ICE Strategy Session: the new PAS 2080 - carbon management in buildings & infrastructure

Keith Howells

Keith Howells is the 158th President of the ICE.

Having graduated in civil engineering in 1974, Keith joined one of the founder members of the Mott MacDonald Group and spent the first 10 years of his career in infrastructure design and project management, mostly in the water and transport sectors. On completing an MBA in 1986, he became involved with the planning, feasibility, and financial and economic analysis of projects, principally in the water and environmental sectors. Over the next decade he worked on numerous projects funded by the international finance institutions as well as by UK government bodies.

Keith has built career long experience in the planning, study and design of hydraulic structures, hydropower, urban drainage, sewerage, water supply and river engineering schemes. He has worked in numerous countries as well as in the UK. He ran the firm’s Water and Environment business from 1997 to 2002, before becoming the Group Managing Director in 2004, directing the firm’s expansion in North America and Australasia. Keith became Chair of the Group’s Executive Board in 2011, responsible to shareholders for the performance of the company and its strategic direction – a role he continued until mid-2019.

Keith was on the board of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering from 2011 to 2015, and its Chair in 2013; he was a member of the CBI’s Construction Council from 2013 to 2019; and a member of the Cranfield School of Management Advisory Board from 2012 to 2020.  He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Maria Manidaki

Maria Manidaki is Mott MacDonald’s global technical lead for net zero. A chartered engineer with more than 18 years’ experience in investment planning and carbon and asset management, she has led several strategic infrastructure decarbonisation projects.

Manidaki has helped water companies and other asset owners in the UK, Australasia, North America and the Middle East to plan and implement decarbonisation solutions.

A member of the Green Construction Board in the UK, she co-wrote HM Treasury’s 2013 Infrastructure Carbon Review and worked on both versions of PAS 2080.

Manidaki is a visiting lecturer on low-carbon infrastructure at Cranfield University and a technical adviser on net zero in several industry forums, including the ICE’s Carbon Project. 

Dr Heleni Pantelidou

Heleni is an Associate Director at Arup, driving Climate Action and Sustainable Development in the Infrastructure Group, London. An enthusiastic promoter of whole life decarbonisation of Infrastructure, Heleni advances and coordinates sustainable development and whole life carbon strategies for the built environment.

She combines her deep engineering knowledge with the belief that the construction industry is key for the net zero carbon transition and contributing towards environmental regeneration, responding to the climate and biodiversity crises.

Heleni has close links with academia and has acted as the Industrial Supervisor for several research projects. She supports and coordinates sustainable development skills and expertise, including integration of Planetary Health principles in planning and design.

She firmly believes that climate, biodiversity and environmental degradation are interlinked and solving them requires deep understanding of complex natural systems and how the built environment interacts with them.

A member of the Green Construction Board and the Institution of Civil Engineers Carbon Project, she strives to accelerate decarbonisation in the built environment. She is co-author of the revised PAS2080:2023 Carbon Management in Buildings and Infrastructure.

Adrian Johnson

Adrian is a Chartered Civil Engineer and Technical Director at Stantec, specialising in carbon and sustainability. In recent years he has been helping UK water companies to develop and implement strategies for carbon reduction and climate change across their capital investment programmes and make progress towards their net zero commitments. He has also led various research and pilot studies on carbon accounting, sustainable water systems, natural and social capital, climate change and resilience.

Adrian is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and is currently supporting the ICE’s Carbon Project – Toward Net Zero for Infrastructure. He chaired the Technical Advisory Panel for developing the PAS 2080 specification on carbon management in infrastructure for the UK’s Green Construction Board. Adrian is an Honorary Professor in the School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society at Heriot Watt University.

Jane Wright

Jane is a systems engineer leading the development of environment and sustainability tools, training and processes in Transport for London's capital delivery office. She sits on the Institution of Civil Engineers Decarbonisation Community Advisory Board.

David Riley

David Riley is the Head of Carbon Neutrality within Anglian Water responsible for developing and implementing energy and carbon strategies for one of the largest water companies in the UK and also chair of the Water UK Carbon Working Group and member of the Green Construction Board Infrastructure Working Group.

In 2013 he chaired the steering group that developed the HM Treasury Infrastructure Carbon Review and more recently was part of the steering group that delivered PAS 2080:2016 Carbon Management in Infrastructure.

David is a graduate from the University of Bath with a Master of Science in Integrated Environmental Management. Having worked in both finance and the manufacturing sectors, David joined the water industry in 2000 focussing on both energy and carbon management.

Ross McKeown

With a background in Mechanical Engineering and a passion for working with others, Ross is a project manager with 5 years’ experience working in the infrastructure sector. He has worked across several major key infrastructure projects at various stages of the project lifecycle. Most recently, has led the detailed design and construction phases of the Low Crosby Flood Risk Management scheme, successfully delivering a sustainable solution to flood risk management.

David Webborn

David is a chartered civil engineer and environmentalist with over fourteen years’ experience operating within the water and environment sector, and a passion for delivering sustainable civil infrastructure projects and digital innovation.

He has delivered multiple flood risk management schemes for the Environment Agency and other Risk Management Authorities, and is now Head of Discipline for Information Management and Digital Engineering in Jacobs’ Water and Environment business sector.