Sustainability, Climate and Biodiversity Crisis Commitments

In February 2020, CampbellReith signed the Structural Engineers’ and Civil Engineers’ Declarations of Climate and Biodiversity Emergencies committing us to:

  • Intensifying our efforts to track and reduce carbon emissions in our business operations using our design skills to reverse biodiversity loss and minimise wasteful use of resources.
  • Implement Regenerative Design principles so that projects positively contribute and restore.
  • Advocating for low embodied carbon materials and undertaking whole life carbon assessments of our designs.

As an SME that had already made great strides to be environmentally responsible, and our baseline operational carbon footprint measured to the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reporting Protocol and in accordance with the Government Procurement Notice PPN 06/21 is published in full here.

CampbellReith has committed to further ambitious, but achievable emissions reduction targets to meet the UK Government’s 2050 Net Zero Carbon target as follows:

  • By 2025: Net zero for Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
  • By 2030: Net zero for Scope 3 emissions + Embodied carbon across projects to achieve 55% reduction on baseline, as a minimum.
  • By 2035: Embodied carbon across projects to achieve 65% reduction on baseline, as a minimum.
  • By 2040: Embodied carbon across projects to achieve 75% reduction on baseline, as a minimum and all designs to be Net Zero Carbon.

We are further driving reductions in operational carbon emissions by rationalising our office footprint and relocating teams away from inefficient spaces to modern, energy-efficient buildings and encouraging landlords to switch to zero carbon energy tariffs. This has also allowed us to relocate to walkable, central offices where we expect to see a reduction in emissions as our teams move from commuting by car to using active travel means and public transport.

We know that our most significant impact will be through our design of built environment infrastructure, including its embodied carbon, biodiversity and societal impacts.

This is the key area where we can influence our clients’ choices and help to move towards a sustainable built environment.

To support our delivery of our project sustainability targets, CampbellReith continue to develop and improve a number of bespoke tools including:

  • An embodied carbon calculator that we can apply across our designs from options appraisals to completion.
  • A Project Environmental Aspects, impacts and significance Register (PEAR) to appraise, track and monitor environmental risks.
  • A Sustainable Design Tool, that allows us to measure and communicate the total impact of interrelationships across all relevant assessments and metrics of sustainability through every stage of project design and delivery.