UK Civil Engineers Declare Climate & Biodiversity Emergency

The crisis of climate breakdown and biodiversity loss are two of the most serious issues of our time. Our major infrastructure systems of transport, energy, water, waste, telecommunications and flood defences play a major part, accounting for approximately half of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions whilst also having a significant impact on our natural habitats.

Our primary purpose has always been, and remains, enhancing society and well-being. While we have seen major improvements to practice over the last 20 years, for everyone working in the construction and infrastructure industries, meeting the needs of our society without breaching the earth’s ecological boundaries will demand a paradigm shift.

Together with our clients, we will all need to commission and design buildings, cities and infrastructure systems as indivisible components of a larger, constantly regenerating and self-sustaining system in balance with wider society and the natural world.

The research and technology exists for us to accelerate that transformation now, but what has been lacking is collective will in government and industry. We urgently need current best practice to become standard practice. Recognising this, we are committing to strengthen our working practices and committing to create complete engineering outcomes that have more-positive impacts on the world around us.

We will strive to:

Continue to raise awareness of the climate and biodiversity emergencies and the urgent need for action amongst our clients, collaborators and supply chains.
Advocate for faster change in our industry towards regenerative design practices and a higher Governmental funding priority to support this.
Apply, and further develop, climate and biodiversity mitigation principles as key measures of our industry’s success, demonstrated through rating systems, awards, prizes and listings.
Extend the sharing of knowledge and research to these ends on an open source basis.
Evaluate all new projects against the need to contribute positively to society and enhanced well-being, while simultaneously averting climate breakdown. Encourage our clients to adopt this approach – using the holistic approach of PAS2080 to reinforce sound decision-making.
Upgrade existing built infrastructure systems for extended use as a more carbon-efficient alternative to demolition and new build when that is the most efficient solution for whole-life carbon.
Include, as part of the basic scope of all our work, life cycle costing, whole-life carbon modelling and post-construction evaluation, to optimise and reduce embodied, operational and user carbon and other resource uses.
Adopt more regenerative design principles in practice with the aim of providing civil engineering design that produces complete infrastructure systems that enable society to make the necessary changes to match the goals of the UK becoming a net zero economy by 2050.
Extend, now, the consideration of whole-life carbon targets for all long-duration projects taking into account wider social, economic and environmental effects, to ensure delivery of the longer-term goals of this declaration.
Apply a common cross-sector sustainability rating scheme, adopting the principles of CEEQUAL to all new projects whether or not they are formally assessed.
Increase current levels of collaboration between clients, engineers, contractors and other professionals involved in the design and provision of complete infrastructure systems to further reduce waste during construction and operation of assets.
Accelerate the shift to low embodied carbon materials in all our work.
Minimise wasteful use of resources in our civil engineering design, both in quantum and in detail.

We hope that every civil engineering firm operating in the UK will join us in making this commitment.

Please note that the Institution of Civil Engineers www.ice.org.uk provides a link to this declaration as well as information about related activities and opportunities for member engagement. In addition, there are two related UK engineering declarations on line. Please visit www.structuralengineersdeclare.com and www.buildingservicesengineersdeclare.com.
You can also visit www.builtenvironmentdeclares.c... to learn how to set up a declaration in another country or sector.

Resources: The Climate Framework is a curriculum framework as well as a shared platform for holistic climate knowledge in all disciplines of the built environment.

To sign, firms must provide a work email address for their CEO, Chairperson or appropriate Board Member. Approval will be sought via this email before the company name is added to the declaration.

Signatures:

162

ABG Geosynthetics Ltd Adept Consulting Engineers Ltd AECOM UK & Ireland AKSWard Ltd AKT II Allen Gordon LLP Amey Anglia Ruskin University ARCADIS Arup Atkins AWK Engineers Bailey Partnership (Consultants) LLP BakerHicks BB Consulting Engineers Limited BDP BE Design Beckett Rankine Betts Associates Limited Box Twenty Brennan Consult Ltd Bryden Wood Build Collective Buro Happold Ltd. Burroughs BWB Consulting Cake Industries Calibre Consulting Engineers Ltd Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction CampbellReith Cass Hayward LLP Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors Civic Engineers Clive Onions Ltd Conisbee Constructionarium Ltd CONSUB Limited CORA Consulting Engineers COWI UK Limited Craddys Crucis Designs Cundall Curtins David Narro Associates Davies Maguire Design ID Dice Doran Consulting Dr. Sauer & Partners Eckersley O'Callaghan Edenvale Young Associates Ltd EirEng Consulting Engineers Ltd. Eleanor Ball Elliott Wood Engineering Consultancy Services Entuitive Expedition Engineering Farrow Walsh Consulting Limited Francis Bradshaw Partnership Frankham Consultancy Group Furness Partnership Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions Geosynthetics Limited Glanville Consultants Glass Light and Special Structures Helium Engineering Heyne Tillett Steel Hurst Peirce + Malcolm LLP Hydrock Ian Firth Structural Engineering Inbye Engineering INSTITUTE OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS Institute of Specialist Surveyors and Engineers Institution of Civil Engineers Irrigation Engineers Ltd Jacobs JBA Consulting Jengo Sustainable Design JPA M&E Consultants Kier Knight Architects KonceptX Mackenzie Construction Limited McFarland Consulting Ltd MEICON Meinhardt (UK) Ltd Michelle Robinson Momentum Morph Structures Mott MacDonald Nuttall Bowser One Creative Environments Patrick Parsons pdp green Ltd Pell Frischmann Pennant Consulting Ltd Perega Perfect Circle JV Ltd Pick Everard Plan for Earth Powell Tolner & Associates Ltd Price & Myers Qflow Ramboll Ramsay & Chalmers RECBE Reinforced Earth Company Ltd renaissance Ridge & Partners Robert Bird Group RoC Consulting RPS Group Savannah Environmental Consultancy Ltd Scott White and Hookins Simpson TWS Skeletal Consulting Engineers Limited Smith and Wallwork Engineers SOLID Structures & Infrastructure SPD Studio Stantec UK Structural & Civil Consultants Ltd SWECO SYSTRA Tensar International Limited Tony Gee and Partners LLP Tullys University - Abertay University - Anglia Ruskin University - Bath University - Bradford University - Bristol University - Brunel University - Cardiff University - Coventry University University - Cranfield University University - Dundee University - Glasgow Caledonian University - Inverness College University - Leeds University - Liverpool University - Liverpool John Moores University - Loughborough University - Nottingham Trent University - Plymouth University - Sheffield University - Southampton University - Warwick - School of Engineering University of Edinburgh - Civil and Environmental Engineering Discipline University- City University- Strathclyde Civil and Env Eng Dept Walsh Wardell Armstrong LLP Water Design Engineers Ltd Waterman Group Webb Yates Engineers Whitby Wood Whitfield Consulting Services Wilde Consultants Ltd Wills Bros Wood Thilsted Woolgar Hunter Limited WSP