Engineering Matters is a production of Reby Media. This episode was written and hosted by Alex Conacher.
Start of Transcript
Hosts: Alex Conacher and Jane Sophia
Producer: Johnnie Dowling
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Extract of Greta Thunberg speech at Youth for Climate
“Net zero by 2050 “blah, blah, blah”, Net zero “blah, blah, blah”, climate neutral “blah, blah, blah”.
This is all we hear from our so-called leaders, words, words that sound great but so far no action”.
Alex
That was Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg, at the Youth4Climate conference in 2021.
Jane
Many people, like Greta Thunberg, are frustrated over the disconnect between big words and the absence of strong action.
Alex
Countries like the UK have laid out ambitious net zero targets, even enshrining them in law, but how do we go from targets and promises to industries making major changes?
Jane
Because we need major change if we are to get to net zero in the UK and play our role in preventing global warming from reaching a catastrophic, irreversible peak.
Alex
And to do that, every single sector will need a plan that delivers on reducing carbon emissions. The time to act is running out…
Extract of Greta Thunberg speech at Youth for Climate
“Hope is not passive. Hope is not the “blah, blah, blah….”.
Extract of Greta Thunberg speech at Youth for Climate
“Hope is taking action”.
OPENING MUSIC
Alex and Jane
Hello and welcome to Engineering Matters. I’m Alex Conacher and I’m Jane. In this episode we’ve partnered with WSP to talk about decarbonising the UK’s Strategic Road Network.
Jane
WSP has been working with National Highways to create a plan to reach net zero by 2050. That’s the net carbon contribution from the organisation’s corporate activities… its maintenance… its construction… even the road users reduced.
Alex
That is a stunning ambition for an organisation that is responsible for the UK’s strategic road network that forms the backbone of the UK’s transport.
Jane
In this episode we will examine how the teams went about creating their detailed and ambitious plan. And then how they are approaching the challenge of implementing it, which not only impacts National Highways but the entire road construction industry and all UK road users.
Alex
But before that we need to understand the scale of issue that National Highways is facing.
MUSIC
Alex
The energy sector has been steadily decarbonising in the UK for decades, with greenhouse gas emissions down by 40% compared to 1990 levels, as the sector moves away from coal to renewable energy sources. In 2016 it stopped being the worst sector for carbon emissions for the first time.
Jane
Meaning the transport sector became the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the UK, emitting 122 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2019 - or about 27% of the UK’s total greenhouse emissions for that year.
Alex
And there has been very little movement in the sector's carbon emissions over the last 30 years.
Stephen Elderkin
It needs to change. There is no way the UK can meet its climate objectives without a rapid reduction in transport emissions.
Jane
That’s Stephen Elderkin, he’s the Director of Environmental Sustainability at National Highways, and in charge of implementing the net zero plan.
Alex
And the size of National Highways, which is responsible for 7000km of motorways and major roads, means it is in a position to have a big impact on the entire transport sector.
Stephen Elderkin
So we only run about 2% of the roads in the UK, which doesn't sound very much.
Stephen Elderkin
But, actually, on those 2% of roads, you have one-third of all car miles travelled and two-thirds of all HGV miles are travelled on those 2% roads. So, it's really the biggest, highest capacity roads in the country providing those connections across the nation.
Alex
So, how do they start writing a net zero plan for the entire strategic road network? Well, first they brought in external perspectives, international experience, and a challenging voice to add to its in-house expertise
David Symons
They came to us and said is that the carbon issue is really important for them as an organisation, and it's important for the governments as well, so we need to develop a strong plan that responds to it.
Alex
David Symons is the Sustainability Director at WSP.
David Symons
And we have now been working with National Highways on their net zero plan for around about two years, from an initial concept through to developing the plan itself and refining that with the leadership team. Now we're working with the company to support the practical implementation of that plan.
Jane
The first step in creating the plan was the modelling phase, to understand where carbon emissions are coming from across National Highways network.
David Symons
Once we understood that we could then pull together and develop an outline plan to show what a really strong net zero plan could look like. That was phase two. The third phase, which is as important as the testing, was the refining of the plan, to really make sure that when they launched the plan in July last year, it was a plan which the organisation was behind and that they were confident was the right plan for the company.
MUSIC
Alex
In July of 2021 the plan was unveiled: The Net Zero Highways; 2030/2040/2050 plan.
Stephen Elderkin
The strategy that we published last July, set out three high level targets. The first was to reduce corporate emissions to net zero by 2030. The second was to reduce construction and maintenance emissions to net zero by 2040. And the final target was to reduce our user emissions (basically the tailpipe emissions), to ensure people using our network reduce their emissions to net zero by 2050.
