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It was a real delight and a privilege addressing a packed audience at Ecobuild this month about the gap between predicted and actual energy performance of buildings.

Ecobuild 2014 was a fantastic opportunity for the industry to come together, to share the energy and enthusiasm that we all have in contributing to a sustainable built environment.

It’s an incredibly exciting time to be in construction.

The UK is emerging out of a recession and there are many exciting challenges in which we can play a vital role.

Sustainability could transform our urban areas, enabling us to live, work and play in a way that improves quality of life and addresses other issues such as: skills shortage, youth unemployment, improving our ageing infrastructure, transport, power, water, the affordability and shortage of housing and improving energy efficiency of new and old buildings alike.

For me, the most important thing to take away from events like Ecobuild is that infrastructure needs to be better value.

As an industry, we have to strive for the delivery of future-proofed resilient infrastructure which is designed to function well and delivers value throughout its lifecycle.

To do this, we need to make a stronger case for upfront investment to realise savings later.

We need to push government, our customers and ourselves to strive for this best value approach.

Let’s continue to collaborate to help co-design tomorrow’s solutions today.

Nick Pollard is chief executive of Balfour Beatty Construction Services UK