Assessors trained under CEEQUAL for Projects will gain extensive knowledge from the CEEQUAL Methodology, covering:
Project Strategy assesses how the project team has related their project to the wider sustainability agenda surrounding civil engineering and infrastructure projects, and their contribution to ‘sustainable development’. It prompts project teams to ask themselves such questions as ‘is the project helping the community it serves to live more-sustainably?’ and to undertake studies of the project and its likely impacts such that the results might then lead to improvements.
Project Management considers how environmental and sustainability issues are being incorporated into the overall management of the project. It covers a number of issues ranging from environmental management practices and training through to how the procurement processes consider environmental performance. CEEQUAL assesses what is being built and how it is built. So references to sustainability and social issues throughout the Manual refer to the social issues that arise from developing, designing and constructing the project, rather than the broader issues of social acceptability of the project.
People & Communities covers minimising operation- and construction-related nuisances, legal requirements, nuisance from construction noise and vibration, and from air and light pollution, and visual impact, including site tidiness. This section also covers community consultation, community relations programmes and their effectiveness, engagement with relevant local groups, and human environment, aesthetics and employment. New areas of training will include implementation of mitigating measures and communications related to community demographics.
Land Use & Landscape covers issues such as design for optimum land-take, legal requirements, flood risk, previous use of the site, land contamination and remediation measures, and applies to conventional land use, and use of the bed of the sea, estuaries, rivers and lakes. This part of an assessment also covers consideration of landscape issues in design, amenity features, local character, loss and compensation or mitigation of landscape features, implementation and management, and completion and aftercare. New coverage includes use of the bed of the sea, estuaries, rivers and lakes, a demonstrable process for considering project location alternatives and process for justification of the chosen site, balancing land use efficiency and other priorities, selection of land for temporary use during construction, long-term flood resilience and adaption, and appropriateness of species selected for use in the project.
The Historic Environment covers baseline studies and surveys, conservation and enhancement measures to be taken if features are found, and information and public access. New to this section are how to address issues of historic assets under water, which could include shipwrecks, old Roman jetties, old sea or river walls etc.
Ecology & Biodiversity covers impacts on sites of high ecological value, protected species, surveys conservation & enhancement, habitat creation measures, monitoring and maintenance.
Water Environment (fresh & marine) covers control of a project’s impacts on, and protection of, the water environment, legal requirements, and enhancement of the water environment. New questions in this section includes splitting out planning and implementation for control of impacts on the water environment during construction, preventing pollution (as well as physical damage) of existing water features during construction, and managing run-off at source.
Physical Resource Use and Management covers the impacts of using the very wide range of physical resources needed for civil engineering projects. The questions range from life-cycle energy and carbon analysis, energy and carbon emissions in use, and energy and carbon performance on site, but not embodied energy through to minimising environmental impact of materials used, minimising material use and waste, responsible sourcing of materials including selection of timber, and using re-used and/or recycled materials. Minimising use and impacts of hazardous materials, durability and maintenance, and future de-construction or disassembly, design for waste minimisation, legal requirements, waste from site preparation, minimising water consumption and embodied water, policies and targets for resource efficiency, and on-site waste management, are all covered by this major section of CEEQUAL.
Transport covers location of a project in relation to transport infrastructure, minimising traffic impacts of a project, construction transport, and minimising workforce travel. New approaches in this section include relating the assessment to whether the project is part of the transport network, a destination that places extra demands on transport networks, or other projects with more-limited impact on transport infrastructure. So questions cover the project’s relationship to transport infrastructure, access for pedestrian and cyclists, need for additional transport infrastructure arising from the project, resilience of the network, and performance for non-motorised users.