Sustainable engineering in the wider community
The Cudd Bentley sustainability team strives to foster good relationships and continual engagement and outreach with our local community through educational outreach and networking opportunities.
Educating on sustainability
Recently three members of our team went to a local school to discuss careers in sustainability engineering. We talked to them about why we need to protect resources such as nature and water and we also tried to get across to them what we do in our role. We presented to the children how we aim to use natural sources of power such as wind and solar rather than relying on fossil fuels. We gave them an insight into the different renewable energy sources that engineers are using now such as geothermal energy, hydroelectric power and tile energy. Our presentation showed the children the importance of systems we design that help buildings use energy better. We wanted them to understand the role of a sustainability engineer and hopefully inspire them to think about this as a future career path.
As well as offering the children some insight, we hope that we have inspired them in some way to think about the active role that they could take in helping our planet become a healthier place to live. It can be important for young people to feel they have some agency in control of where their future is headed. We enjoyed interacting with the young children immensely and they were fully engaged in the presentation and were excited to receive their notepads.
It is important that as consultants and as members of our community we remain aware of the concerns of the local community, particularly our young people who genuinely desire to build a future that is kinder to our planet.
Supporting carbon reduction for SMEs
Last week one of our senior sustainability consultants spoke at an event in Leicester called People, Planet, Pint hosted by Small 99. This was a panel discussion aimed at providing some insights for smaller businesses on the role of architecture in tackling global environmental challenges. Small businesses make up a large part of the UK economy who want to get involved with carbon reduction plans but often feel overlooked in terms of resources and information available.
The event aimed to give practical solutions and suggest changes that people can make within their businesses that will have a positive impact in terms of reducing their carbon footprint. There was a range of speakers on the panel and the discussion centred around finding innovative approaches to global eco-concerns. Discussions were held on the UK’s plan to achieve net zero carbon goals, around the launch of the new UKNZCBS, the obstacles in the way of achieving these standards and equivalent in the current housing stock and how consultants can play their role in early stages of the design to enable net zero buildings. Members of the Leicester City Council shared their plans with the BNG regulations, and this led to a positive reinforcement that councils are taking the environmental agenda on their own accord moving forward. We are proud to be invited to contribute to valuable events like this that facilitate insights into the future of sustainable architecture and design.
Sustainable Engineering in the Community
It is so important to our business that we do our part in contributing positively to the UK’s sustainability journey through outreach and education. Continued interaction with the wider community including young people will hopefully inspire people to make changes and build the next generation of sustainable engineering consultancy talent.
