Engineering Net Zero

When it comes to climate change, we’re realistic. From fires and floods, to rising sea levels, climate change is already with us, impacting livelihoods, infrastructure and our environment. But we’re also optimistic about the impact we can make.

As we decarbonize our economies to reach Net Zero it’s critical that we simultaneously build resilience against those climate impacts we cannot avoid. Climate adaptation and resilience is built in to all our Net Zero solutions, from energy infrastructure, to sustainable, low-carbon cities.

We work closely with our clients to identify both the immediate and the future climate risks, and create solutions to adapt and build resilience for their assets, operations and businesses. But within our solutions we also seek out the opportunities that will benefit their business for the longer term.

Our key drivers include:

• Mitigating against increasing disruption and losses from climate impacts.
• Addressing growing requirements to assess, manage and disclose physical climate risks.
• The strong value proposition in an integrated Net Zero and Climate Resilience offering.

Net Zero will require disruptive change to take place concurrently across multiple industrial sectors, a technological diffusion at a rate unprecedented in the post-industrial era.

Most significantly, Net Zero will require the development of a UK greenhouse gas removal (GGR) ‘solutions bank’ involving nature-based and technological options that removes 60-90 megatonnes of CO2 each year by 2050.

GGR solutions can come in many forms but are typically categorised as either nature-based or engineering / mechanical-based solutions. Either solution type will require substantive engagement with communities, society and industry to establish the necessary infrastructure and management practices.

Net Zero will require disruptive change to take place concurrently across multiple industrial sectors, a technological diffusion at a rate unprecedented in the post-industrial era.

An unprecedented level of investment will need to take place for GGR solutions to be realised at the scales required. The public, private and third sectors face an enormous challenge to ensure these technologies can be delivered effectively, promptly, sustainably and equitably.

There are many opportunities today to start removal of carbon from our atmosphere, mostly through Nature-based Solutions (NBS) but increasingly through emergent engineered solutions, such as Direct Air Capture systems. Designing and deploying these solutions cost effectively requires a breadth of knowledge and expertise across many disciplines.

With carbon reduction now clearly on the global agenda, businesses and public bodies are increasingly adjusting their decision making, placing climate front and center.

However, in the modern era, carbon reduction is one of many competing and complex priorities.

We’re here to support and work together to not only rise to the challenge, but to identify the opportunities, with strategic planning and implementation. Our Engineering Net Zero approach can clarify and optimize the pathway to Net Zero and deliver pragmatic, cost-effective solutions, tailored to your business goals.

We base our effective and innovative decarbonization strategies on 4 key questions:

• Do we understand the scope? Defining what Net Zero means for your organization or project from the start. Identifying the factors we can directly control and those we can indirectly influence.
• Do we have the right data? Having access to the data needed to baseline and the ability to continuously measure and monitor performance.
• Is our solution cost-effective, pragmatic and future-facing? Solutions must be resilient, rooted in pragmatic thinking and informed through a deep understanding of the asset or operation for carbon reduction, as well as the system these sit within.
• Is help required in accessing finance and funding? For many private and public organizations, accessing finance will be a key factor. We’re here to assist with applications, proposals and calculating associated payback criteria.

Our existing energy system is the engine room of our global economy, powering and heating all areas of society. A Net Zero or clean-energy system will need to do the same, but at a much larger scale to meet the rising demand for power as the wider economy implements their own Net Zero plans.

Whole-system thinking will be essential to effectively plot a pathway to a Net Zero energy system future and, importantly, the transition to a Net Zero energy system will be exactly that, a transition. Clean-energy solutions, new technologies and the fourth industrial revolution will need to converge to drive the integration of a new clean-energy system over time and in a phased manner.

Building capacity while transitioning to a clean-energy system, ensuring security of supply and that the energy system is resilient and adaptive to our changing climate, form the largest priorities the energy systems face. Importantly, the energy systems’ success in this transition will be critical to decarbonising the wider economy.

