SearchThe first aim of the AGS Sustainability Working Group is to advocate and promote sustainable good practice within the geotechnical and geoenvironmental industry. To enable the AGS to understand the specific needs of the membership with respect to sustainability, earlier this year we asked the AGS membership to complete a sustainability survey. The results were assessed and compared to the contributions the AGS already makes in this space as a basis for a ‘Sustainability Route Map’ that will give a direction and focus for the AGS’s sustainability work over the coming year.
This article discusses these results based on AGS membership responses, provides the outcomes of our analysis and presents the AGS’s Sustainability Route Map.
What has the AGS already done?
The AGS already works in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), as defined in Table 1. In the past two years, 36 articles, 27 presentations, and 16 publications have been presented that embody one or more of the UN SDGs to further the AGS’s contribution to sustainability within the industry.
Table 1: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, interpreted by the AGS for the sustainability survey
The AGS has used its platform to educate its readership, covering topics such as health and safety and innovation in industry. For instance, the AGS wrote an article on mental health in the industry, named ‘Under Pressure – Talking About Mental Health and Suicide to Create a Safer Workplace’, addressing SDG 3 – Good Health and Wellbeing. The AGS has also written Safety Share publications to provide lessons learned from health and safety incidents, alongside Safety Guidance notes, advising on PPE use, occupational health risks, and managing mental health.
The AGS have also showcased sustainable technologies. For instance, an article named ‘Net Zero: The Use of Timber Piles’ summarised how embodied carbon in piling can be reduced through material selection, addressing SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, alongside SDG 12 – Resource Consumption and Production. The AGS has additionally established its Development Fund which can be used to support the development of more sustainable solutions.
The AGS has committed to educating those early in their careers and creating new pathways into industry. Of note, the AGS has supported the Ground Forum Undergraduate Mentoring Programme which connects students to industry mentors, alongside the Geoscience Degree apprenticeship programme, contributing to SDG 4 – Quality Education, and SDG 10 – Reduced Inequalities.
The AGS has additionally held conference presentations addressing several UN SDGs. Namely, the AGS has presented on how AGS data can be better used at the 2022 Data Conference, contributing to innovation and greater collaboration within industry, fulfilling SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals. Likewise, the AGS has presented on climate action in the industry, with the AGS Annual Conference 2024 focusing on future-proofing foundation design against climate change impacts, and carbon calculation, addressing SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities, and SDG 13 – Climate Action.
What are the AGS currently doing?
The AGS Sustainability Working Group (SWG) are currently aligning the AGS’s contributions further to the UN SDGs. The current activities of the working group have been mapped out according to the UN SDGs, with the percentage contribution of the total output in the form of AGS articles, guidance notes and conferences from the working group assessed against the SDGs. The results are summarised in Figure 1.
Figure 1: How do the AGS Sustainability Working Group activities align with the UN SDGs?
The AGS SWG is currently making the greatest contributions to SDG 4 – Quality Education, SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13 – Climate Action, SDG 16 – Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, and SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals.
The AGS SWG is contributing to the sustainable education of its members through delivering webinars and developing carbon literacy training, educating on how resource circularity can be increased in industry (i.e., through foundation re-use, ground remediation, recycling of instrumentation for GI), and highlighting innovation in industry.
Additionally, the AGS SWG is developing an internal sustainability policy, with a focus on improving data collection to ascertain the carbon footprint associated with its activities, and running more sustainable events through catering decisions and accommodating hybrid attendance.
A sustainability charter is also in development, which the AGS intends to align with the Federation of Piling Specialists, as part of embracing partnerships to achieve the UN SDGs. The AGS are contributing to the Climate Resilience and Adaptation Guide under development by the EFFC and DFI, and working with the Ground Forum Sustainability Group, to increase collaborative contributions to sustainability across industry.
A survey was developed by the AGS SWG to consider what industry members want from the AGS with regards to sustainability, in order to better marry the AGS’s output to what its members want.
2024 AGS Sustainability Survey Results
The AGS Sustainability Survey asked respondents what they rate as sustainability priorities, and what they want the AGS to prioritise moving forward, considering the UN SDGs.
Out of 187 members, 36 respondents filled out the survey, rating how high of a priority (on a scale of 1-5, where 5 is ‘High Priority’) each SDG is to them for each question. Out of the respondents, 16 were consultants, eight were contractors, and the remaining were other industry representatives. Priority scores for each SDG were calculated by multiplying each priority score by the number of respondents who selected that score and summing up the results.
The first question was ‘How do you rate the following SDGs as priorities for your geotechnical/geoenvironmental team?’. The highest priority was found to be SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing, followed by SDG 5: Gender Equality, and SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.
Figure 2: How respondents rate the SDGs as priorities for their teams
The next question asked was ‘How do you rate the following SDGs as priorities for your stakeholders?’. The highest priority was found to be SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing, with SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, and SDG 13: Climate Action, shortly following.
