Investment in sustainable infrastructure provides an opportunity support green and inclusive communities. It is hard to find anyone to disagree with the principle that infrastructure should work for everyone, and that care should be taken to maximise social impacts and reduce harms. But how does this work in practice? This Expert Talk will see Laura Walker, Associate Director, Equality and Social Impact and Nina Schuler, Technical Director – ESG and Social Impact at AECOM, outline effective frameworks, tools, incentives and innovations for making sustainable infrastructure work for and with communities.

Jacobs, BGS and the Environment Agency will present current research conducted for the Environment Agency on the development of a natural capital approach to evaluate the sustainability benefits from remediating and redeveloping contaminated brownfield sites. This proof-of-concept co-designed research is helping the EA develop new methods to measure and communicate the social, economic and environmental value of remediating contaminated sites to optimise the planning, funding and delivery of its land contamination functions.

There is no doubt that climate change poses a huge range of challenges to different sectors, organisations, and communities across the UK. This Expert Talk will see speakers from Arcadis provide an overview of the regulatory landscape around climate risk, using the example of incorporating climate change within land contamination models as an illustration of the multi-disciplinary approach required to fully understand the impacts of climate change.

When protected or restored, blue carbon ecosystems sequester and store carbon. Blue carbon environments are critical along the world’s coasts and facilitate many other ecosystem services. This talk will explore the role saltmarshes play in helping to decarbonise our environment and providing wider societal and economic benefits. In this Talk, Jacobs will discuss current progress in science and UK policy to support the restoration of these important habitats, supported by case studies.

Exploring how to deliver high quality energy audits and supplement the on-site time with further decarbonization expertise for renewables, heat migration, electrification of heat, future fuels and transport assessments.

This presentation will give a brief overview of the landscape around environmental net gain, followed by case studies demonstrating the implementation of the natural capital approach.

This Expert Talk will discuss what the future holds for the Strategic Road Network (SRN) in a country aspiring to reach net zero by 2050, answering questions such as: Can we solely rely on the adoption of electric vehicles to deliver a decarbonised SRN?

In this Sustainability Delivery Group Expert Talk, held in partnership with Jacobs, we will look at how we can approach this requirement, using a combination of traditional and innovative approaches, to create new market funding and finance opportunities.

This Talk looks at the critical role of energy storage in the energy transition, and introduces Jacobs’ modelling of the optimum combination of short, medium and long duration storage solutions to meet net zero by 2050 and eliminate fossil fuelled generation by 2035, at least cost.

This Talk explores how to place inclusivity at the heart of integrated design visions and objectives, to influence the way we approach placemaking, and to drive social value and positive environmental outcomes.

Lynsey Clarke, Director of Sustainability at Jacobs, will be joined by Maria Kouridou, Senior Urban Planner; Andrew Linfoot, Director of Landscape Architecture; and Rachael Blake, People and Transformation Lead in Jacobs’ Major Projects team.

This talk will explore the roots of social value and how it aligns with CSR, ESG, Sustainability and Social Impact. It will be a back-to-basics webinar that sets out some simple and easy to understand principles, tools and techniques that will allow listeners to get to grips with the foundational elements of creating a robust social value strategy.

The talk will outline the NFM delivery process the team has developed and concepts, methods and tools included to help users understand all aspects of developing an NFM project. 

Speakers from Ramboll share the lessons learnt through Ramboll’s experience working with industrials to distinguish between decarbonisation efforts and climate risk assessment, assess physical and transition risks and align with the TCFD.

Mott MacDonald present change in carbon sequestration rates that result from BNG designs for infrastructure development to answer the fundamental question: did BNG increase carbon sequestration rates and help to address climate change, or did BNG decrease carbon sequestration and make climate change worse?

In this Sustainability Delivery Group Expert Talk, Peter will provide an introduction to 'SURE by Ramboll', a free-to-use, online platform that helps to assess the sustainability of remedial options. The platform allows users to assess and compare the sustainability of multiple options against user-assigned sustainability criteria. The assessment results can then be shared with clients and stakeholders within the platform to request their review and comments. Once the assessment is completed, a custom PDF report of the whole assessment can be created.

In this session, we will provide an update on the latest announcements from the Government on mandatory BNG. This is expected to coincide with the introduction of mandatory BNG for Town and County Planning Applications and to have been preceded by secondary legislation and written guidance on a host of topics. To illustrate how the evolution of mandatory BNG is influencing the environmental design on major projects, Sally will be joined by colleagues Matt Hobbs and Nicholas Westerman who will showcase a number of case studies where project design and outcomes are being shaped by the need to deliver net gain and in doing so can contribute to nature recovery.  

Climate change projections indicate that this situation will worsen. Clearly, we must do more, with less. Integrated water management offers opportunities to re-think how we use water and can support developments of all types to address the challenges of water scarcity and water neutrality.

Functioning as an online platform, the APFP is the first-of-its-kind reporting framework that enables organisations to calculate their air pollution footprint using the same data for their GHG reporting.  In this Talk, Guy Hitchcock, Technical Director at Ricardo, will provide an introduction to the APFP.

