Environmental Impact Assessment

an introduction

Climate change is the most dominant issue on the current sustainability agenda. Development projects can provide a significant positive contribution to the way the issue is managed, now and in the future. Although in recent years methods to address climate change within new development have emerged, we believe that the near future will see significant changes in the way climate change is being addressed within development projects.

Since the publication of 'Climate Change Scenarios for the United Kingdom: the UKCIP02 Scientific Report ' in 2002, there is considerable clarity regarding the direction of change of key climate parameters in the UK. A range of additional documentation has been published since then. One of these documents is 'Climate adaptation: Risk, uncertainty and decision-making ' (2003) which describes a methodology to address the risks and uncertainty that is associated with the scenario approach to predict climate change. In addition a range of publications describe various aspects of the inclusion of climate change issues as part of the management of development projects.

There are many reasons to implement an effective climate change strategy to guide the appropriate management of development projects, including:

Protect future asset values
Access to funding
Marketing
Reduce potential liabilities
Increased adaptability to change
Establish forward looking reputation
Anticipate legal requirements
Manage the risk of increased insurance premiums
Manage the risk of possible litigation for failing to take into account known future risks

Planning for Sustainability

areas of expertise

Achieving the more ambitious levels of the BREEAM methodology requires thorough consideration and careful planning. Planning for Sustainability assigns a BREEAM Accredited Professional to all BREEAM projects supporting planning and design teams delivering the sustainability commitments in an efficient and cost effective manner.

Many local authorities have now adopted policies that require that a certain percentage of the energy use of new development will be generated on the site using low or zero carbon technologies. Planning for Sustainability provides a comprehensive set of services to assist the planning and design of development proposals to meet these requirements

Planning applications for larger or more complex development proposals are often required by law to be supported by a formal environmental statement. Our focus does not only lie with the technical aspects of the work, we will also advise on project risks (both financial and programme risks) and procurement strategy.

Many sustainability requirements have a fundamental influence on certain design elements and delaying the management of sustainability issues to later stages in the development programme can cause significant increase in the risk to a projects development costs and programme.

Climate change

In this section