Jane
The first goal is simple enough. Like most organisations moving to net zero, the plan involves reducing energy use in their office spaces, using renewable energy sources, and even reducing their office estate with the introduction of more flexible ways of working.
Alex
But even the simple goals can get very complicated for an asset owner as large as National Highways.
Stephen Elderkin
Over 80% of our emissions come from electricity usage and more than three quarters of that comes from lighting the network. So, making an improvement, we've committed to changing over to LED lighting, for instance, which will significantly reduce our electricity consumption and our emissions. Additionally, we will buy all of our electricity from renewable energy backed sources. We're changing our traffic officer vehicles over to electric. We're also planting 3 million trees.
Stephen Elderkin
And it's achievable, I can see how we can get there.
Jane
The second target is more ambitious, net zero on all maintenance and construction by 2040.
David Symons
The biggest opportunity and challenge that I see in this plan is, probably, delivering zero carbon maintenance and construction across the motorway and road network in the UK by 2040.
Stephen Elderkin
And this, although it's the middle target, is the one that I think is the most challenging for us.
Alex
In 2020 maintenance and construction on the National Highways road network led to 734 thousand tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Jane
And reducing this isn’t just in the hands of National Highways.
Alex
To achieve their 2040 goal, National Highways are going to need buy-in, and technological innovation from across the road construction industry.
Stephen Elderkin
Yeah, I think they are on board. I think we had one supplier whose target was 2045. They've since aligned with us and said now we'll aim to get there for 2040. So I think that's really, really, positive. I think everyone is aware. And, as I said at the beginning, I do think the construction target is the hardest for us and it will take concerted effort. I'd love to get to a place where it was like safety.
Alex
Where, the construction industry tries not to take a commercial advantage or compete on safety. If someone comes up with a good idea. They share it. Lives are too important.
Stephen Elderkin
That's absolutely right and I think carbon needs to be approached in a similar mindset. This is an emergency, we have to reduce our emissions and we have to reduce them rapidly. How do we share best practice and get there together as an industry? If we don't clean up the construction industry, there won't be much of a construction industry.
David Symons
The reality is that us, as engineers, have spent most of our careers really focusing on cost and focusing on quality. And now, in 18 years’ time, National Highways has set the ambition. And t that ambition has been set by the Committee on Climate Change as well, which says that UK construction has to be largely decarbonised by 2040. The biggest opportunity in this respect for our sector is to say, “how can we innovate and get ourselves confident as engineers, so that we can design and use low carbon zero carbon materials designing in different ways, to we meet the challenge that National Highways as a leader in the UK and one of the biggest infrastructure investors in the UK, has set down”?
Jane
National Highways is one of the UKs largest asset owners and this position allows them to hold significant influence in the construction industry.
David Symons
And so, one of the opportunities that National Highways has, is to really set out a trajectory, which it does in the net zero plan. It sets out when are we going to be expecting all of the plant and equipment that we use on our construction sites to be zero carbon that's in the plan. So, that gives an opportunity for the plant and equipment manufacturers and lessees to be able to invest in that over the course of this year. The same for asphalt, the same for cement, the same for steel. This is the opportunity for National Highways, which is spending 27 billion pounds "in this road investment period. It has enormous heft to be able to “make the market” in many respects, and to set down the challenge to innovative companies by saying, “hey look, this is what we want to be, come with us because that's what we want to do”. And, so, that “raises all boats”. It drives innovation. It helps British businesses to grow.
Alex
Then there’s the third and final goal, net zero road user emissions by 2050.
Jane
And this is the big one. Compared to the 734,000 tonnes of CO2 produced by construction and maintenance, road users emit nearly 33 MILLION tonnes of CO2 a year.
Stephen Elderkin
98% of our emissions come from tailpipes at the moment. So road users are really the vast majority of the problem, point 1% comes from corporate but about 2% comes from construction and maintenance emissions.
Alex
To achieve net zero from road users, all cars will need to be electric and positive steps have been made in that direction.
Stephen Elderkin
I believe last month, more electric vehicles were sold than in the whole of 2019. I think the sort of gift here currently is consulting on kind of regulations around minimum percentages of uptake of electric vehicles, up to the point where they ban combustion engine vehicle sales in 2030. I think that there's a lot of positive momentum there
Jane
But, to help achieve the electric vehicle revolution, National Highways needs to invest in charging infrastructure .
