The natural choice for urban greening
Women only make up 14% of construction industry professionals in the UK, and 92% of those are in professional roles, according to Construction Industry Training Board – CITB. At Pritchard & Pritchard, the only living roofs and living walls business in the UK owned by a woman (to our knowledge), we believe it is time for a change.
“When we founded Pritchard & Pritchard, we didn’t just want to create living roofs, living walls and podiums of the highest quality, we wanted to create a company of the highest quality – one that embraces gender and racial diversity and banishes the gender stereotypes and other bigotry that still taints the construction business. Even in our business that is still dominated by men, from boardroom to the building site, P&P is proud to be different,” explains Charlotte Pritchard, owner of Pritchard & Pritchard.
“Even as woman-led business, it can be difficult to recruit women. The problem starts at school – most girls still don’t think of construction as a natural career choice for women. We need to change that. We need girls to understand that construction jobs – we’re not just talking about professional careers such as architects, civil engineers and quantity surveyors, which take up 92% of women in construction, but also the trade roles are great careers for females.”
“The key is to reach out to girls who are interested in the environment, sustainability and biodiversity, and help them understand that installing green roofs and walls is one of the best ways to make a difference every day. We also need to provide role models. At P&P we have some excellent female role models. For example, Vasiliki Syngouna is a talented installer of both living roofs and living walls and Viktoria Tsvetlanova is one of our maintenance experts working with both living roofs and walls.”
“Both Vaso and Viki work beside and perform the same roles as the male members of our installation and maintenance teams. We hope their success and love of the job will help recruit other women into the business – ideally, coming to work for us!” concludes Charlotte.
To mark Women in Construction week, #womeninconstructionweek (March 7-13), #WICWeek2021, Pritchard & Prichard will be profiling some of women that make P&P excellent and diverse company, starting with our owner.
With a background in journalism and finance, Charlotte had always been passionate about the environment inspired by a family heritage of gardeners and engineers. Motivated by some major life changes she decided to take the plunge in 2014 and enter the world of green roofs, podium gardens, landscaping and living walls and put her enthusiasm for the subject to good use. In a traditionally male dominated industry this was a refreshing decision! Pritchard & Pritchard was born.
At the heart of Pritchard & Pritchard is a love of nature and a belief in the power of intelligent landscaping to not only improve urban places and ecosystems, but also to provide an infrastructure for people – city dwellers who seek a ‘place’, somewhere to relax, to grow food, to be part of a community. Charlotte holds the belief that all people and nature are as one and are connected, green roofs support this ethos perfectly, providing an amenity space in an ever encroaching urban environment – up in the sky – where people can meet, farm and relax. They provide both green and social infrastructure.
The power of the landscape industry to make an impactful difference to the horticultural enhancement of the built environment has never been greater. Connecting our existing green spaces with biodiverse ‘pit stops’ of forage to boost wildlife is just one huge benefit of green roofs and living walls. We are glad to be part of an industry which truly can make a positive impact to people, ecosystems and place, and hope that our stewardship will make a difference for future generations. Needless to say we sincerely hope that female leadership in this space will encourage a more diverse mix of applicants into this vibrant industry.
If any young woman is interested in working in the design, installation or maintenance of living walls, living roofs, rooftop gardens or landscaped podiums, including traineeships, and would like to chat to Charlotte or one of the other female members of P&P, please contact us.
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