as one of the first teacher training schools for women in the UK.
More information about the centre’s programmes is available on the University of Roehampton website.
