Tomorrow's earth, today's journey: Exploring pathways to sustainability
Market View
Produced by:
Interview with
Hariom Newport
HEAD OF ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY, INFRASTRUCTURE AND PROJECTS AUTHORITY (IPA)
Tomorrow's earth, today's journey: Exploring pathways to sustainability
Market View
Produced by:
Interview with
Hariom Newport
HEAD OF ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY, INFRASTRUCTURE AND PROJECTS AUTHORITY (IPA)
About Hariom Newport
Hariom Newport is the Head of Environment & Sustainability at the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) in the United Kingdom. In this role, which she has held since July 2021, she is responsible for setting strategy and driving change across the UK Government. Her work covers the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP), which includes nearly 200 projects with a combined whole life value exceeding £800 billion. These projects span various sectors including infrastructure, military, transformation, and ICT. Hariom's focus is on developing and implementing sustainability strategies for this extensive portfolio of major government projects.
What are the primary challenges leaders like yourself face in implementing sustainable practices within government organisations?
One of the biggest challenges we face is that sustainability is often seen as an optional extra rather than an essential element of project delivery. When budgets are tight, sustainability initiatives are often the first to be cut. This mindset needs to change - we need to view sustainability as integral to our projects, much like we view safety or quality.
Another significant challenge is getting people to recognise that sustainability is part of everyone's job, not just the responsibility of a dedicated sustainability team. It requires a transformation in how we think, prioritise, and make decisions. We need to consider complex trade-offs between environmental, social, and economic impacts.
Lastly, there's the challenge of risk-taking. Implementing sustainable practices often requires using new technologies or approaches that may not have a long track record. For instance, there can be hesitation to use low-carbon concrete specifications because they haven't been tested over decades like traditional materials. We need to find ways to be innovative to overcome potential risks while ensuring the long-term viability of our projects.
One of the biggest challenges we face is that sustainability is often seen as an optional extra rather than an essential element of project delivery. When budgets are tight, sustainability initiatives are often the first to be cut. This mindset needs to change - we need to view sustainability as integral to our projects, much like we view safety or quality.
How do you balance environmental goals with financial and operational objectives in your corporate strategy?
In the UK Government, we use a concept called 'Net Present Social Value' as outlined in the Green Book, which is our guide for project appraisal and evaluation. This approach goes beyond simple financial calculations to include a broader range of social benefits.
We try to monetise as many benefits and disbenefits as possible, including environmental impacts. For instance, we use a 'social cost of carbon' that takes into account broader implications beyond just market prices. We also assign monetary values to things like public health impacts and journey time savings in transportation projects.
However, it's important to note that this economic analysis isn't the sole determinant of our decisions. Political considerations and legislative requirements also play a significant role.
The challenge is balancing these economic assessments with strategic goals and political realities. While we strive to use economics to guide our decision-making, we also need to consider broader factors that may not be easily quantifiable.
In the UK Government, we use a concept called 'Net Present Social Value' as outlined in the Green Book, which is our guide for project appraisal and evaluation. This approach goes beyond simple financial calculations to include a broader range of social benefits.
How important is supply chain visibility in achieving your sustainability goals, and what approaches and tools aid this process?
Supply chain visibility is incredibly important, particularly in infrastructure projects where the government has significant buying power. For instance, it's estimated that 40% of global cement demand and 25% of steel demand comes from public procurement worldwide.
We're working on several initiatives to leverage this buying power to drive sustainability. One example is the '5 Client Carbon Commitments', where major public sector infrastructure clients commit to using lower -carbon rated concrete and steel over a publicly disclosed timeline. This sends a strong signal to the market and encourages investment in sustainable technologies.
We're also incorporating sustainability requirements into our procurement processes. We've recently introduced a Public Procurement Notices (PPN) that provides contract specific clauses that can be used to drive sustainability requirements.
However, we face challenges in aggregating demand across different departments and projects to send consistent market signals. The uncertainty inherent in large-scale project pipelines can make it difficult to provide clear, long-term signals to suppliers.
Moving forward, we need to improve our data collection and analysis capabilities. Currently, we lack comprehensive data on the carbon footprint and other sustainability metrics of our project portfolio. We're working on developing standardised methodologies for quantifying and reporting on these aspects, which will enable us to make more informed decisions and drive meaningful change in our supply chains.
How do you measure the impact of your sustainability programs, and what role do data, analysis, and visualisation tools play in shaping your strategies?
Measuring the impact of sustainability programs is a significant challenge, not just for us but across both public and private sectors. While there's increased awareness about the importance of impact measurement, we're still quite far from doing it effectively.
In general, one of the main issues is the lack of comparability in sustainability reporting. Different organisations and projects often use varied approaches, making it difficult to get a collective view of impact on a national scale. Most sustainability reporting still focuses on simple metrics, like the number of jobs created, which don't capture the full complexity of issues such as promoting equity.
That's why in the government we use more sophisticated approaches, like net present social value and examining gross value added. These provide a more comprehensive view of economic benefits. However, we also need to complement these quantitative measures with qualitative assessments.
In terms of data and analysis tools, we're still in the early stages of developing our capabilities. We're working on establishing standardised methodologies for collecting and analysing sustainability data across our project portfolio. This is challenging due to the diverse nature of our projects and the complexity of sustainability impacts.
Geospatial mapping and visualisation tools have significant potential in this area. They could help us better understand the spatial distribution of our projects' impacts and make more informed decisions about resource allocation. For instance, being able to visualise deprived areas, population densities, school capacities, and land usage all in one system could enable much better decision-making about how to use government land and resources.
However, we do face challenges in data sharing and integration across different government departments and agencies. Improving our ability to share and integrate data effectively is a key priority as we work to enhance our sustainability impact measurement and strategic planning capabilities.
Geospatial mapping and visualisation tools have significant potential in this area. They could help us better understand the spatial distribution of our projects' impacts and make more informed decisions about resource allocation.
About Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA)
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) is a vital UK government organisation that oversees and supports the delivery of major infrastructure and transformation projects. It manages the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP), which includes nearly 200 projects worth over £800 billion across sectors like infrastructure, military, and ICT. The IPA serves as the government's centre of expertise, providing support and assurance to improve project delivery and success rates. Its work is crucial for the efficient execution of the UK's most important and complex projects.
