This week underlines how the climate crisis has become a central concern for governments and businesses alike, with Boris Johnson setting out more ambitious carbon cutting targets for the UK while president Joe Biden hosts a climate summit that coincides with today’s Earth Day, an environmental event that is attracting more attention than previous years.

Construction has arguably been slow to find joined up approaches to tackling carbon emissions, something Erland Rendall is keen to address. He is the founder of the new digital platform called GluIQ that he thinks can help clients find sustainable solutions for their building projects.

A QS by background Rendall spent 16 years at Davis Langdon before setting up his own consultancy Atorus in 2012 - the company behind GluIQ. The original idea for the cloud-based construction data management platform, that includes sustainability guidance for clients, first came to Rendall 20 years ago, but only really started to come together in 2017.

When the pandemic took hold he pushed last spring’s product launch back, but the delay meant the venture took an fortuitous turn as he joined forces with Jennifer Dixon and Sarah Williams, who founded RIBA client advisers Design Thinking. This collaboration led to the platform incorporating detailed sustainability guidance for clients.

To mark today’s launch of their joint effort Rendall spoke to Building about the concept, the gap he saw in the market and how he hopes to make a difference. 

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