1 Integrating what and for whom? Financialisation and the Thames Tideway Tunnel h ps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098017736713
2 BREEAM h ps://www.breeam.com
41 April 2020 / www.theengineer.co.uk
thinking to
judge the
often poorly
quantifi ed,
or eff ectively
unquantifi able,
experiences
and benefi ts that
we get from our
environment?
This isn’t a
completely new
concern. Environmental
engineering is one area
in which the relationship
between engineer and
environmentalist has been
historically explored and
tested, practically from the
earliest days of civilisation.
As a modern profession,
environmental engineering
emerged in the development of the
large-scale infrastructures of the
19th century industrial revolution.
However, to this day many approaches
to common challenges of water supply
and waste processing still rely on
controlling and bypassing rather than
working in sympathy with the broader
environment.
Large-scale contemporary water
infrastructure projects such as
the Thames Tideway Tunnel are
largely refl ective of this approach.
This project has been both praised
for its scale and ambition, and
criticised for its comparative lack of
vision in authentically integrating
more environmentally sensitive
approaches1. Engineering has reached
a critical nexus: well positioned to
contribute to solutions to global
challenges, but only in light of a
deep refl ection on long engrained
assumptions and practices.
There is increasing evidence that
engineering disciplines are starting to
making great advances in adopting more
low-impact approaches. Mindsets have
begun to change across the industry,
with increasing global awareness of
the impacts of engineering projects as
they increase in pace and scale with
urbanisation and development. The
scope of these impacts has become
impossible to ignore in the face of the
combined challenges of climate change,
biodiversity loss and water scarcity.
World-leading engineering fi rms
dedicate signifi cant capacity to
environmental impact assessment,
taking a broad-based view of the impact
of developments over space and time.
Technical innovations abound in
design, procurement, construction and
demolition, aided and accompanied by
regulations which increasingly frame
construction projects from a whole life
cycle perspective and provide incentives
and support for environmental
innovation and compliance through
project planning and assessment tools
such as BREAAM (Building Research
Establishment Environmental
Assessment Method)2. Sustainability
increasingly informs the standards
that specify designs, materials and
approaches.
Alongside technical improvements
in engineering practice, it is becoming
increasingly necessary to engage
directly with urban planners, regulators
and infrastructure decision-makers to
give us the opportunity to proactively
guide more environmentally-sound
engineering solutions. Often the
barriers result from public policy:
sustainable technologies or alternatives
exist, but cannot be implemented
or scaled up due to poorly-aligned
regulation, institutional structures, or
funding or fi nancing arrangements.
One key opportunity here is in the
broad-based and non-disciplinary
training of the next generation of
engineers, planners and decisionmakers.
In many engineering degrees
the broader environmental and
social context is not a central part
of the curriculum. Simultaneously,
few courses for future policy makers
enable a deep focus on engineering
policy and infrastructure decisionmaking.
We are both engineers by
training (engineering geology and
civil engineering), now working with
a range of diff erent communities in
addressing contemporary engineering
policy challenges. In our teaching
on sustainable infrastructure
and public policy we increasingly
recognise ourselves as part of a global
community of educational innovators
bringing engineering and sustainable
development to the same table.
Embedding environmental and
sustainability concerns into the
education of those shaping the next
generation of infrastructure, will allow
future professionals to fully embrace
the holistic, large-scale and long-term
approaches needed to address our 21st
century challenges.
Dr Carla Washbourne (left) and Dr
Jenny McArthur (above) are lecturers at
the Department of Science, Technology,
Engineering and Public Policy at
University College London
“engineering disciplines are
starting to make advances adopting
low-impact approaches“
/0042098017736713
/www.breeam.com
/www.theengineer.co.uk