More must be done if Nottingham is to achieve its aim of becoming the first carbon-neutral city in England by 2028 – including refurbishing existing buildings rather than putting up new ones.

That was the conclusion of a panel of property and construction experts who took part in a Simplify Sustainability’ roundtable organised in the city by construction giant Willmott Dixon.

The 14-strong panel discussed a range of issues, concluding that greater collaboration, sharing common standards and clearer guidance were needed to make the grade.

Only this week Nottingham City Council’s leaders said 10 years of Workplace Parking Levies had already played a key part in putting the brakes on congestion and CO2 emissions and pumped millions into sustainable transport.

The panel included Joanne Murray, executive consultant at property and construction consultants Gleeds, who said it was often hard to come up with the right solution when trying to balance the needs of clients and the climate agenda.

She said: “It’s important to remember that – as an industry – we are providing solutions for opposing client priorities, such as sustainable development and low-cost housing for example.

“This makes it very difficult for all organisations to be working towards carbon neutrality at the same pace.

“With this challenge in mind, engagement with the public sector and across the private sector is critical.

“Professionals must use their voice though and not be afraid of being held accountable.

“Sometimes all that’s needed is the courage to say we don’t need that new building and the expertise to share a refurbishment plan.”

Nick Gibb, deputy managing director for the Midlands at Willmott Dixon, said: “In Nottingham, ambitious plans to become the first carbon-neutral city in England fill us with excitement and belief that those with influence have their priorities in the right place.

“That said, as an industry, design and build capability will only go so far and while we’re doing everything we can to combine the efforts of different disciplines, one of the most important takeaways from our recent roundtable was that there is a definitive performance gap with new buildings.

“The public and private sectors need to come together and lead the way in educating on energy usage.

“While influential institutions like colleges and universities can create holistic estates strategies to ensure their building stock is performing as efficiently as possible, it’s imperative that they do so now and not later.

“Meanwhile, the construction industry needs to rewrite the rule book and ensure that everything we hand over is above and beyond the current standards – which can definitely go further.”

Umesh Desai, director of estates at Nottingham Trent University, said: “I think that one of the challenges of estates management, in relation to sustainability, is the ever-changing needs of users.

“At the university, we’re proud to offer state-of-the-art facilities to our students and have a mix of new and existing buildings, but the way forward must be focussed on showing that fit-for-purpose and sustainable is more important than fit-for-purpose and eye-catching.