What three words are on your mind? The location identifier words? The three words that keep popping up in my mind, as they seem to pop up day after day in a variety of situations, are Environmental Social Governance, also known as ESG.

Scotland is particularly proud of its food and drinks industry - it has a larder full of speciality products and global brands. Accounting for one in five manufacturing jobs and contributing to over 13% of exports, the industry is also a major contributor to Scotland’s economy and a key growth sector.

Just last month Cruden Homes was amongst the winners at the annual Homes for Scotland Awards. Awards are always welcome, but they mean even more during times of upheaval and uncertainty, so to receive the top accolade of ‘Home Builder of the Year - Large’ along with ‘Development of the Year - Small’ was an aptly timed honour.

Award-winning Glasgow-based communications consultancy Perceptive Communicators has won four new contracts to deliver communications services. This new business is for three new clients, hub South West Scotland, Forster Group and Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) and has secured a re-appointment with existing client, The Scotland 5G Centre.

Glasgow is rightly known as the “dear green place” due to the city boasting more than 90 parks and gardens. Afterall, our oldest park, a stone’s throw from the city centre, is simply known as Glasgow Green.

For many Glaswegians, the renowned Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988 is etched in our memories. It is incredible that a temporary exhibition has weaved itself into the fabric of the city. For me, it also serves as a reminder that we must continue to ensure that people living in or visiting Scotland’s largest city have easy access to green spaces.

COP26 has provided the inspiration to live more sustainable lives and to hopefully succeed, quickly, in halting climate change. However, a report published by environmental think tank E3G found that the heavily polluting G20 countries have so far failed to strengthen their plans since COP26 and that “none of them are on track for a 1.5C pathway". In addition, the Environment Agency in England admitted last week that it is minded to rehome at risk coastal communities “away from danger rather than try to protect them from the inevitable impacts of a rising sea level".

In 2022, it’s hard to imagine a village, town or city across Scotland which hasn’t seen historical buildings fall into disrepair. As the need for new affordable homes, schools and cultural spaces continues to grow we forget about the buildings which, for generations, were part of the social fabric of our communities. Churches, burgh halls, train stations and even libraries don’t play the prominent role they once did with many neglected to the point where extensive repairs are potentially required before partial collapse becomes a reality.

Award-winning Glasgow-based communications consultancy Perceptive Communicators has made six key appointments to support its business growth.

As we embrace post-pandemic life, social landlords as well as focussing on building new homes are also putting repairs and maintenance of existing stock at the top of their priority list. This drive to make significant improvements to tenants’ homes relies on key partnerships with contractors.

There is no silver bullet to the UK’s chronic housing shortage. Compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s an issue with far-reaching consequences. Despite the supply chain now bearing the brunt, coupled with labour shortages and skills gaps across the workforce, the need for housing continues to increase with demand outstripping supply.

Some asks are big, unrealistic - a moonshot. Some are achievable with a fair wind behind them. My ask for Social Care is that we are unbridled of obstruction, allowed the conditions in which to flourish, in short, that we can function without friction.

When I travel to Paris this week for the next meeting of the D2 Grids Steering Committee, an Interreg North-West Europe funded project, I will be updating fellow members on the incredible progress being made in Glasgow on our Green Regeneration Innovation District (GRID) which includes Clyde Gateway’s own pilot for an innovative and sustainable renewable energy project.

What is a hospital’s primary purpose? To offer a diagnosis for disease. To treat the sick and injured. Or to provide shelter in a series of buildings for those during periods of treatment. Some define a hospital’s primary purpose as catering for the wellbeing of all.

The UK is gearing up for its next set of elections where, on 5 May, voters will head to polling stations. In England, the outcome of local and mayoral elections will be decided, and Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) will be elected to the Stormont. In Scotland and Wales, the makeup of councils will be determined in local elections.

Homeworking or a combination of work split between home and office is here to stay. All the evidence points to the hybrid work pattern remaining, and indeed growing for the foreseeable future. Home is indeed the new office.

In our lifetime, one in two of us will hear those three little words ‘You have cancer’. It’s a life changing, devastating moment in time, no matter if you are a wealthy CEO or barely started school.

I have been in and around building sites since I was a boy and have worked, and continue to work in all sectors of the architecture/construction industry (large and small). So, it might seem rather surprising that even after more than 30 years in the sector, as an architect and also as a developer, I am still thrilled and excited when I see our design, planning and building know-how crystallise in a new housing development.

As inflation rises beyond six per cent, the soaring cost of living is becoming a real crisis. Many of our tenants at Albyn Housing Society were last week looking for Chancellor Rishi Sunak to use his Spring Statement to announce measures to reduce living costs rather than installing a price cap that keeps energy prices at rates that some people already cannot pay.

The pandemic, a renewed focus on climate change following COP26, and the growing interest in ESG (environment, social and governance) credentials are all contributing to our changing world of work.