We are ready to support our clients in facing their energy system challenges, whether it be decarbonising key areas of the existing system, integrating clean-energy solutions within the existing system, or developing clean-energy solutions to enable the decarbonisation of the wider built environment.

Our whole-system thinking approach provides an end-to-end capability across the whole lifecycle of energy system assets, ensuring our clients’ aspirations and commitments to Net Zero are achieved.

New Buildings can be designed to be Net Zero Carbon today, but 80% of the buildings that will exist in 2050 are already built.

Creating the Net Zero communities of the future relies on effective decarbonisation of existing assets, as well as bringing new buildings into the mix.

Project scale can vary enormously, from individual building developments, operating or maintaining campuses or estates, to looking at how to deliver sustainable cities. For large-scale projects, consideration of the wider system and infrastructure around and within which the new or existing development resides is the key to long-term success.

Whatever the project scale, organisations are having to add Net Zero considerations and strategies to an already burdensome load of competing commercial, economic, social and environmental priorities.

This has been more recently exacerbated by the devastating social and economic impact of Covid-19. As such, translating the need for systems thinking into pragmatic and deliverable programmes that deliver Net Zero outcomes can be deeply challenging, depending on the business models organisations are bound by. However, smart and robust approaches exist to de-risk and overcome such challenges.

Our whole-system approach specifically targets this issue, enabling our clients to develop intelligent and cost-effective solutions where singular solutions can deliver multiple value outcomes at once.

Our transport systems are the great enablers of our societies, connecting people and goods with places and markets, supporting vibrant local, regional and global economies.

Mobility and connectivity have delivered economic prosperity, massive social benefits and have shaped the way we live. However, for many countries around the world, including the UK, transport is now the single largest source of GHG emissions.

So how can we decarbonise our transport systems, while maintaining the level of mobility and connectivity our society and economy demands?

This is a substantial challenge, which, when addressed, uncovers a wide variety of interrelated issues and challenges. Strategic priorities will be focused on:

• Accelerating the shift to low- or zero-carbon modes, especially for local movements – electric vehicles, active travel and lowcarbon, mass-transit solutions
• Decarbonising road traffic through a rapid transition to electric vehicles
• The decarbonisation of longer-distance passenger and freight movement, with greater use of electrified railways, and new technology for heavy goods vehicles, planes and shipping
• Encouraging behaviours that rapidly change travel patterns, reducing carbon because we use zero-carbon modes, make shorter or less frequent trips, or don’t make trips at all.

Alongside these strategic challenges there are critical issues that need to be addressed on how we plan, build and operate our transport system, including:

• Understanding the current carbon baseline, targets and Net Zero pathways
• Driving Net Zero thinking into all aspects of infrastructure planning, design, construction and operation
• Stress-testing large infrastructure projects and programmes to check alignment with Paris Agreement
• How the transport system adapts to rapid electrification and shift to low-carbon modes
• Building consensus across all stakeholder groups about the changes likely to be required to how our transport system operates
• How to attract and secure funding and financing, especially post-COVID.

These challenges are significant but so too are the opportunities. However, unlocking them will require leadership and funding from government, with policy certainty that enables the private sector to invest with confidence in the infrastructure and technologies needed to decarbonise the transport systems.

For those who lean in and embrace this challenge there are substantial opportunities, with the opportunity to become a world leader in decarbonising transport systems that can deliver a cleaner and sustainable society

Heavy industry, manufacturing and large utilities, such as water, are integral to the smooth running of our societies by producing and/or supplying the resources, materials and products we need and managing and treating our wastes.

In particular manufacturing and heavy industry are the engine room of our global economy, driving growth, prosperity and improved living standards.

All these sectors share similar dynamics and challenges around consumer behaviours and preferences, the challenge of efficient operations, supply chain and operational logistics and value chain complexity. The production of resources and products has become ever more efficient, reducing costs, whilst increasing throughput and improving quality and reliability. However, the manufacture of materials such as cement and steel remains deeply challenging when it comes to addressing the embedded carbon created through the current industrial processes, but alternative and process solutions are emerging.