Future Leaders

UKGBC’s Future Leaders programme brings together ambitious, high-potential professionals from across industry, local government and civil society to take part in a unique programme of leadership and innovation. Future Leaders is designed to inspire the next generation of leaders who will transform the sustainability of the built environment.

Applications for Future Leaders 2026 are open now!

UKGBC’s renowned flagship leadership programme, Future Leaders, is designed for forward-thinking professionals in the earlier stages of their career journey, typically with 5-10 years’ experience. Through a mix of online and in person workshops, retreats and showcase events, over the course of six months, participants work in teams to develop the skills and personal confidence needed to drive transformational change in their organisation. This transformation will not come about by business as usual, but through a radical and fundamental shift, in which sustainability and innovative thinking are strategic drivers.

Participants will benefit from a range of expert inputs and high profile keynote speakers, and will work to develop an innovation idea to solve a key built environment sustainability challenge throughout the programme, whilst honing their wider personal leadership skills.

Future Leaders Programme structure:

Part One: Explore and Initiate

  • Kick-off: 14th January (online)
  • Innovation field trip & workshop: 27th-29th January (London)

Part Two: Develop and Experiment

  • Nature retreat & personal leadership workshop: 17th-18th March (Hawkwood, Stroud)
  • Storytelling & influencing workshop – 23rd April (London)

Part Three: Showcase and Reflect

  • Showcase – 4th June (London)
  • Reflection session – mid June (online)

There will also be two further online check ins in (10th Feb, 2nd Apr), and participants will benefit from small group coaching sessions and 1-1 coaching sessions throughout the programme.

Who should apply?

Future Leaders are drawn from a range of backgrounds from the built environment sector, and are selected based on an enthusiasm to learn, an openness to new ways of thinking, and a desire to challenge the status quo. It is not a prerequisite to have sustainability in the job title or primary role function – in fact, a diversity of perspectives is crucial to the programme’s success.

As with our other leadership programmes, applications for Future Leaders are highly competitive, and we accept a maximum of two participants from any organisation. 

UKGBC is able to offer bursary places to those from either a not-for-profit organisation, SME, or local authority. In order to be considered for a bursary place, please contact leaders@ukgbc.org for more information

If you have any further questions or to enquire about participating in the programme, please contact leaders@ukgbc.org

Download the Future Leaders Prospectus

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Hear what our alumni have to say

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The Future Leaders Programme was fantastic. It gave me the chance to connect with some truly inspirational people. I’ve learnt so much about sustainability, innovation and myself. It had a great mix of formats, including; individual learning, coaching, team work, external speakers, pitching, creating. I would recommend the Future Leaders programme to those wanting to make a lasting and sustainable impact on our built environment and to themselves
Emma Sueref Vistry Group
Brilliant programme to get a variety of perspectives about the carbon challenge in the built environment. Took me out of my siloed contractor thinking, and I saw the challenges that consultants and developers also face. This has helped me shape my thinking to solve the carbon challenge to help address all issues that impact not only contractors, but consultants and developers too. I now also have a network of people from a variety of backgrounds who are passionate about the climate challenge, who I can test my thinking with and get advice from.
Emma Gilchrist Laing O’Rourke
I joined the course somewhat unknowing. I didn’t know what to expect, how things would go or if I would really get anything from it. I left feeling immensely proud of the journey we all went on together and the outcomes we reached as teams and individuals. The experience was truly 10/10, I couldn’t recommend the course more. I thought creativity and innovation weren’t skills I possessed, how wrong I was. We are all creative and we are all innovators and we were supported to understand this for ourselves throughout. The course is truly unique and enabled me to develop much more than leadership skills. It has set the foundations I needed to make some next steps on my journey within the built environment sector. Thanks team!
Sophie West Bruntwood

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