Sustainability

Global carbon emissions must reach net zero by 2050 to prevent catastrophic climate change. Hundreds of organisations, municipalities, and nations have declared climate emergencies and pledged to achieve net zero even sooner. There is growing understanding that drastic change is required. But clear guidance is in short supply. Sweco’s role is to join the dots between strategic climate ambitions and practical implementation. We show our clients where efforts can be best directed.

In 2015, as a signatory to the Infrastructure Carbon Review, we publicly committed to enabling carbon reduction in all our major projects. In 2018, acknowledging the urgency of the climate crisis, we revaluated and revised our commitment to include all our projects. But we want to go beyond just enabling carbon reduction in our projects. We need to make it happen. To do this, we continue to raise industry awareness and make carbon reduction a contractual standard across the supply chain.

Recognising our projects’ crucial contribution in tackling the climate crisis, we calculate and affect carbon emissions associated with everything we design. Through a programme of continuous carbon management, including design team training and the introduction of enhanced digital techniques, we highlight new opportunities for carbon reduction to clients. If carbon management is applicable to a project but not requested, we set out the opportunities that it offers.

We have developed digital techniques to clearly communicate the carbon impact of design decisions. This helps to build awareness among clients, engineers, and key stakeholders. Developments in artificial intelligence are set to automatically optimise carbon and associated costs in the near future. We are currently developing parametric design techniques – a process that uses computer algorithms to generate solutions to satisfy specified design parameters – and using machine learning to identify optimal carbon cost solutions.

We help our clients actively challenge their supply chain through procurement mechanisms that require carbon reduction, encourage innovation, and ensure that focus is maintained on carbon impacts throughout project lifetimes.