Lara Young wins prestigious industry award
NEWS ARTICLE
13 November 2020
Lara Young, group carbon manager at Costain, has been awarded a Highways UK 2020 Associate Laureate award for her commitment to driving forward the climate change agenda within transport.
Lara led the creation of Costain’s industry-leading Climate Change Action Plan, which sets out a roadmap for how the smart infrastructure solutions company will work with its clients and supply chain to achieve a zero-carbon future by 2035 at the latest.
Most significantly to date, Lara has led the design, development and implementation of two transformational change programmes: the Costain Resource Efficiency Matrix and the transition to a carbon zero emissions car fleet by 2030.
The Costain Resource Efficiency Matrix is one of the first programmes on this scale to be rolled out in the UK and provides a framework for consistently innovating to reduce the carbon and environmental footprint of a project – of any size and from any sector – and for all resources to be used as efficiently as possible. To date, the matrix has identified and saved nearly £27m and 1.4m tonnes of carbon emissions (tCO2e) for Costain, its clients and supply chain partners.
Earlier this year, Costain was one of the first UK companies to join the Climate Group EV100 and pledge to transition 100% of its fleet to electric or other clean sustainable fuel sources, such as hydrogen. The ground-breaking transition to a carbon zero emissions car fleet will see all vehicles in both the company car and car allowance fleets fully powered by clean energy by 2030. Costain has also pledged that its plant equipment will make this transition by 2035.
“I am hugely passionate about making carbon reduction and climate change relatable and accessible to everyone. Costain is committed to leading the transition to clean energy and is taking clear action today to tackle the industry’s environmental footprint, while continuing to innovate for tomorrow. I’m extremely humbled to have won this award which is the culmination of a lot of hard work by an extremely dedicated team which is determined to deliver cleaner, smarter and sustainable projects.”
Lara is also supporting the wider industry in its journey to net zero: she is an active member of the Institute of Civil Engineers’ Carbon Project steering group and is leading a workstream focused on finding solutions to the current level of emissions. Lara is also a member of the Greater London Young Professionals Panel, which is supporting the capital with its agenda on: Equality, diversity and inclusion; climate resilience and carbon reduction; and placemaking.
ENDS