EUROPEAN COUNCIL OF CIVIL ENGINEERS

The European Council of Civil Engineers represents the majority of the associations representing individual professional civil engineers in European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries. Its 21 members in 19 different countries together represent over 500,000 professional civil engineers.

ECCE was created in 1985 through the common belief among European civil engineers that they are better placed to advance Europe’s built environment and protect its natural environment by working together. The Council works both at a pan-European and national level to advise governments and industry and to foster uniformly high professional standards throughout the region. It also collaborates with the world’s other major professional civil engineering associations, particularly those of the USA and Japan.

The European Council of Civil Engineers (ECCE) welcomes the opportunity being provided to consider the formation of a Sixth Action Programme for the Environment.

A basic consideration is the distinction to be made between sustainability and environmental quality. Sustainability can be established at different levels of quality. Environmental quality is to be desired but the challenge for an effective environmental policy comes from achieving a balance in delivering change in the areas of sustainability and acceptability. Factors involved include legislation, regulation, education and the harnessing of market forces, also science, economics and sociology. Effective delivery of results is a matter of politics.

The experience of our members who work not only within industry but also for national and regional administrations is that the greatest challenge to progress comes from the reluctance of political bodies to put environmental policy at the highest level of policy development – in both western and eastern Europe. There also appears to be reluctance at the local level to implement environmental policy. How many townships have in fact prepared local Agenda 21 action plans? Making progress on environmental policy is a long-term affair. The EU has done much and spent large sums to encourage the right strategies, but nations and local communities must respond.

ECCE member organisation, the Institution of Civil Engineers, was recently involved in a joint working group with the Landscape Institute which examined the role played by inland waterways in towns and cities. One of the observations from this report can be applied to many others aspects of environmental actions " lack of financing is often cited as the reason for ignoring our watercourses, yet there are many potential sources of funds available to help with such schemes." ECCE welcomes

initiatives which seek to promote the adoption of best practice and encourage the best use of available resources.

ECCE would also like to stress the importance of looking at transfer of technology and transfer of best practice in an integrated way, taking into account differences in climactic conditions, natural and urban environments. The example has been cited that copying a successful environmentally sound project is excellent in principle but experience has shown that for instance, on-site recycling of construction waste successfully carried out in Denmark can face problems of dust and other pollution when reproduced in the drier Mediterranean area.

Probably the greatest challenge to enlargement comes from the need for the countries concerned to get in line with current EU members on environmental policy, particularly where they relate to implied trans-boundary issues such as drinking water quality, waste resource management, waste management and air quality. Even among current EU member states, performance in implementing fully the whole range of environmental policy directives does not appear to be very good e.g. the Nitrates Directive. The emphasis on implementation continues to be crucial in the creation of an effective environmental policy for Europe.

In the transport field, legislation to enforce strict imposition of reduced emissions from the powertrains of road-based vehicles is considered highly important. Indeed, this should include not only road vehicles but railway trains and aircraft. Experience from Southern California indicates that infrastructure and management changes rarely produce the required improvement in air quality and even if they do cost very greatly more than improvements at source.

It is impossible for individual countries to progress this matter but it could be done at European Union level. This will require an act of faith on the part of politicians but will be required if any improvement is to be achieved.

The promotion of high-speed intra-European rail travel would allow a reduction in short haul air travel.

The implementation of the information/telematics systems can also play a part. It has been estimated in the United Kingdom that 5% of car mileage is unnecessary because of inadequate information on road signing. As congestion increases this loss will inevitably increase and high quality information will become more and more important. ECCE believes that the European Commission should assist in the implementation phase.

In the urban environment car ownership and travel continue to increase, in part because individuals desire great mobility and in part because land use patterns make travel more necessary. The pressure on towns and cities is intense. The continued quality of life in towns depends upon striking a better balance between the needs of pedestrians and car users and by ensuring that efficient transport is provided without loss of environmental quality. Professional engineers in local and municipal authorities have a role to play in ensuring the quality of the environment in towns and cities. In part this can be achieved by: removing or reduction of traffic, ensuring good access, improving the townscape, overall management and building partnerships.

The European Council of Civil Engineers has expressed views on recent proposals for legislation in the fields of water and waste.

With regard to water, the European Council of Civil Engineers welcomed the initiatives of establishing a framework directive to bring together and clarify the various elements of current European water legislation. The close relation between human health and a plentiful clean water supply is one of which civil engineers are very much aware. In the European Commission proposal relating to Community water resources, ECCE welcomes the use of existing legislation rather than new and burdensome legislation. Civil engineering professionals fully understand the impact created by variation in the flow of our rivers, the increase in the frequency of drought and floods and a shift in the pattern of precipitation and bio-diversity driven in part by a reduction in soil water storage. The latter in turn leads to soil erosion with the resulting siltation of our existing surface water reservoirs. ECCE believes that action is required to manage our water demand against our varying water supply. Short-term expediency such as desalination to increase supply or tankering is not sustainable.

Where aims and objectives can not be achieved through existing organisations, careful consideration must be given to ensure that implementing an alternative system can be borne in both operational and cost terms. The matter of sustainability is flawed if the parties involved can not demonstrate that there are affordable benefits. As a matter of practice, cost analysis is to be recommended in future proposals in order to demonstrate the benefits in environmental, sustainability and economic terms. Consideration should be given to possible negative social and economic impacts in the short and medium term for different member States and at Community level. This should lead to analysis and possible readjustment of proposals.

In recent years proposals have been made in relation to waste at European level and it was understood that a proposal would be made in relation to construction waste. Despite studies carried out by the European Commission with the support of industry, no recommendations have yet appeared. ECCE recognises the importance of the hierarchy for waste disposal which focuses firstly on reduction, then re-use and recovery by recycling, composting, energy recovery and as the final option, disposal. The construction industry is a major generator of waste and in some instances can account for up to 50% of typical landfill. ECCE is aware of the benefits that pertain to minimisation of construction waste. In the financial area these include reduced waste transport costs; reduced costs for the disposal of waste materials; saving on using new materials and increased returns from selling waste materials for re-use. The value which may be obtained in recycling of low cost materials such as soil and secondary aggregates is the saving of the cost of disposal.

The commitment to reduce waste can be dealt with by preventing waste by proper maintenance; designing with whole-life costs in mind to minimise waste; specifying and using reclaimed or inert materials in construction; using techniques which avoid creating waste; re-using materials on site for other purposes or finding profitable uses off-site and disposal of inert waste on site.

Research into the use of alternative, environmentally-friendly construction materials is always welcomed in order to mitigate negative environmental impact in the creation of infrastructure. ECCE members strongly recommend that in the search for alternative materials to avoid those which are considered unacceptable to the environment, that adequate consideration and testing is given to the environmental impacts of the chosen alternatives and that monitoring is carried out on initial implementation.

The pursuit of sustainability requires people to surrender individual or group interests in favour of collective interests. On the larger scale this can mean that countries surrender national interests for the global good. The spirit of sacrifice required to favour future good over current benefit requires consensus between divergent groups and interests and can only achieved through a process of co-operation and consensus building.