In April 2021 we signed up to UK Structural Engineers Declare.
We have now committed to UK Civil Engineers Declare and have also created a Sustainability team with an individual from each discipline to ensure coverage of all areas.
• Emma Graham – PA to Directors
• Matthew Herring – Director (Civils)
• Oliver Lamb – Graduate Engineer
Their mission is simple, to assess every part of the business and the work we do, and look for ways to create a more sustainable approach. Their goal is for Canham Consulting to operate as a zero carbon Consultant by 2030.
This ‘Sustainability Team’ meet monthly to discuss their objectives. Their first port of call is to consider all facets of our operation and review all aspects, assessing ways that we can make a positive impact, as even a small change helps to make a difference.
We use a document management system for all of our projects which allows us to save our documents in specific areas that are easy to find and refer back to without any unnecessary printing.
Back in August 2020 we implemented DocuSign, an electronic signature website that allows our clients to sign our contracts digitally without the need to print and post. From this small simple change, we have currently saved 6 trees, 4 washing machines worth of water, half a cars worth of carbon and 5 trash cans of waste.
Most importantly are the projects we work on. Construction is a significant contributors to climate breakdown, accounting for nearly 40% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions whilst also having a real impact on our natural habitats.
According to the UK Green Building Council, around 10% of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions are directly associated with construction activities so effective and responsible design can make a significant difference to the environment, and we are committed to learning, adapting and improving the way we design.
During our continued review, we discuss the ways we can embrace our role as designers to ensure we make a positive environmental impact and challenge design teams and clients to seek a more sustainable design approach. We run workshops that outline sustainable design choices we can include in our designs to educate our colleagues about all options available.
We fully embrace the opportunity to develop our drainage designs in line with SuDS approaches and follow suit across all disciplines.
Sustainability needs to be embedded in the whole process of a build. It is only by collaboration across the industry that will be able to achieve this, and we are proud to be working towards this.