In light of the economic and environmental challenges ahead, civil engineers must focus on delivering value "for money and for carbon", Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) President Peter Hansford said last night at his inauguration ceremony.
Addressing an audience of over 500 politicians, engineers, built environment professionals and industry associations Peter Hansford spoke frankly about the challenges facing civil engineers in balancing the need to provide the infrastructure to drive the economic recovery at the same time as meeting environmental targets and lowering emissions significantly.
Value
Hansford said: “We are faced with unprecedented economic and environmental conditions that mean civil engineers must deliver the maximum worth and benefit from the minimum money and carbon.
“Delivering value is about achieving the maximum benefit for society and investors, from the resources they can afford. It’s about making every pound, every unit of carbon and every job count.”
The Governments’ own estimate is that infrastructure investment of £40-50bn will be needed each year over the next decade and with the recently announced spending review further restricting public funding there will be even more onus on industry to deliver value for money at the same time as delivering low carbon solutions to infrastructure challenges.
Low carbon
Hansford announced that to help enable industry to meet this challenge he will be developing a Low Carbon Routemap to 2050 which will complement the recently laid out National Infrastructure Plan by outlining the steps industry will need to take to ensure the shift to a low carbon economy is achieved.
Arup director Tim Chapman will chair a new ICE panel that will assess the carbon-efficiency of construction processes and regulation, investigate means to evaluate projects based on whole-life carbon and generally try to gain a better understanding of the types of infrastructure needed in a low carbon world to form the basis of the routemap.
Skills
Skills development and retention will also be core to Hansford’s year, particularly engaging pre-19s which he says is vital to ensuring new talent is attracted into the profession. His centerpiece schools initiative, a major schools competition Create Sport developed in partnership with Arup and the EDT (Engineering Development Trust), aims to do just that, challenging 12 to 13 year olds across the UK to plan, design and construct a model for a new sports venue in their region.
“By engaging children with civil engineering at a young age we can hopefully influence their career path early on, crucial if we want to have a homegrown skills base to deliver world class infrastructure in the future. It’s equally as important that we are engaging parents and teachers to be aware of the opportunities civil engineering presents.”
Hansford concluded “Reducing carbon, on the scale demanded, is a huge challenge for us all. The Victorian engineers, our eminent predecessors, are remembered for their legacy in creating the infrastructure of this country, and indeed the infrastructure of many parts of the world. Let our generation’s legacy be the low carbon infrastructure we create in the first half of the 21st century.”
You can download the full speech here http://www.ice.org.uk/presidentialaddress.