EDITOR’S COMMENT Imagine if you could save the lives of 50% of the population. How would that make you feel? Proud? Overwhelmingly happy? On top of the world? Like a superhero?
It would be pretty epic, wouldn’t it. Well, guess what? If you work in this sector you can.
I have often said to myself – usually when I feel guilty about being distracted from work – “It’s OK, it’s not like we are curing cancer; this is real estate.”
How wrong I was. This industry can play a part in curing cancer.
This was one of six revelations I took away with me from our latest EG Future Leaders showcase. That the built environment has the power to save lives.
With statistics now showing that one in two of us will get cancer, we will all know at least one person who has suffered with this horrible disease. We might even be that person.
Future Leader Hattie Charlier-Poole was and on 8 June she made the most compelling case for why this industry needs to do more to protect the planet, particularly its biodiversity: her life.
Without two specific cancer drugs, both based on natural sources, Hattie wouldn’t be here today.
What a responsibility and power for the built environment to hold. If we destroy, we kill. If we protect, we cure. Easy choice, right?
This theme of responsibility, of ability to effect change, ran through all six amazing speeches. Each gave me – and the audience that gathered to watch them – pause for thought. We can make a difference through what we do. But we have to act. Talk is futile. Only doing is enough.
You can read all about them on page 40 but I implore you to click here so you can watch and listen to them. This is the first step to your “do”. What you do next could be your opportunity to become that life-saving superhero.
I always come away from a Future Leaders event hopeful. I finish the night often wiping away a few tears but pumped. Excited for the future. Full of belief that there is positive change in this sector. I see it in the Future Leaders but I feel it in the audience.
And this week I hope to start to see and feel it in the RICS, the institution that is meant to be the voice of much of this sector, the shining light that turns ordinary people into superheroes – or surveyors at least.
Lord Bichard finally published his review into the sorry affair that we have seen played out over the past year or so.
For me, key among his 36 recommendations was his call for the RICS to amend its royal charter to emphasise that it acts in the public interest. That the RICS does not exist for its own sake (just to collect those huge volumes of membership fees), but to “achieve positive outcomes for society”.
He called too for more transparency and a clear separation of its commercial activities and urged that control be handed back to its members.
I really hope the RICS does more than just change its management structure and refocus its charter. I hope it changes its attitude and actions. And why shouldn’t it? What an amazing purpose for this industry: to achieve positive outcomes for society – like saving the life of the one in two of us who will get cancer.
I can’t finish this week’s leader without a little doff of my cap to Mr Damian Wild, who leaves EG this week after 13 years. A true leader. Smart, funny, kind. Damian has had such an impact in this sector, at EG and on me too and he will continue to do so leading ING Media. He’s been a mentor and a friend to me and so many others. I know I speak for more than just me when I say, we will miss you Damian. And thank you.
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@eg.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @EGPropertyNews
