The Building Podcast

Mark Wakeford
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Mark Wakeford is Chairman of the National Federation of Builders, vice-chair at Constructing Excellence Midlands and a Governor at Construction College, Moulton College.  He has run a large regional building contractor and now chairs Evoenergy, one of the UK's foremost renewable companies, bringing low carbon solutions to corporate Britain. Mark talks to leading experts from across the construction sector to discuss issues facing the built environment.  He explores various challenges with his guests, who offer solutions, information and ideas that listeners can apply to their own situations, be it in a company, on a project or studying at college. The Building Podcast aims to provide CPD on the go.  Supporting the sector with easily digestible ideas to support a rapidly changing industry!

  1. Mark talks to Rakesh Maharaj

    1D AGO

    Mark talks to Rakesh Maharaj

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome The Global Solar Council is the worldwide trade body for the solar sector.  It exists to promote solar and battery storage around the world and it has members in every continent that include regional trade bodies, individual corporates and the full range of stakeholders from banks to developers.  All are united to drive the adoption of solar at scale and at pace.  This includes an aspiration to deliver 8TW of generating capacity and over 300M domestic homes with solar PV by 2030.  This is only possible as the industry matures to take its place as the central generating mechanism for energy around the world.  The Global Solar Council’s role includes unlocking the constraints on this growth to make the industry truly sustainable. This remit includes the provision of skill standards for the industry and Rakesh Maharaj, founder of ARMSA Academy and a strategy director of the Global Solar Council, chairs the Skills Taskforce for the GSC.  He talks to Mark about the aspirations of the Taskforce and the need for standardisation of skills to ensure that installations are designed, installed and maintained by skilled professionals, regardless of where in the world solar is deployed.  This will provide confidence in the product and energy security within the power network.  Both crucial for investors, operators and ultimate beneficiaries of our energy networks around the world. Listen to this podcast to hear about the Skills Taskforce work and the application to countries around the world.  Hear why the balance between capacity and capability is so important, as is the need to train our corporate leaders in the Board rooms around the world.  Listen to this podcast to hear how to overcome regional variations in training and to recognise a competent workforce as an enabler in a vibrant and exciting industry.  Rakesh believes that those economies that grasp this opportunity now will hold this position for the next twenty years as they control the market for safe, reliable and efficient installations in a global market. Rakesh Maharaj | LinkedIn Digitising Organisational Development and Learning in Renewables

    46 min
  2. Mark talks to Simon Berry

    2D AGO

    Mark talks to Simon Berry

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome When responsible for 56,000 dwellings that are almost exclusively for vulnerable people towards the end of their lives, security and maintenance of building assets becomes a vital service.  Your customers depend upon an effective and affordable service that is understandable and does what it says on the tin!  Simon Berry is the Technical Standards and Specification lead for England’s largest housing provider for the elderly, Anchor.  He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building.  In his role he must ensure that all Anchor’s properties are safe, secure and properly maintained.  This includes the solar and battery installations that are common across his portfolio. Listen to Simon if you want to understand the governance and care with which he and his team approach this crucial element of Anchor’s services.  Hear how successful oversight has led to zero fires in either solar arrays or Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).  Hear the important role that this plays in supporting Anchor’s drive to net-zero. Simon Berry MSc FCIOB MIFireE | LinkedIn Anchor - Later Life is for Living

    43 min

  3. APR 27

    Mark talks to Susan Rose

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome We think that construction is a challenging sector to work within.  English China pottery is another level of complexity again, with only a handful of businesses left in place in their cultural homeland of Stoke on Trent.  Susan Rose China is one of those companies, which was started by Susan Rose, who remains as founder and Chief Executive. The podcast explores the key issues that any start up and any SME needs to focus on.  The lessons from Susan Rose are applicable to all businesses, including our construction and energy sectors.  These include the importance of customers and responding to their needs, the necessity of effective networking to find these customers and persuading them of the advantages of your product and a tight control on cash and input costs.  Like construction, skills and people are the source of all success and Susan talks about taking on apprentices to ensure the survival of her business. Above all Susan exudes passion, with a bloody-minded approach to success.  Anything is possible, provided they want it badly enough.  Communicate well within your team and follow your heart and great things can follow!  As a passionate advocate for British manufacturing Susan represents a powerhouse of ideas and advocacy.  Plenty of lessons for all of us in business! Susan Rose | LinkedIn English Bone China Gifts | Personalised China Mugs, Dishes, Trivets

    50 min

  4. APR 24

    Mark talks to Sebastian Leape

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome The United Kingdom is the most nature depleted county within Europe.  Businesses are beginning to realise that there is a symbiotic relationship with nature at a local and national scale and their success is linked to the success of nature within their ecosystem.  The challenge for sectors like construction and energy is the ability to measure their impact on nature and the opportunities for its improvement.  This is important, given the potential damage that our sectors can do to their environment and the environment of their supply chain partners. Sebastian Leape is the CEO of NatCap, a company that works with corporate businesses to measure, report and act on their nature related risks and opportunities.  Nat Cap prides itself on its ability to standardise measurement of nature and impacts, and the academic rigour with which it has approached the challenge.  Their work allows companies around the world to be confident in their actions and to recognise their position within their natural environment. Listen to this podcast to hear how it is possible to measure your impact on nature and to assess opportunities.  Hear why large businesses are now prioritising knowledge on the impact and ensuring that their supply chains are doing their bit to minimise their impact.  Sebastian also defines nature in a very wide and global basis, but brings it down to the impact on a site-by-site basis.  Listen to hear the impacts that even small businesses can influence and the opportunities that they can pursue. Sebastian Leape | LinkedIn Natcap | Empowering Businesses with Nature Intelligence

