6 ways engineers can cut carbon emissions from their work

The buildings and infrastructure that we design, construct and operate are responsible for most of the carbon emissions from countries like the UK.

Civil engineers need to act now, but knowing how to act in this area isn’t always straightforward.

As ICE trustee for carbon and climate, I’ve been working with key members of the decarbonisation community on how to reduce the carbon emissions from our industry.

I’ve drawn six conclusions on how we can do this, and why this is critical for everyone, whatever our role or position.

1. Do the right thing

The ICE Code of Conduct makes it clear that members should strive to do the right thing.

This means that decarbonisation must now become a mainstream civil engineering practice.

We should be looking to cut carbon emissions from the quarrying of materials all the way through construction, operation, decommissioning and reuse.

As engineers, we have a huge influence over the decisions and technical work that ensure emissions are understood, actively managed, and reduced towards net zero.

It’s because of our wide ranging and significant influence that we have a moral responsibility to act.

2. Challenge the system

The new PAS 2080 standard for carbon management in buildings and infrastructure has almost 20 references to challenging the status quo – the way we usually, design, construct and operate our infrastructure.

This talk of challenge – not just within projects but challenging the system as a whole – is unique within a formal specification such as this.

This instruction to challenge current practices is directed at everyone across the value chain: designers, contractors, product suppliers and, perhaps most importantly, clients and those who own the assets (buildings, roads, etc).

This is something I encourage all civil engineers to understand and act on, day to day.

Follow your engineering instincts, step up and challenge the status quo.

We need to change the way we deliver and select projects if our developments are to be environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.

But this won’t happen without challenging the system.

Learn more about PAS 2080

3. Grow your carbon competence

As engineers we have a responsibility and a commitment to maintain and enhance our professional competence and abilities.

This means doing our continuing professional development (CPD) to ensure that we have the knowledge and skills to tackle carbon, and that these are shared across the industry.

Change is happening at an extremely fast pace. More and more projects are setting requirements to consider whole life carbon emissions and find ways to reduce them.

All engineers need to stay informed and work with clients and supply chains to share this knowledge.

We must collaborate if we are to have any chance of hitting net zero in time.

4. Collaborate and share lessons learned

We need to make sure that we’re sharing best practice and driving change in our projects.

One way to share best practice is the ICE’s Carbon Champions initiative.

It was set up to collect practical examples of engineers making decisions that have clearly reduced carbon on their projects.

By celebrating these stories, we hope to inspire the industry to seek new and innovative ways of cutting carbon.

Civil engineering is a broad church, and we should embrace lessons from all sectors to better inform our work and find the best solutions.

But we also need to raise our game and turn what we previously called decarbonisation into best practice, or even better, normal practice.

5. Help to make decarbonisation contractual

The procurement process is critical to speeding up whole-life carbon reduction across the value chain when delivering projects and programmes of work.

Well-designed procurement processes can encourage the right behaviours from the start and ensure that carbon reduction is contractually required at every stage.

If you’re involved in procurement, talk to your peers about how to include carbon as a meaningful stand-out factor.

If you’re submitting a proposal for a project that doesn’t call for carbon reductions, even though you know it can be done, then consider raising a technical query.

Many clients don’t know how to ask for decarbonisation services so there’s even more reason to put up your hand, ask a question and help to promote best practice.

Remember, if we don’t challenge the status quo, we’re not tackling the climate emergency.

6. Remember that there’s more to sustainability than carbon

We should all be taking steps to align our technical and professional practice with PAS 2080.

This includes recognising its wider focus on resilience and nature-based solutions, considering the circularity of materials, restoring the environment, and supporting life (in all its forms) on Earth.

For too long these wider sustainability issues have often only been addressed through relatively lightweight gestures.

The updated Environment Act will see much more robust regulation of these matters in the UK.

This means unless these issues are properly addressed, projects run the risk of failure through the planning process.

Carbon management needs to be mainstream

The updated PAS 2080 is an important step forward for civil engineering and the decarbonisation of the wider built environment.

Carbon management must now become mainstream practice for all engineers, and it’s upon the individual, industry and government to drive this.

As engineers we need to engage with the latest guidance and our related professions to reduce carbon across infrastructure, because we can’t address this existential challenge in silos.

We need to get better at measuring, explaining and challenging what we do, and above all, demonstrating low carbon leadership on our projects.

Most importantly, please be confident that as an engineer you have a crucial role in saving life on Earth.