Arcadis: Zero Emissions City Standard in Birmingham
Arcadis’ Sustainability Team has led engagement with the City of Birmingham on a new Zero Emissions City Standard for the city. Working with WBCSD and other partner organizations, Arcadis has developed a sustainability framework for Birmingham to deliver on its sustainability aspirations and is helping the city attain its sustainability goals.
Arcadis introduced natural capital as a key sustainability element - one of ten - ensuring that the natural capital aspirations were embedded and connected throughout. Principles included water, transport, culture, health and wellbeing. In addition to matching potential design interventions to existing and future policies, we undertook a high-level cost-benefit-analysis of natural infrastructure, using a natural capital accounting approach to ensure that the sustainability aspirations were financially viable.
- Yes
- Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services
- Climate & Air Emissions
- Energy
- Water
- Corporate
- Project
- Monetary
- Qualitative
- Quantitative
- Value to business
- Value to society
- United Kingdom
- Law & order
- Skills & knowledge
- Downstream
- Upstream
- Engineering
Key findings
Birmingham aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 2027 while growing by 100,000 people in the same period. Arcadis’ work feeds into those ambitions and helps model future sustainable development in the city.
These aspirational interventions demonstrate that developments which consider natural capital are financially viable, and provide a framework for projects that includes both natural capital and financial aspects.
This analysis highlights where additional investment is needed to deliver sustainable outcomes and presents the pay back periods and business case for this. The Birmingham City Council has highlighted this work as a real differentiator, supporting it in identifying how best to embed sustainability and as a good example of how to provide a robust business case for going beyond compliance.
More information
http://ukbcsd.org.uk/2016/10/17/wbcsd-zero-emissions-cities-zec-pilot-project-in-birmingham/
Dr. Martina Girvan (martina.girvan@arcadis.com), Technical Director Ecology and Arboriculture London
Gregor Pecnik (gregor.pecnik@arcadis.com), Environmental Economist