DUNDEE, 5 September 2025 — Chairman of Whole Life Consultants Ltd, Professor Malcolm Horner, was delighted to be invited by Professor Craig Thompson, Chairman of the Association of Construction Managers (ARCOM) to join an expert panel at ARCOM’s 41st Annual Conference held in Dundee from 1st to 3rd September.
Attended by 170 delegates from all over the world, the conference theme, Regenerative Cities, very much reflected the principles guiding the strategy of Dundee’s remarkable growth and achievements, particularly over the past ten years.
ARCOM exists to promote research and support researchers in the field of construction management, and delegates were privileged to hear the presentation of over 100 papers on subjects ranging from understanding the circular economy through transformation change to the application of Artificial Intelligence. The focus of the conference chimed well with Whole Life Consultants Ltd’s role as a contract research organisation, and especially its development of
- Whole Life Cost Evaluator, one of the most powerful tools available to calculate and analyse whole life costs in Whole Life Costing,
- an Integrated Sustainability Assessment Toolkit, some of whose features have been embedded in the UK Government mandated Value Toolkit; and
- its labour forecasting tool which forecasts the skills required to achieve net zero in retrofitting the existing building stock.
In responding to questions directed at the expert panel, Professor Horner emphasised the need to do more than simply develop strategies and plan their implementation.
“The future is already here” he said, “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s goal of limiting the rise in the earth’s temperature to 1.5oC was exceeded in 2023. What we need is Action Now”.
He was most impressed by the selflessness of the members of ARCOM, whose supportive culture was of immense value to early career researchers, and expressed the hope that their work would go beyond theory to the design and implementation of actions that would really make a difference – a goal to which Whole Life Consultants Ltd is committed.