This talk will discuss the potential role of soil carbon in the journey to Net Zero and the wider co-benefits which can be achieved through sustainable soil and land management and stewardship

In this Expert Talk speakers Aydin Zorlutuna and George Rowberry from Arcadis discuss what integrated development, masterplanning and net zero means, and how impacts at a local planning policy level can be addressed.

Specifically, this talk will consider: where contractors and those in the professional services sector can work together, where professional services can offer unique value, and how the social value agenda adds value to the professional services sector.

This Sustainability Delivery Group Expert Talk, held in partnership with Jacobs, will explore the positives and negatives of the current ways of assessing ‘total value’, and where we need to get better evidence to provide a more robust analysis.

This Talk discusses what role energy networks play in energy transition. We believe that there are opportunities for avoiding and deferring new infrastructure, to deliver infrastructure in time and to move away from traditional solutions through better early assessment of possible solutions.

Chris Sowerby, Head of Discipline for Sustainable Infrastructure at Jacobs, will define sustainable programme delivery and explore what it means for sustainability to be truly embedded and successful in maximising economic, social and environmental outcomes

Exploring what it means to pursue social outcomes as part of the delivery of infrastructure, why this pursuit is not only worthwhile but essential, and how projects can embed social outcomes at every stage of the infrastructure lifecycle.

In this Talk, Mott MacDonald will explore decarbonisation and climate resilience, how they are approached on projects, and how to deliver an integrated approach through early engagement, the use of nature-based solutions and more.

This talk will help to unpick this nexus and present considerations for how we can develop solutions for a sustainable future.

This Talk will cover the terminology, why this subject is so important, as well as outlining the changing landscape for organisations. It will then look at how businesses can approach this subject as part of their strategies and reporting.

Michael Aquilina, Environmental Consultant, Natural Capital and Environmental Net Gain at AECOM, will explore some of the challenges currently faced in the field, the key opportunity areas and how AECOM are using their award-winning Natural Capital Laboratory to apply innovative technology to a real-life project.

Credible net zero transition plans require a robust understanding of all GHG emissions, including scope 3. However, global climate targets and organisational goals are looming and many organisations still don’t have a plan for how to achieve said targets. In this Expert Talk, Ian Davies, Technical Director  and Hayley Maynard, Principal Sustainability Consultant at AECOM, will discuss the importance of the considering the value chain (scope 3). They will outline the challenges around reporting, and practical steps for those at the start of their climate transition planning journey.

The Dasgupta Review made clear that our economics are embedded in nature, not external to them. It is an economic imperative therefore that we invest in nature recovery and reverse the alarming trend of nature loss. By the same token, there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the link between the natural environment and our individual and community health and wellbeing. In this Talk, Valerie Roberts, Senior Associate Director - Environmental Economics at Jacobs will apply a social value lens to nature recovery, looking at the ways nature recovery generates value for society and how this can be leveraged to come up with innovative solutions for funding, finance and delivery.

Nitrogen and / or phosphorus neutrality must be achieved by new housing developments located in multiple catchments throughout England and Wales. Achieving neutrality can be difficult and costly and has prevented or delayed the construction of 145,000 homes. While solutions do exist, there are multiple challenges to overcome. This Talk with James Ellaway, Technical Director – Water at WSP, will discuss these issues and share case studies to demonstrate how neutrality can be achieved. James has nearly 30 years’ experience in water environment consultancy.

The grid in the UK is constrained, slowing down the country in its push towards net zero. This is a significant challenges for the regulators as well as developers, with many connections dates now being beyond 2030. In this talk, AECOM explores these grid constraints in the transition to net zero.

Ben Harris, UK Climate Change & Sustainability Director from Arcadis shares his experience of climate innovation in the UK and Europe and the innovation needed to make net zero a reality.

This Talk explores some of the behaviours individuals can cultivate to do their bit to reach Net Zero, and outlines how organisations can support and draw on the skills and enthusiasm of their people to reduce their carbon impact.

ERM shares their current thinking and framework for helping companies make sense of the complex economic, commercial, political and stakeholder challenges emerging from the pandemic, and how these might be managed.

In this Talk with Jacobs, we will demonstrate the importance of the independent systems’ integrator role in bringing together diverse stakeholders to agree on a common vision, and how this has played out in real-life scenarios.

This Talk introduces what the energy transition is and explores the key drivers behind this change. Speakers rom Jacobs discuss and explore the challenges for its implementation, and outline what this means to us as a society.

Penny Borton, Principal Sustainability Consultant at Jacobs, will explore the role natural capital approaches and nature-based solutions can play in meeting net zero carbon targets.

Luke will explore how appropriate application of technology can lead to technical improvements and deliver more socially inclusive and environmental outcomes, as well as explore whether inappropriate use of digital tools can hinder effective decision making, drawing on experience across numerous projects in the UK.

In this Talk, Mott MacDonald will consider the positive impact that a focus on environmental outcomes could have on project delivery and protection (or rather enhancement) of our environment.

This Expert Talk will look at strategic services that require natural capital assessments regionally, nationally and internationally,. speakers from Mott MacDonald will also discuss the issues of not having an mandated methodology and the challenges and opportunities this offers

This Sustainability Delivery Group Expert Talk will shed light on how the CIRPASS Project is developing the future of product identification and the passage of products through our economy.