Earlier this week, I attended the first of two Low Carbon Master Classes organised by Mott McDonald and hosted at the Royal Academy of Engineering.
The first Master Class comprised presentations from Mark Enzer (Mott MacDonald Group Practice Manager for Water and Environment and Infrastructure Carbon Review Lead Author) & David Riley (Green Construction Board Infrastructure Working Group member and Anglian Water Carbon Manager)
Together they covered low-carbon economy development with respect to leadership and skills with emphasis on:
HM Treasury’s Infrastructure Carbon Review’s findings and how it can be translated into practical action
Positive outcomes for investors through developing low-carbon strategies
Using carbon management as a surrogate metric for carbon-, resource- and cost-saving opportunities
Organisational cultural influences for the alignment of skills, tools, processes and governance to deliver low-carbon goals
Case studies from Anglian Water’s on embedding low-carbon design and construction into its projects
There is much to commend the Infrastructure Carbon Review’s findings and the discussion points from the evening to show that businesses are grasping engagement necessary to develop a low carbon economy & learning how to develop the leadership and skills to drive the innovation to deliver the new economy.
This organisational engagement and support is, most, visible, in the Green Construction Board’s Statement of Endorsement. This commitment will be revisited later this year to evidence the progress made by the signatories and to encourage new signatories to make a low carbon commitment through leadership, innovation and procurement.
On the practical delivery of low-carbon within the water industry, Anglian Water gave clear examples of carbon savings of over 60% and financial savings of £10m on a £24m project through greater leadership, use of existing construction techniques, such as directional drilling as opposed to traditional open trenching, and innovative solutions for procurement, such as a sampling kiosk reduced from the normal size and that did not require a concrete plinth.
If you are interested in developing your leadership and skills for a low-carbon economy, you may wish to download the HM Treasury’s Infrastructure Carbon Review and the other documents referenced in this post at http://bit.ly/1swXFLB