David Symons
Quite clearly, there is a big need by National Highways, to give us all the confidence that if we're driving on holiday, if we're driving home from work, because the reality is that most of us do so in Britain, that, when you are driving, you have the confidence that if you if you need to charge your car, there will be a charger point that is accessible, convenient and that it's going to work. So, you know, that is absolutely a critical element for the road network.
Jane
Since 2020, 95% of the strategic road network is within 20 minutes of a charger.
Alex
But, to ensure the UK is ready for more electric cars, the UK government has already announced they will be investing £950 million into improving the UK charging infrastructure for motorways and major A roads by installing thousands of new chargers by the end of the decade.
Stephen Elderkin
So, at the moment the focus is on fast chargers, which really take quite a draw. So, over 100 kilowatts, you can't have that many of those without a fairly sizable connection to the national grid. To get the banks of charges needed at motorway service areas those connections need to be upgraded.
Alex
And, in 2019, the UK electricity utility National Grid released a report “Supporting the Growth of Electric Vehicles”, which we have provided a link to in our show notes.
Jane
But cars aren’t the only polluters on the roads, in 2020 HGVs were responsible for over a third of all road user emissions.
Alex
But the technology for carbon neutral HGVs doesn’t exist yet, and no-one is exactly sure what that technology will even be.
Stephen Elderkin
So there are three really competing technologies, but all of them potentially will end up with an electric drive train. And then the question is, how do you get the real big store of energy to that drive train? Do you have a really big battery? Do you have hydrogen in some form providing the fuel cell? Or do you have some kind of connection for the vehicle with electric power outside, such as a tram line with a pantograph above and the power going into the lorry?
Jane
National Highways will present a report to the Government this year detailing the current trials for electric HGVs around the world and recommending where funding for UK trials should go.
Alex
Then, by 2028, National Highways will release an investment plan for their preferred method of HGV charging so they can meet the Department for Transports goal of phasing out non-zero emissions trucks from 2040.
Jane
Planning 30 years into an uncertain future requires the ability to be adaptable and David leads a programme known as ‘Future Ready’.
David Symons
So, if you think about a road or a railway, typically the design life we are asked to design for is 120 years.
David Symons
So if we just designed to code, we know that we will get designs and buildings that have some consideration of the future, but absolutely will not cover all of the trends that we will expect. That was exactly the same for the net zero plan, as well. So, as part of the modelling, and as part of our forward-look to the plan, some of those key trends were concerning, of course, the electricity grid will decarbonise…,
Alex
…By the mid-2020s, in the UK, it will probably be cheaper to buy an electric vehicle rather than a petrol or diesel vehicle…
David Symons
And so, you know, Therefore, taking all of those sorts of future trends into account together, that informs the plan, that then says “Okay, so this is what National Highways that's going to be your world to the future. What more does National Highways need to be doing or how can it take advantage to accelerate that future”? So, of course it responds and, as a company, it's ready for some really great innovation on materials, but also as a very customer focused organisation. For example, how do they get ready for the enormous increase in demand for electric vehicle charging or for motorway service areas? How do they get ready for a future in the mid-2030s when most trucks will either be battery, or electric, or they might even be running on catenary networks, or Scalextric tracks in the road! We don't know exactly what that future is likely to be but we can start planning for that now and design schemes that are flexible and ready for that future.
Alex
WSP has used its Future Ready programme to inform their designs on other projects.
David Symons
There are examples where that is applied. We've actually just installed a modular series of modular bridges on HS2, where all of those materials were manufactured off site, then craned in and assembled together. We've taken some flexible approaches on some of the rail networks down on the south coast as well. And the whole focus of this is really about what, from a highways perspective of designing schemes, you want to change. You can change them around, in a “plug and play” kind of way, without having huge waste and with limited impact on road users.
David Symons
So I think we'll see this sort of kit. Parts, plug and play, permanent/temporary. These are phrases that we will see more and more in engineering and, from a WSP perspective, they're absolutely part of our modern methods of construction thinking.
Alex
One approach that Stephen Elderkin thinks could make a big difference on National Highways carbon emissions is called Digital Roads. This is an area in which WSP is also assisting National Highways.
Jane
Digital roads is a catch-all for lots of different implementations of digital technology on the strategic road network.
Stephen Elderkin
It could mean the processes that are used to design roads having a digital twin and digital rehearsals. That can help with carbon, because, for instance, that may reduce wastage, it might make the design right first time more often. You can see how that kind of efficiency and lean approach could help on carbon.
