Better by design

Sustainability is hard to define, but affects each and every one of Mott MacDonald’s projects, writes Kevin Dixon, Group board director responsible for sustainability.

(Article taken from our customer magazine, Momentum)

“Achieving a beneficial impact on people’s lives through the projects we deliver and how we behave is fundamental to everything we do. We are committed to integrating sustainability principles into all aspects of our projects, operational practices and culture.” This is how Mott MacDonald expressed its commitment to sustainability in its first corporate responsibility review in July.

Sustainability is still a relatively new concept, not just to Mott MacDonald but to business, politicians, the public, our clients and stakeholders.

"Sustainability: exploring a conceptual jungle" Kevin Dixon

Nearly 200 years ago British civil engineer and author Thomas Tredgold defined engineering as “the practice of directing the forces of nature for the use and convenience of man”.

It is a maxim that has served the engineering profession well. But Mott MacDonald is now much more than a company of civil engineers. And there is a growing recognition that the balance between nature and man is a complex and delicate one.

Twenty years ago University of East Anglia professor of sustainability and governance Tim O’Riordan commented that trying to define sustainability was an “exploration into a tangled conceptual jungle”. If anything, O’Riordan’s jungle undergrowth is denser today than it was then.

What is clear is that sustainability cannot be reduced simply to ecological conservation. The world’s growing population needs to attain an adequate standard of living, requiring economic growth. To achieve this, natural and human resources have to be harnessed. Simplistically, sustainability is about achieving balance – about making sure that natural resources aren’t squandered, that natural systems are allowed to regenerate, that advantage to one social group is not to the detriment of another. It’s about assuring a future for our world and its inhabitants.

Mott MacDonald passionately believes in creating a business that is sustainable for all of its employees. And we are starting on the task of plotting our ecological footprint – for example, carbon emissions from our buildings and travel – so that we can better understand how our business impacts on the environment and what mitigating steps might be taken.

However, it is in our work for our clients where we can perhaps make our biggest impact upon sustainability. What is clear is that good design is often complementary to sustainability.

Mott MacDonald’s portfolio projects show, for example, that tackling health problems has positive social and economic consequences. Environmental restoration requires that local people be given the means to improve their standard of living, or they won’t invest the time and effort needed to change land management practices. Urban and economic regeneration demands holism including, among other things, healthcare, education, transport, sanitation and environmental planning.

Many projects illustrate that delivering enhanced sustainability requires higher capital outlay, but that capital costs are swiftly recouped through reduced operating expenditure. Others show that being more sustainable is actually very straightforward, with actions paying direct dividends in terms of reduced material or energy use, saved cost and time, and less waste.

The definition of sustainability and how best to deliver it will continue to be debated. Our projects in many ways are inseparable from that debate. Each has a social, economic and ecological impact. Our aim on each is to deliver the maximum social and economic benefit with the lightest environmental touch.