Sustainability Delivery Group
Harnessing the industry's expertise to deliver sustainability
EXPERT TALK LIBRARY
Hear members of our Sustainability Delivery Group share their expertise with our free collection of Expert Talks
UPCOMING EVENTS
Net Zero
ESG disclosure rules and implications on US Companies
10 April, 2024 – 11am-12pm ET
With the final SEC climate disclosure rule in place, California Climate Accountability Package and the EU CSRD, more than 10,000 US companies will be subject to mandatory reporting on GHG emissions, climate risk and ESG for US and global regulators.
During this talk, Michelle Bachir and Katie Eisenbrown from Arcadis, will explore these regulatory requirements and how US companies should prepare.
PAST EVENTS
Social Value
Embedding Equity and Inclusion in Infrastructure
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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.
Natural Capital
Land-Based Approach to Natural Capital Asset Management: Building Towards a Better Management of Natural Resources
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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.
Climate Change
A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Assessing Climate Change Impacts: Land Contamination Case Study
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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.
Net Zero
Blue Carbon: Enabling Decarbonisation and Wider Benefits through Saltmarsh Restoration
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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.
Energy
Energy Auditing – How to Implement Effective Decision Making
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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.
Net Zero
Decarbonising the Road Networks
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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?
Natural Capital
Co-funding and Partnership Delivery
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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.
Energy
What Role do Energy Storage and Hydrogen Play in the Energy Transition?
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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.
Infrastructure
What if… taking an inclusivity-led approach to design can help us solve our sustainability challenges?
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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.
Digital
What if… digital by default was not just an aspiration?
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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.
Social Value
What is social value? How do you embed this throughout your business?
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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.
Natural Capital
Supporting Industrials to Align with the TCFD
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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.
Natural Capital
Does Biodiversity Net Gain help to address climate change, or make it worse?
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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?
Remediation
SURE By Ramboll: An Innovative Digital Tool for Embedding Sustainability in Remediation Options Appraisals
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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.
Social Value
Biodiversity Net Gain: Supporting Nature Recovery
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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
H2Oh! Addressing the Challenges of Water Scarcity and Water Neutrality through Integrated Water Management Systems
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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.
Net Zero
Air Pollution Footprint Partnership
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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.
Social Value
Embedding Social Value Within the Professional Services Sector
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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.
Natural Capital
Counting what matters – what do we really mean by ‘best-value’ solutions?
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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.
Energy
What Role do Energy Networks Play in Energy Transition?
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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.
Infrastructure
What if… there is a better way for our major programmes to deliver sustainable outcomes?
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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
Social Value
Embedding social outcomes at every stage of infrastructure delivery: what? why? how?
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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.
Net Zero
An Integrated Approach to Decarbonisation & Resilience
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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.
Natural Capital
Natural Capital: Why? Getting Started and Embedding Nature in your Business Strategy
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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.
Natural Capital
The Role of Technology in Natural Capital Accounting
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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.
Net Zero
The Challenge of Scope 3 Emissions in Creating and Implementing a Credible Net Zero Transition Plan
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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.
Social Value
Social Value of Nature Recovery: Safeguarding our Future
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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.
Natural Capital
Nutrogeddon: Delivering Nutrient Neutrality in the Housing Development Sector
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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.
Energy
Grid Constraints and the Transition to Net Zero
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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.
Net Zero
Stakeholder and political challenges in a crisis-stricken world
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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.
Flood Risk
Co-developing resilient catchment solutions and pathways
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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.
Energy
How can we Enable a Secure, Sustainable and Just Energy Transition?
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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.
Natural Capital
What if… nature-based solutions provide the answer to both the climate and ecological crises?
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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.
Infrastructure
Outcome-focused use of technology in environmental and social assessment
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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.
Natural Capital
How to effectively manage Natural Capital data
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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