Update from Justin Young, RICS CEO - March 2024

This month sees RICS participating in the UN Environment Programme’s forum on buildings and climate in Paris from 7-8 March. We’ll be advocating for our Whole Life Carbon Assessment (WLCA) standards as a basis for an internationally-agreed measurement standard, as well as explaining how the profession can support the global ambition to achieve net zero. In the run up to this, we’ll be hosting a discussion on the role of standards, building codes, data, and skills in decarbonising the built environment. If you’re in Paris, you’re welcome to join us.

While this is an example of our growing leadership in sustainability, one of our strategic goals set out in our RICS strategy ‘Future Foundations’, we’re also making progress on another strategic goal to enhance member value and engagement. Following feedback from members, we have listened and  launched a new online Communications Centre to give you complete control over the kinds of emails you receive from us and a better member experience. Log into your your myaccount on rics.org to check and update your preferences in minutes.

Also in the pipeline is the publication of our new Residential Retrofit Standard. As the leading experts in residential property, RICS members are best placed to provide market-critical home retrofit surveys and advise on home energy efficiency improvements, and the standard will support you to do this, opening up new business opportunities. We’ll let you know as soon as it’s available.

Another area where we’re improving support to members is our new guidance on Rule 4 of the RICS Rules of Conduct. The rule states that members and firms must treat others with respect and encourage diversity and inclusion. We know that sometimes it’s unclear what to do, especially for some of our members who cannot draw on dedicated resources. Working with members and DEI experts, we’ve published Developing an Inclusive Culture. With a shortage of surveyors globally, we need to make sure we’re not missing out on talented people – the more people we include, the more we can attract. This is why the guide has good practice on topics including inclusive policies, recruitment and culture, so we can all get the very best people, wherever they’re found.

The guidance arrives as we mark Women’s History Month in March, championing women in the profession. We recognise the importance of investing in women to accelerate progress and enhance their opportunities in the profession.​ You can discuss this and more at our event on 8 March, where we’ll also celebrate the outstanding contributions of women in the industry. There’s an opportunity to join in both online and in person, and find out how we address issues that stop us recruiting and retaining some great people.

Finally, we’ve just released our latest Quarterly Global Performance report, covering the last three months of 2023. These reports are intended to give you a high-level overview of the organisation’s operational performance every quarter. They’re part of our commitment to transparency, supplementing annual opportunities to hear about RICS’ performance including the Annual Review and AGM. I was heartened to see the increasing level of engagement from members, whether for conferences, networking events or CPD. Already this year, more than 2000 members have attended RICS events. And there’s more on the way, with over 400 events planned across 44 countries this year. We want RICS to inspire members and your feedback will help us do that.