Keys to Better Sustainability

21 November 2007, 12:59pm

21st November 2007 - Sustainability is now a major priority for professionals working in civil engineering. This was the key message from the floor on the first day of Civils 2007, delivered via a survey, commissioned by Autodesk, designed to identify the mood of the industry. 91 per cent of those questioned said the issue was now of great importance to their organisation.

However, the survey pointed out that to enable the industry to work responsibly – and in the greenest way it can – it needs better collaboration between the different disciplines, as well as the right tools and technology to facilitate the testing and analysis of civil engineering designs at the earliest stage to minimise their impact on the environment.

When asked about the factors driving this issue, respondents saw legislation as a significant force (37%) although they also considered that owners and clients were now demanding more environmentally sound civil engineering practices (27%).

The survey highlighted the fact that the cost and lack of appropriate materials was inhibiting their organisation’s ability to provide sustainable solutions. Some 41% of those asked cited this reason as a barrier to change. Respondents also said that entrenched working practices and industry apathy was a major cause (27%).

As well as effective tools and technology and more joined up thinking throughout the project lifecycle, a number of other enablers were cited by professionals. Of these skills and training was also high on the list (26%).

“These results show that the civil engineering industry is really waking up to the importance of sustainability and that technology has a big part to play in the wiser and more efficient use of resources. For a while now, Autodesk’s strategy has been to expand the functionality of its civil engineering solutions to enable users to optimise their projects at the design stage by allowing them to experiment with multiple scenarios,” said Pete Baxter, AEC sales director Northern Europe Autodesk.

“We foresee that this ability to ‘value engineer’ in order to find the most sustainable and cost-effective solutions will really help the civil engineering industry to move forward in this area.”

The survey was carried out on the show floor at Civils 2007 questioning a sample of attendees including consultants, contractors, government and suppliers. Of these respondents 31% worked for small (1-50) organisations, 31% for medium-sized organisations (50-500) and 38% for large (500+).

www.autodesk.co.uk

Geo: International