To decarbonise procurement, project teams can’t rely on engineers doing it ‘as a hobby’ – they need specialists.
Contractor Laing O’Rourke has revealed that it can expect up to 90% of its carbon output to result from products, services, and materials from the supply chain.
Speaking at a conference co-hosted by the ICE's Climate Action Group, the company thus pointed out that supply chain vendors have a major role to play in the industry’s journey to net zero.
But to achieve this, greater emphasis is needed on the importance of carbon throughout all infrastructure work.
Project teams will need to hire dedicated carbon professionals, rather than rely on engineers taking it on ‘as a hobby’, as members of the Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) highlighted.
The problem of uncertainty
Supply chain vendors have opportunities to decarbonise at manufacture, but also when considering the impact of their products on the whole-life carbon output of a project.
This requires innovation, but without clear, industry-wide guidance and a consistent timeline for net zero, start-ups offering new solutions might struggle to get off the ground.
These companies need secure funding for long enough to develop, test and distribute what could be game-changing technology, explained Dr Lian Hutchings, head of growth for Low Carbon Materials (LCM).
Lack of clarity creates a cycle of instability in which hesitancy around decarbonisation goals leads to lack of investment.
Lack of investment leads to reduced innovation, and then a lack of net zero technology creates hesitancy around decarbonisation.
Standards are updated – and adopted – too slowly
Adding in technologies that don’t comply with a country’s current standards into the mix can invalidate a project’s indemnity insurance. This is too great a risk for clients.
However, since the standards in nations like Britain are updated slowly, they are often out of date with the current market.
This leaves product and materials manufacturers feeling unable to innovate to future-proof, rather than simply catch up with current carbon goals.
The ICE is leading the way for decarbonisation with the updated PAS 2080 carbon management guidance, but the lack of consistency across the industry is resulting in uncertainty for all.
Hope is offered by the uptake of NEC4’s Option X29, which embeds climate targets into the project contract. But NEC3 use is still widespread, so there’s still a way to go to achieve standardisation.
What can engineers do?
Carbon-conscious tendering
Contractors at the conference highlighted the powerful effect of carbon requirements at the tendering stage.
Clients and consultants broadly agreed that placing increased weighting on carbon management had a profound impact on decarbonisation over a project’s lifespan.
For example, National Highways has placed 10% of weighting on carbon management on projects like the Lower Thames Crossing, the road that will connect Kent and Essex under the River Thames. This is the same weighting that was given to tunnelling methods.
National Highways found that it could motivate consultants and contractors to procure and build more carbon-conscious solutions by:
- requiring a narrative on carbon reduction methods; and
- providing incentives for falling below carbon requirements.
Examples of incentives include a financial reward for every tonne of carbon saved from the total output proposed at tendering, and compensation for project overrun if the contractor decides to pursue a new decarbonisation method.
The role of partnerships
There’s a need for thoughtful and committed partnerships for carbon reduction – a point echoed throughout presentations from engineers and organisations across the industry.
NWG’s Driving Down Capital through Collaboration partnership and Laing O’Rourke’s involvement in the Great Grid Partnership (as featured in the ICE State of the Nation 2026 report) were lauded as great examples.
Climate Action Group chair, Kirils Holstovs, recognised that there was a “strong desire” to collaborate.
“Procurement is one of the most powerful levers the industry can use to generate sustainable outcomes,” he said.
“The conference showed a strong desire from across the value chain to collaborate and unlock better climate and project outcomes by enabling all parties to succeed and play to their strengths to achieve common goals.”
The CAG and DARe conference on integrating carbon into infrastructure procurement was sponsored by SLC and Balfour Beatty, with technical partner AECOM.
- Jess McCamley, communications lead – UK regions at ICE Yorkshire and Humber
Extracted from ICE website - read more here