Thursday, March 22, 2007

Engineers Must Lead by Example and Reduce Their Carbon Emissions

CIVIL ENGINEERS must take personal responsibility for tackling climate change, ICE president Quentin Lieper said last week.

Speaking to 400 members at the annual ICE West Midlands dinner in Birmingham, Lieper challenged them to reduce energy consumption in their own offices as well as on projects and to cut travel.

Lieper urged every one of the Institution's members to perform a single action every day to improve the performance of the built environment in general and their own immediate environment in particular.

"Climate change is the biggest global issue we are facing," Lieper said. "The government wants to cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2050. But they can't do it by themselves. "As engineers we have a part to play not only in design, but also in our own business operations."

He called on engineers to make the effort to understand why it is important to promote sustainability, to enthuse their teams, provide simple guidance, show leadership, and demonstrate and celebrate successes in achieving sustainability.
Leiper added that there were clear business benefits to cutting energy consumption.

BlogMaster: And: He could have said "promote sustainable technologies like Anaerobic Digestion"!?

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