Sustainability is best described by three pillars – environmental, social and economic. This is also described by the term, ESG which stands for Environmental, Social and Governance.

Recent discourse and the current political climate, would have us discussing these strands like there are in competition with each other. However, these three strands are deeply intertwined and cannot be spilt away, a bit like a three legged stool that cannot stand without all its legs.

Environment:

The environment is important as it is our home and our human activities are making it’s natural process worse. However, we cannot adapt quick enough genetically to live with these changes. Therefore, we are tasked with using infrastructure to make our environment liveable for us – in terms of flooding, heatwaves, water resources etc. As an engineer, we have a role to plan, design, operate, maintain and demolish infrastructure to benefit people and planet.

The other environmental focus is the government commitment to the ‘net zero target’ to ensure the UK reduces its greenhouse gas emissions by 100% from 1990 levels by 2050, meaning the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the UK would be equal to or less than the emissions removed by the UK from the environment.

Economy

The economy is also important. As funding and finance is required to support adapting to a changing climate through infrastructure. However, our current economic models have being built on consumption for growth. Therefore, a new model is required. There are interesting examples of what might come next, for example: doughnut economic by Kate Raworth that focusing on sustainable development to ensure that wellbeing of people and the planet are made a priority or even the resilience dividend valuation from the Rockfeller Foundation and the RAND Corporation.

Social:

The social and society element is also important. From diversity and inclusion that will support a diverse pipeline of future talent which can support better social outcomes, increased innovation and positive economic benefit.

Despite the various conversation on what is a priority. I think we need to consider the environment, social and the economy like the package that there are.