Crunch carbon, cut costs

05 March 2015

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Carbon

Environment

How cutting carbon is good for your business – Mike Haigh, Mott MacDonald managing director for Europe and Africa, sets out the issues.

Mott MacDonald recently hosted two ‘low carbon master classes’ featuring Anglian Water’s pioneering work reducing carbon as a means of cutting cost. We are sharing, in this Infrastructure Intelligence briefing, the lessons learned about how to cut carbon, and how it is good for your business.

"The master classes supported the Green Construction Board’s ongoing work to raise awareness of the ICR, and they set out to provide practical advice and evidence of the business benefits of cutting carbon" - Mike Haigh

In November 2013 the government published a report, the Infrastructure Carbon Review (ICR), which asserted that the UK economy would benefit by £1.5bn if everyone involved in the infrastructure industry could achieve the same levels of carbon-efficiency as the industry leaders.

The master classes supported the Green Construction Board’s ongoing work to raise awareness of the ICR, and they set out to provide practical advice and evidence of the business benefits of cutting carbon, to give others the impetus and confidence to pursue their own carbon and cost-saving programmes.

The ICR set out a small number of big issues that low carbon leaders have tackled to gain their commercial edge:

• ·         Leadership encompassing vision, values and policy
• ·         Culture encompassing behaviour, communication and skills
• ·         Metrics encompassing baseline measurement, targets, tools and governance
• ·         Innovation and standards
• ·         Commercial solutions encompassing procurement, reward and supply chain integration

Anglian Water has been at the cutting edge of the low carbon agenda for more than five years. One of the key points of the ICR is that carbon best practice and innovation aren’t sector-specific. Much of Anglian Water’s experience can be adopted or adapted in the transport, communications, waste and energy sectors.

We all need to look outside our traditional spheres, and share ideas and information between them. As an environmental, social and economic threat, carbon transcends any one organisation or business sector. And the same is true of carbon reduction: there is scope for innovation that can save money and value for companies across all parts of the infrastructure industry.

This short series of articles on this Infrastructure Intelligence Briefing sets out headline challenges, experience and advice. Scroll down for links to the briefing stories.

For more on crunching carbon, cutting cost talk to Davide Stronati, Mott MacDonald Group sustainability manager. 
E: davide.stronati@mottmac.com