ICE Strategy Session: a spotlight on the industry's decarbonisation efforts

Keith Howells

Keith Howells served as the 158th President of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).

Having graduated in civil engineering in 1974, Keith joined one of the founding members of the Mott MacDonald Group and spent the first 10 years of his career in infrastructure design and project management, primarily in the water and transport sectors. After completing an MBA in 1986, he expanded his focus to planning, feasibility, and financial and economic analysis of projects, mainly in the water and environmental sectors. Over the following decade, he contributed to numerous projects funded by international finance institutions as well as UK government bodies.

Keith has extensive experience in the planning, study, and design of hydraulic structures, hydropower, urban drainage, sewerage, water supply, and river engineering schemes. He has worked both in the UK and internationally. He led the firm’s Water and Environment business from 1997 to 2002, before becoming Group Managing Director in 2004, guiding the company’s expansion in North America and Australasia. Keith chaired the Group’s Executive Board from 2011 until mid-2019, overseeing company performance and strategic direction.

Keith’s leadership roles also include serving on the board of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering from 2011 to 2015, including a term as Chair in 2013, membership of the CBI’s Construction Council from 2013 to 2019, and participation on the Cranfield School of Management Advisory Board from 2012 to 2020. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Lewis Barlow

Lewis Barlow is the ICE’s Trustee for Carbon and Climate and a leading expert in whole life infrastructure decarbonisation. With over 25 years of experience, he advises local authorities, developers and governments on achieving net zero.

Lewis has managed environmental risks and minimised carbon emissions on projects around the world, earning international recognition for his contributions to the climate crisis. 

As a regular guest lecturer and ICE Tutor, Lewis promotes professional development and actively shares best practice on carbon reduction. He authored and continues to present the ICE’s Carbon Management in Infrastructure and Carbon in Infrastructure Procurement courses. 

Instrumental in developing new carbon management technical guidance and policy, Lewis has significantly impacted major projects and programmes, including through his secondment to the Scottish Government, where he worked on the £5 billion City and Regional Growth Deals capital investment programme. 

Lewis plays a pivotal role in shaping the ICE’s approach to infrastructure decarbonisation, steering the ICE’s Carbon Management Plan and contributing to PAS 2080: Carbon Management in Buildings and Infrastructure.

He advocates for the uptake of PAS 2080 and emphasises the vital role of civil and infrastructure engineers in connecting national net zero targets with project delivery. 

Dr Mohamed Wehbi

Mohamed is a technical director at Geobear, where he is responsible for technical validation strategies and rail business development. Mohamed has previously worked at Network Rail as a senior design engineer in the Track bed Investigation and design team. His responsibility in that role was to develop Network Rail’s in-house track bed modelling capabilities. Mohamed has a PhD in civil engineering from the University of Birmingham, he is also a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow member of the Permanent Way Institute.

Angelos Pastras

Evangelos is an experienced project manager from a civil and environmental engineering background, passionate about climate action and youth empowerment. He is chartered with the UK Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and holds an MEng from Imperial College London and an MBA. Working in the energy sector since 2019, he has contributed to the development of more than 300MW of flexible Battery Energy Storage Systems in the UK and 100MW of gas Peakers and is currently occupied as a senior energy storage consultant with DNV.

Recently being awarded the Carbon Champion status by the ICE, he has been a delegate at COP26, COP27 and COP28, and is currently the acting Lead for the Commonwealth Sustainable Energy Transition Youth action group. He is also a member of the Young Engineers / Future Leaders committee of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations working group on SDG13.

Stacey Collins

Stacey is a partner in Pinsent Masons’ Major Projects team with over 18 years’ of experience and is also one of the leaders of the firm’s global Climate Change & Sustainability Advisory Group.

Stacey specialises in advising on procurement and contracting solutions for complex engineer & construction projects across the Infrastructure, Industrial and Energy Sectors. Stacey also has particular expertise in structuring low-carbon procurement and contracting solutions for both private and public entities. He has market-leading experience of working on all the main contract forms being used in the UK, as well as globally, and has particular expertise in the use of the NEC suite of contracts. Stacey was part of the small team which developed/drafted NEC’s “climate change” clause (X29), and related guidance notes, for its suite of contracts.
Stacey is actively involved in various Net-Zero Carbon initiatives, including being a part of the UN’s Industrial Deep Decarbonisation Initiative, CBI's Energy & Climate Change Committee, ICE’s Decarbonisation Community Advisory Board, and the Net Zero Infrastructure Industry Coalition (contributing to the report on reducing embodied carbon in infrastructure).