Keynote Speakers – Sustainable Buildings and Construction Summit 2026

Meet the distinguished leaders helping shape the future of the built environment. Curated for their global influence and visionary thinking, our keynote speakers will deliver bold insights and transformative ideas aligned with the summit’s mission of “Accelerating a Resilient Built Environment.”

Prof. Dr. Joyeeta Gupta

Distinguished Professor of Climate Justice, Sustainability and Global Justice, University of Amsterdam

Ashok Behari Lall

Internationally Acclaimed Architect and Founder, Ashok B. Lall Architects

Mariam Issoufou

2025 UNEP Champion of the Earth for Entrepreneurial Vision; Founder & Principal, Mariam Issoufou Architects

Prof. Karen Scrivener

Professor and Director, Laboratory of Construction Materials, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL); UN High‑Level SDG Representative

Kotchakorn Voraakhom

Award-Winning Landscape Architect and Founder,Landprocess

Will Arnold

Head of Sustainable Materials
Useful Simple Trust
FIStructE HonFCABE CEng CEnv

Pamela Wackett

Director, Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF)

Prof. Dr. Joyeeta Gupta

Joyeeta Gupta is Professor of Environment and Development in the Global South at the University of Amsterdam and Professor at IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education. Previously, she was professor on Climate Change Policy and Law at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. She won the highest academic recognition (Spinoza Prize) in the Netherlands in 2023 (1.5 M €) and the Amsterdam Impact Prize in 2025. She has a European Research Council Advanced Grant (€2.5M 2021-2026) for climate research; and is a life-member of the Netherlands Royal Academy of Sciences.

She is on the editorial board of six journals, was lead author in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (1998-2014) which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment which won the Zayed 2^nd prize. She has successfully supervised 33 PhDs. She has led, or participated in, acquiring 60 projects from funding agencies.

Joyeeta Gupta is Co-chair, UN Secretary General Appointed Group of Ten High-level Representatives of Civil Society, Private Sector and Scientific Community to Promote Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs. She is also currently Commissioner, Roadmap for Transformative Action to Achieve Health for All at Net-Zero Emissions, National Academy of Medicine, USA. She was co-chair role of the Earth Commission (2019-2024) which has published in Nature and Lancet Planetary Health and presented results at the World Economic Forum plenary in Davos, 2023. She was co-chair of UNEP’s Global Environment Outlook-6: Healthy Planet, Healthy People (2016-2019) whose report won the 2019 Association of American Publishers PROSE award for Environmental Science.

Photo credits: Kirsten van Santen

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