An influential building design leader at Arup, with over 33 years of experience, Chris delivers projects globally that continually push boundaries and the value they bring to society. Investing heavily in skills related to sustainability and digital capability, his teams push the agenda around how the built environment responds to the climate emergency and the urgent need to decarbonise. 

Chris’ leadership role globally includes developing net-zero capability and services, including the development of Arup-Zero to measure the whole life carbon “handprint” of all of Arup’s building projects. Chris is the global partnership director for Arup’s relationship and activity with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and has authored several key Net-Zero Buildings publications.

Dr Fragkoulis Kanavaris is Arup's global concrete materials and decarbonisation lead with a strong background in structural engineering, based in the Specialist Technology, Analytics and Research (STAR) team in London, UK. He is an expert on concrete materials, sustainability, cracking, durability, concrete technology, specification, condition assessment, and remediation of concrete structures. Fragkoulis has contributed to more than 300 projects worldwide, from buildings, bridges, and tunnels to nuclear, renewable energy, and maritime structures as well as research projects and has held leading positions in major projects such as Materials and Durability design lead on High Speed 2 (£45bn). 

He is chairing and actively participating in several technical committees and has published more than 50 articles in journals, conferences, books and policy documents. He has received several awards including the 2022 Engineer of the Year award by the Royal Academy of Engineering of the UK and is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. He is a Chartered Engineering (CEng), Scientist (CSci) and Environmentalist (CEnv).

Rossella is an experienced engineering professional and passionate driver for sustainability in the construction industry, having held senior leadership positions in the industry across engineering and sustainability. An award-winning chartered structural engineer, Rossella has more than 15 years’ experience in the construction sector in an international environment, having led major projects’ design and delivery across the UK, Europe, Asia and USA. In her role as Head of Sustainability for Europe at Laing O’Rourke, Rossella has key executive covering operations, projects and key strategic initiatives across the UK and Middle East for both environmental and social sustainability agendas, and for delivery of the company’s net zero and social value targets. 

She has spearheaded transformative change, including the company’s mandate to only use low carbon concrete on Laing O’Rourke’s new UK projects from April 2023 – the first and only contractor to have made this move. Outside of her day job, Rossella is active in professional institutions (ICE and IStructE) and sits on the Advisory Board of the Construction Leadership Council’s Co2nstructZero initiative – a change programme focused on delivering net zero through the construction industry. She acts as a mentor to women starting their construction career, inspiring the next generation of construction professionals.

Olivia is currently the Associate Director of Sustainability responsible for the Canary Wharf Group Development and Construction business. Within this role, Olivia ensures that sustainability is embedded from design through to building handover to maximise benefits which can be achieved. Olivia also leads on the group Circular Economy and Biodiversity strategy areas. Where she has developed a circular economy pathway to lead the business to become circular by 2030 through the way they build, work and live on the estate.

Professor John Orr MEng (hons) PhD CEng MIStructE FHEA is Professor of Structural Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He has built a >£11M research and consultancy portfolio with a focus on sustainable design and construction. Author of 125 journal papers, articles, and books on topics related to sustainability, he is an internationally recognised expert in net zero carbon construction. 

In 2022 he won the Philip Leverhulme Prize for his research in minimising embodied carbon and won the Elsevier Atlas Award in 2018 for ‘research that could significantly impact … lives around the world’.