The highs and lows of Cundall's Zero Carbon Design 2030 journey

A significant part of my professional focus over the past five years has been creating and delivering Zero Carbon Design 2030 (ZCD2030) at Cundall, a core part of the practice's strategy and a commitment we have made to ensure all our projects meet our ZCD2030 criteria by the end of the decade. Looking back, two years after making this commitment public, it has been a real journey of highs and lows. Both individually and as part of the team driving ZCD2030 across the business, we have experienced moments of drive and optimism, matched in equal measure by moments of anxiety and frustration.

Through it all, we have maintained our passion for the purpose that is much bigger than any one of us. Our planet is in danger from human activity – our activity. We simply cannot continue to watch from the sidelines while global leaders play politics with the climate emergency. This is not ‘woke’ or ‘hysterical’. It is real. It is not just a marketing campaign - it is about building a good, future-ready business.

The reality of driving changes of this scale can be challenging. As a business, Cundall has fostered a culture of autonomy, and this has been the cornerstone of our ZCD2030 commitment. It is an initiative run by everybody, across all levels and disciplines. Naturally, this means we receive feedback from a wide range of perspectives. And even among 1,000 engineers – people who think in science, facts, mathematics and data – a sense of scepticism about whether this is an achievable goal continues to loom.

“We can’t achieve it! It’s costing us too much money! I don’t have time!” These are regular comments, and the fears behind them are real and understandable, especially when you are trying to deliver something that has not been done before. But when those doubts arise, I always come back to our ethos and purpose as a business: we are here to create the best opportunities for our people and to deliver sustainable solutions for our planet.

Some of the highs of this journey include sitting with a group of amazing engineers in our Saudi Arabia office, talking about ways to reduce carbon in a Riyadh park late in the detailed design. The typical engineering response at this point would be, "there’s nothing left to do", but in this case, you could not be more wrong! The ideas that flowed in that session were so inspiring and completely different to the conventional engineering rigidity that I found myself with a tear of joy in my eye. These were practical, achievable, real carbon emission saving ideas: from water storage and pumping strategies to material sourcing, lighting and non-lighting solutions, and many more. It was a great example of how we can make a difference when we are prepared to ask ourselves, “what more can we do?”

I’ve had so many of these conversations, and every time I come away even more passionate and encouraged than before. We can do this, especially if we do this together. As part of the Core Team, I continue to engage with inspirational leaders across all the regions. My conversations with technical staff across our disciplines, as well as and non-technical staff, including colleagues in communications, learning and development, legal and many others, demonstrate the role everyone has to play in making ZCD2030 a success. And with support from all levels of our leadership, we’re united in a shared focus towards a common goal. Brilliant! 

So as we move towards the next milestone in our ZCD2030 journey, I can see the slow but amazing progress in measuring a reduction in our carbon. I know we still have the rest of the mountain to climb, but based on what I have seen from this amazing group of professionals, I’m hopeful we’ll get there. We might be late, and I’m sure I’ll have ample frustrations along the way, but I know we will have made a difference in this world - and that makes it worth it. The scale of how much this matters is beyond what words can say.

If, by some chance, you’ve got to the end of this - wow! Perhaps you have started on your own journey or are facing frustrations of your own. If so, I’d encourage you to keep going. Any difference is a start, and when you work with others, you will change things!