Sustainable Infrastructure & Development

Urban Infrastructure Urban space is where 89% of us work, 90% of us live, where 91% of national output is generated and within which most of us travel. It is also where most of the adverse impacts on the environment are generated, where environmental injustice is most apparent in society and where congestion hinders a comfortable, convenient and productive life.

SISTech has extensive experience of working with the business sector, the public sector, higher education and regulators to generate a more sustainable approach to working practices in the built environment and in the wider arena of international development. This has involved participation in a number of strategic reviews across different disciplines, looking at how working practices can be modified in light of sustainability best practice and the wider implications of any such modifications. These projects range from the representation and assessment of sustainability within the construction industry and the built environment, through resource use, to the development of more sustainable travel behaviours and transport plans.

Such thinking has also been applied to the realm of international development, applying a systems-level solution process to the consideration of sustainable development in relation to the Millennium Development Goals.

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Example Projects

ISSUES - This is an ongoing research study with Cambridge University, focussing on knowledge transfer and exchange in the built environment.

Future infrastructure for Manchester City Council - This collaborative project looked at the sustainability of future infrastructure needs in an area of Manchester.

Sustainability Indicators for Scottish Tourism - This recently completed project developed 18 sustainability indicators for the Scottish Tourism sector and used these to benchmark Scotland against the rest of Europe (EU 27).

Engineering Capability in Africa - This project studied the gaps in skills and professionals in civil engineering and infrastructure development in Africa.

Sustainable Communities - This was a joint study with the Environment Agency, MWH and Lancaster University.

Triple Bottom Line Reporting - SISTech worked with EDI and Wren & Bell to develop a framework for assessing sustainability across a property portfolio.

Engineering without Frontiers - EwF examinined how engineering should understand and respond to society's expectations, sustainability and to the challenge of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The Changing Role of Engineers in Society - A study for the Institution of Structural Engineers into how changing procurement processes, socio-demographics, sustainability concerns and advances in technology would impact on the role of the engineer in the next twenty years.

Sustainable Development Guidance Note - Guidance note written for the Scottish Funding Council providing the further and higher education sector in Scotland with information regarding the sustainable development guidance already available to them with particular relevance to capital projects.