Working out how to work sustainably

Published

It seems a lifetime ago that the Association membership came together for our annual conference in 2019 on sustainability and the circular economy and everything that has happened since has reinforced the importance of what we agreed then.

Sustainability Commitments

The reality of course is that in real time, only just over a year has passed since that original event. This series of blogs is designed to provide you with a picture of what we are doing, a sense of the progress and a taster of what you can expect in 2021 and beyond.

Sustainable major projects and our role within them

When we started to translate the conference commitments into a practical programme of action for the Association we quickly realised that we needed to consider the issue from the perspective of three distinct questions. How do we deliver:

  • Projects more sustainably
  • Sustainable project and infrastructure outcomes
  • Projects that facilitate a sustainable future

In other words, we need to consider the sustainability of our projects. This must include both those that are directly linked to climate change, for example Nuclear or Renewables construction as well as those that have a significant positive or negative impact on sustainable goals (but a different primary objective). We also need to consider the management of these projects alongside the outputs. To what extent can we redesign the project, the processes for delivery, the resources we use and the supply chain on which we draw? Remember, sustainability (in the terms of the UN SDGs) involves people and places as much as it does resources.

Data, techniques and opportunities

In simple terms the way we have worked how to work sustainably (albeit in the frame of reference of the Association) breaks down into three discrete but interrelated elements:

  1. We are providing our members and the wider major projects community with the data and information to enable informed decision-making;
  2. We are offering tools, techniques and real case examples – tangible take-aways for you to experiment with and adapt for yourselves;
  3. We are building opportunities for sharing, learning and collaboration through our Sustainability Ambassadors network, whose events and activities model the behaviours and the actions that we can all take as individuals and as organizations.

We’ll share more information and insights in our next post but for the moment, let me give you an immediate action. Join us today for the second in the series of webinars from our the sustainability ambassadors network: David Symons from WSP exploring how to lock in the sustainability lessons from lockdown.

Read our other posts in the series:

Sustainability: the foggiest project of all

How we deliver projects more sustainably … at least, that’s the plan