Jane
But, further in the future, digital roads could also be used on the network’s operation.
Stephen Elderkin
And so another question is could digital systems allow us to use a given amount of road surface more efficiently?
I'll give you an example. We've recently been trialling platooning of lorries through connected and autonomous vehicles. Further work is required but, potentially, platooning or autonomous connected vehicles could move closer together which would allow more journeys on a given amount of road surface. If we can do that, it reduces the amount of new construction and additional lane capacity needed to be built.
Alex
To start achieving the net zero goals implementation is already well under way, particularly with some of the more straightforward parts of the plan.
David Symons
Including the programme to start retrofitting the LEDs across the network. I mean, it sounds simple, but, actually, it's still a pretty big programme. I also think, realistically, the programme will gradually move all of the traffic officer fleet over to electric vehicles. It's not that difficult to do with traffic officer vehicles as they have certain unique characteristics, such as they have to be able to tow and things like that. It's not quite as simple as that but technology will move the scale of things, making it a slightly easier approach to take.
Jane
But starting implementation doesn’t just mean doing the easy stuff.
David Symons
Other aspects (and I'll come back to material innovation across the network) are enormously complicated and challenging. That doesn't mean that National Highways shouldn't achieve it but it requires a huge amount of collaboration within National Highways, and also with partners and innovators as well.
Alex
And National Highways has already begun engaging with their suppliers and partners to help understand the development of decarbonising key construction materials.
Stephen Elderkin
We're going to publish more detailed route maps for key materials by the end of this year following deeper engagement with suppliers and our partners. Currently, we've got it cross checked and it looks achievable, but really stretching the area under the curve is what matters. So it's not just about getting to zero in 2050. If you can get there sooner, that's important.
Jane
And Stephen is already seeing promising signs of innovation when it comes to decarbonizing construction and maintenance on the road network.
Stephen Elderkin
Actually, there are really big gains to be made. In terms of carbon efficiency, you're reducing carbon emissions, through quality, through ‘right first time’ and by avoiding waste. As a recent example, partners in the supply chain identified a detail in one of our standards which specified a particular kind of concrete mix. If we could permit them to use a different kind of concrete mix that achieved the same design standard, it would allow them to reduce the cement by a third without any change to the user experience.
MUSIC
Alex
Having carbon neutral or net zero goals is all well and good… but they only mean something when accompanied by serious action.
David Symons
I think the two things that I've learned are, first of all, to set a bold target because a bold, ambitious target does drive action. I've seen that within National Highways and I absolutely see that within WSP, as well.
The second thing is to have as much focus on how you will implement the plan not just your targets within the plan. How you actually implement it on day two then keep the focus and maintain the momentum is as important as what you are saying you are going to do.
Stephen Elderkin
I think one thing that worked incredibly well at National Highways is we had some really passionate and committed people at executive level.
Stephen Elderkin
That sort of championing of the importance of this agenda, that visible leadership, helped to create an environment where it was possible to make the ambitious commitments, develop the plan and make the commitments to the actions that we've that we've talked about.
Jane
Beyond their work with National Highways, David and WSP have made their own carbon commitments for all projects they work on.
David Symons
The commitment that we've made is to halve the amount of carbon. There is one other organisation in our sector to have made that commitment, so we are really proud of that. What it means is this covers the carbon that we are responsible for on the projects that we are commissioned for..
David Symons
It's a bold commitment and, in terms of implementing it one that is now standing up for us for really big innovation programmes.
We're testing about 150 different low carbon materials to see, do they stack up? Where do they stack up? We're giving our people the skills, we're giving our people the tools, and we're challenging them to be at the heart of it.
Alex
And that might even mean turning work down…
David Symons
At the moment, we will absolutely turn down work where we have clients who say, “You know what, we're not that serious about it. We're wanting to pay lip service”.
But, you know what? The whole economy has to decarbonize. There is no merit whatsoever in just writing off whole sections of the economy simply because we love to hate them. The reality is, if you think about roads, if you think about aviation, if you think about how we all get around, there is no net zero without Net Zero Roads or without Net Zero Aviation. That is the reality, so let's get on the bus and work with clients who are really serious about it and together, we will deliver that net zero economy.
ENDING MUSIC
Sound Engineering by Ross MacPherson
Series supervision by Jon Young
And our calculated emissions solution is Rory Harris
Special thanks to our episode partner WSP, and also to National Highways
Thank you for listening! You can find Engineering Matters on all podcast apps, on their website Engineering Matters Reby Media and on Twitter and on LinkedIn.
End of Transcript.
