Climate emergency

The Climate Emergency Task Group help the profession to tackle climate breakdown. Their 2020 report reviews the group’s activities through the year.

Will Arnold describes the role structural engineers can play in tackling climate change, by making informed design decisions and influencing other members of the project team.

Natasha Watson and Mike Sefton introduce biodiversity concepts and explain how structural engineers can influence design and construction decisions at each stage of a project to ensure that biodiversity is protected.

Grace Di Benedetto presents a short glossary of key sustainability terms that engineers are likely to encounter when reading climate guidance.

An introduction to the goals and how structural engineers can use them to tackle the climate crisis and create a better world.

Offsetting greenhouse gas emissions will be required in the short term while the construction industry develops zero-carbon materials. Will Arnold summarises the key considerations for engineers looking to offset a project’s emissions.

Natasha Watson explains how structural engineers can produce designs that make efficient use of material to reduce their environmental impact.

Ian Poole explores ways to improve the utilisation ratio of designs, and encourages engineers to challenge assumptions that favour rationalisation over optimisation.

The IStructE Safety, Health and Wellbeing Panel considers the safety implications when aspiring to a lean design.

A study shared by BuroHappold to share knowledge that may help address the climate emergency.

This article offers some solutions to help structural engineers design efficient timber buildings.

Isuru Nanayakkara looks at traditional technologies and modern approaches to lightweight shell construction to seek a better perspective on how shell technology can be appropriated to different local contexts.

Tim Chapman and Ian Firth highlight the carbon differences between civil structures and buildings projects, and propose that engineers work with their clients to target low-carbon outcomes, rather than just low-carbon structures.

How can structural engineers influence decision making?

Can very low-carbon buildings be constructed cheaply enough to suit the pockets of private-sector commercial developers? Yes, says Professor John French, who has set himself that target in his new role as director of sustainability  for Cambridge Innovation Parks. But to do so involves overhauling approaches to procurement, contracting, materials and risk.

William Algaard presents ways in which structural engineers can help shape the direction of a project by confidently and constructively sharing their expertise in a language that client and architect will understand.

Buro Happold and WSP UK have committed to reducing the carbon emissions of their designs by 50% by 2030. In this article, Sarah Prichard and David Leversha set out the rationale for this target, explain how they plan to achieve this, and encourage other firms to join them in setting an ambitious agenda for governments to follow as we approach the COP26 climate summit.

Peter Laidler describes a small practice's solution to calculating the embodied carbon of its standard structural designs.

This article describes the climate-positive design for the campus of the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture. 

This article describes the design of Hams Way Footbridge from concept through to construction, including an assessment of the embodied carbon.

The article showcases the University of East Anglia's Enterprise Centre project, a low-carbon, sustainable building which achieves both Passivhaus standard and BREEAM Outstanding rating.

This article describes the structural reuse and strengthening strategies adopted to enable three additional storeys to be added to an existing office building in London.

The design of the BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ Centre was developed from the outset to control its environmental and social impact, achieving the highest standards of sustainable construction.

22 Bishopsgate was erected on the site of an abandoned project, reusing 100% of the existing foundations from three previous buildings, and incorporating more than 50% of the basement built for its predecessor. This article describes the approach to reusing the existing foundations and basement, as well as the focus on material efficiency in designing the superstructure and transfer structures.