Commenting on the Innovation Growth Team final report into low carbon construction,
ICE President, Peter Hansford, said
“Reducing carbon to the scale required while ensuring infrastructure enhances our quality of life and drives economic prosperity, means we must innovate and find new ways of doing new things – ways that achieve the maximum benefit from the minimum carbon in both emissions and carbon embodied in infrastructure. I am confident industry can step up to the challenge with the urgency required and make radical change.
“ICE is driving this agenda by setting in train a Low Carbon Routemap to 2050. This work will provide a greater understanding of what types of infrastructure are needed for a low carbon world and examine construction processes and regulation, advising on what measures are needed to improve carbon efficiency.
“For infrastructure to be a primary facilitator in the move to a low-carbon economy, the regulatory conditions must be right. Aspects of the current framework lack long term vision and do little to encourage behavioural change. Close collaboration between industry and Government will be fundamental in overcoming regulatory barriers.
“Government must also take a lead role in making sure these goals become reality. The long awaited National Infrastructure Plan and today’s IGT report are extremely welcome, but they are just a start. Continued action and commitment will be required to ensure that in the future, the only infrastructure being built is low carbon infrastructure that leads to low carbon living.”
ENDS
The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) was founded in 1818 to ensure professionalism in civil engineering. It represents 80,000 qualified and student civil engineers in the UK and across the globe. The ICE has long worked with the government of the day to help it to achieve its objectives, and has worked with industry to ensure that construction and civil engineering remain major contributors to the UK economy and UK exports.