    49 min
  5. Mark talks to Laura Miranda Perez

    APR 15

    Mark talks to Laura Miranda Perez

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome The key element of a solar array is the solar panel, which is responsible for capturing the sun’s rays and converting them into useable electricity.  These panels are relatively inexpensive, but they are technically very advanced, using complex chemistry and physics to maximise their efficiency and resilience. Oxford PV is the first company worldwide to have developed the next generation of solar panels.  This can increase their maximum design efficiency from around 26% to over 35%, based on known technology and development trajectories.  Dr. Laura Miranda Perez is their Chief Strategy Officer and has worked for the company for over 12 years.  She has seen the opportunity grow from a few patents to its worldwide potential to further reduce the cost of solar energy, with its first commercially available panels being available by 2028. Listen to this podcast to find out about the opportunity that technology brings to the solar sector and the worldwide impact that a UK innovation can deliver.  Hear Laura discuss the product that is under development and her aspirations for the sector with this new technology.  Hear about the wide range of applications that will benefit from Perovskite and a higher performance panel. Oxford PV Laura Miranda | LinkedIn

    42 min

  6. APR 2

    Mark talks to Baroness Sue Campbell

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Baroness Sue Campbell of Loughborough has changed sport in the UK.  She has driven change in the school sport through her tenure of the Youth Sports Trust, delivered the most successful Olympic and Paralympic results in London at the 2012 games through her leadership of Sports UK and then turned her magic to women’s football and the responsible director at the Football Association.  Whilst we focus, quite rightly on the results, we should not lose sight that these results were delivered through organisations that required setting up, staffing and managing. With all these achievements and an ongoing commitment to Netball, the interview could have lasted all day, but the podcast focuses on what makes a successful organisation that can change the outcomes so significantly.  How do you create a culture around a mission and how do you lead that culture where everyone can buy in and perform above and beyond their expectations? Listen to the podcast to hear how Baroness Campbell took UK sport from a two person start up to a £200M business that changed sport in the UK.  Find out about the focus and clarity of objectives that forced investment into successful athletes at the expense of traditional recipients and the positive effects that this generated.  Hear of the importance of putting great people around you to get great results and the importance of governance when spending other people’s money.  Baroness Campbell also talks about the importance of exercise in business if staff are to continue to perform and the need to keep the general population active.  In business, as in sport, Baroness Campbell advocates for a moral priority over a business one, recognising that the best organisations combine the two. Sue Campbell, Baroness Campbell of Loughborough - Wikipedia The Game Changer – Lessons from the woman who transformed sport – Baroness Sue Campbell

    1h 1m
  7. Mark talks to Tracey Elliott

    MAR 17

    Mark talks to Tracey Elliott

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome The solar sector is a relatively new sector that is still creating the infrastructure to ensure the competence of its staff.  Tracey Elliott, a Director of Eden Sustainable Power, chairs the Skills Group of the industry trade body Solar Energy UK and is passionate about the provision of skills and diversity within the sector to ensure the best possible outcome for its ultimate customers.  Tracey talks about the opportunities within the sector and the huge growth worldwide that will mean that the sector can offer long, well paid careers to those who want to be on the right side of history, delivering a renewable infrastructure. The podcast explores the need for electricians within the wider construction industry and their role within the renewable sector and specifically solar.  Tracey talks about her research, initially in Devon, on the reasons behind the poor conversion of students to electricians.  She also defines green jobs as anyone who is working within the green economy, including the accountants, marketers, lawyers and receptionists, meaning that there is a huge range of potential for anyone who wants to work in the green economy. Listen to hear the focus on skills and routes to competence.  Listen to hear the opportunities and how you can get engaged to support new entrants at any level to join this exciting sector. Tracey Elliott | LinkedIn Eden Sustainable | Commercial and industrial solar panel rooftop expert in the UK Empowering the UK solar transformation • Solar Energy UK

    57 min
  8. Mark talks to Jackie Copley

    MAR 16

    Mark talks to Jackie Copley

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Solar has some big installation targets to achieve over the coming years.  In a country that has limited space (land) and a growing population with many competing ideas on what this limited space should allow, solar farms were always going to be contentious.  All solar farms have to pass through a planning process, whether this is the Local Planning Authority or the Nationally significant infrastructure process.  Both processes are designed to give all stakeholders, including local residents a say in the outcome of the application, which should be in line with due process, defined by national and local guidelines. Jackie Copley is the Campaigns Lead for the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), and she is a chartered town and country planner of more than 30 years.  She talks candidly about the challenges of supporting both an increase in renewables and long term protection of our rural landscape.  She explains that CPRE is in favour of renewables, recognising that a reduction of carbon-based energy is beneficial to all, both in the short and long terms.  Listen to better understand the value of the planning processes that projects must pass through and the concern that she has for the mega-projects dotted around the country, many of which are built on productive farmland.   Listen to understand the structure of the CPRE and their stance on renewable projects.  Hear about their advice notes to stakeholders on acceptable planning proposals and value of “good” solar projects, done well, with local communities. Jackie Copley MRTPI | LinkedIn Home - CPRE

    49 min
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About

Mark Wakeford is Chairman of the National Federation of Builders, vice-chair at Constructing Excellence Midlands and a Governor at Construction College, Moulton College.  He has run a large regional building contractor and now chairs Evoenergy, one of the UK's foremost renewable companies, bringing low carbon solutions to corporate Britain. Mark talks to leading experts from across the construction sector to discuss issues facing the built environment.  He explores various challenges with his guests, who offer solutions, information and ideas that listeners can apply to their own situations, be it in a company, on a project or studying at college. The Building Podcast aims to provide CPD on the go.  Supporting the sector with easily digestible ideas to support a rapidly changing industry!

Information

  • Creator
    Mark Wakeford
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    116
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Building Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Building Podcast