Comment and opinion
26.06.20
Flattening the climate curve? – Lessons from lockdown for tackling for climate change
“Never let a good crisis go to waste”. This statement on the lessons of action in adversity, attributed to Winston Churchill, describing post-war attempts to create the United Nations as a force to rebuild the global community is absolutely pertinent in a COVID-19 impacted Britain right now.
05.06.20
How can infrastructure do more to boost biodiversity?
With an increase in UK government investment in infrastructure, now is the time to look carefully at how we as a sector can do more to minimise any negative impact on biodiversity. If we use the right technology tools early on in all projects, the industry has an opportunity to maximise its positive impact and biodiversity net gain across the UK.
08.03.20
A trio of powerhouse women leading the fight against climate change
In celebration of International Women’s Day, 8 March 2020, and in light of the recent launch of our industry leading climate change action plan, we are proud to put a spotlight on a trio of powerhouse women at Costain that are leading the fight against climate change across some of our major projects, ultimately helping to improve people’s lives.
05.03.20
Walking the talk on climate change action
The net zero carbon agenda is changing the infrastructure landscape at an unprecedented pace and the recent series of environmental announcements made by leading companies in the sector promises to further accelerate that change.
27.09.19
New digital tools help infrastructure developers minimise their impact on the environment
How do we ensure the infrastructure we’re building to underpin our towns and cities and enable our way of life doesn’t cost us the earth? As an industry, we have to find a way to balance the demand for better transport connections, more housing, cleaner energy and a steady flow of fresh water with the urgent need to protect our environment.
27.09.19
Smart materials: how could they transform infrastructure intelligence?
Every year in the UK we spend billions of pounds repairing and maintaining our vital infrastructure . But new, smart materials could enable us to cut those costs, improve sustainability, and the safety of major project delivery.
06.08.19
What’s a realistic Hydrogen roadmap to 2050?
If we were to accept that hydrogen could play a significant role in plugging the energy gap and accelerating the UK’s journey towards net zero carbon by 2050, what would a roadmap for a hydrogen economy look like?
26.04.19
Five Stages to engineering a carbon-neutral future
Jyoti Sehdev, one of our section engineers, provides her thoughts on the five stages of a project lifecycle that we influence to engineer a carbon-neutral future.
18.02.19
10 guiding principles for energy and resource efficiency
I was recently invited to be a contributing author of the Institute of Chemical Engineer's energy and resource efficiency guide. My article provides a summary of the 10 guiding principles. Although the guide has been written from the perspective of industrial plant, it contains guiding principles that will ring true for any business…
06.02.19
This generation's biggest challenge
A report was published towards the end of last year by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) claiming that the global temperature rise needed to be capped at 1.5° rather than the previously stated 2° (rise measured against pre-industrial global temperatures). The last time the global temperature spiked in such a dramatic fashion was 56 million years ago when a vast quantity of carbon was injected into the earth’s atmosphere. The outcome of which completely flipped the world on its head.