Figure 3: How respondents rate the SDGs as priorities for their stakeholders
The survey then asked ‘How can you realistically impact each SDG in your geotechnical/geoenvironmental team?’. SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing was found to be the highest priority again. This was followed by SDG 4: Quality Education, and SDG 5: Gender Equality.
Figure 4: How respondents feel they can realistically impact each SDG
From the analysis conducted, the five top-rated SDGs which industry prioritises and views as most accessible to impact were determined. These are, in descending order: SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing; SDG 13: Climate Action; SDG 4: Quality Education; SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production; SDG 5: Gender Equality.
It is unsurprising that SDG 3 was found to be the highest priority, considering the drive in industry to uphold high standards of health and safety. SDG 3 is also straightforward to impact – internally companies can implement wellbeing initiatives, and projects can cater to the wellbeing of end-users.
Similarly, SDGs 12 and 13 rating high as priorities is logical as sustainability dialogue is ever-increasing in the industry. SDGs 12 and 13 can be impacted through decisions to reduce resource usage in projects, and alignment with UK legislation including carbon management.
As the industry is increasingly embracing ED&I (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion), SDG 5 is becoming a greater priority. SDG 5 is straightforward to impact, too, as gender equality can be promoted through internal ED&I measures, mentoring and recruitment processes.
Finally, SDG 4 being a high priority is expected due to the need to educate the new generation of geotechnical/geoenvironmental engineers. Education can be accomplished through training of staff and supporting those early in their careers.
Respondents were then asked about which SDGs the AGS should prioritise, and what they would like the AGS to do moving forward. The top SDGs were found to be SDG 4: Quality Education; SDG 13: Climate Action; and SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure.
Figure 5: What respondents think should be sustainability priorities for the AGS
The top SDGs were found to be in line with written suggestions made by the respondents. Broadly speaking, respondents asked for:
• Sustainability education (SDG 4 – Quality Education) including: guidance on sustainable GI; information on sustainable solutions; and knowledge sharing/webinars.
• Support in carbon reduction (SDG 13 – Climate Action) including: advice on reducing fossil fuel usage; support using new energy technology; and verification of new methods to reduce emissions.
• Alignment of the AGS with other bodies (SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, and SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals) including: joining Engineers Declare; and encouraging members to become certified Carbon Neutral Companies.
The AGS Sustainability Survey results and recommendations have been utilised to inform the AGS Sustainability Route Map, that will give a direction and focus for the AGS’s sustainability work over the coming year.
AGS Sustainability Route Map
The results of the AGS survey have been utilised to inform the creation of the AGS Sustainability Route Map. Figure 6 shows a plot comparing what the AGS are currently doing to what its members want the AGS to be doing, which has informed the sustainability priorities of the AGS moving forward.
Figure 6: Plot comparing what the AGS is doing with respect to sustainability to what its members want
A comparison has been made between the SDGs that the AGS contribute to and the SDGs that the members want the AGS to focus on, to determine any differences between the two and inform how the AGS should prioritise SDGs moving forwards. Broadly speaking, the five top SDGs that the members want the AGS to prioritise, which the AGS are not already doing to a significant degree, have been found to be: SDG 5 – Gender Equality; SDG 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy; SDG 10 – Reduced Inequalities; SDG 14 – Life Below Water; and SDG 15 – Life on Land. These SDGs can be split into a focus on ED&I, clean energy, and biodiversity, to include soil health and sustainable remediation of contaminated land.
Impacting Gender Equality and Reduced Inequalities is not directly part of the work that the AGS SWG does, as the group is not an ED&I-focused network. The AGS are working to increase their contributions to ED&I broadly and through other working groups (primarily the Business Practice Working Group) which are more relevant. Therefore these SDGs (5 & 10) will not form part of the Sustainability Route Map.
Additionally, SDGs that the AGS are already prioritising but that members want to see the SWG focus more on include: SDG 3 – Good Health and Wellbeing; SDG 4 – Quality Education; SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth; SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure; SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production; SDG 13 – Climate Action; SDG 16 – Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions; and SDG 17 – Partnerships For The Goals.
Four SDGs which members did not rate as priorities included: SDG 1 – No Poverty; SDG 2 – Zero Hunger; SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation; and SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities.
The AGS are already contributing to SDG 6 and SDG 11, and so perhaps members feel that these SDGs are already sufficiently prioritised by the AGS. It may also be the case that members feel they can’t impact these SDGs due to uncertainty over the definitions. However, SDG 11 can be linked to community social value work, which geotechnical and geoenvironmental consultants certainly contribute to through their work. An industry-specific definition list for each SDG, with examples, could change the priority score for these SDGs.
Moreover, SDGs 1 and 2 are less technical and can be covered by other business lines, as there is less that geotechnical and geoenvironmental specialists can do directly to impact poverty and food access, aside from the overall outcomes of their projects. Social value initiatives also contribute to these SDGs, and so other working groups more relevant to these SDGs can impact these too.
Therefore, by assessing the gap between what the AGS currently does and what members want it to do for sustainability, we can conclude that the focus for the AGS Sustainability Route Map will be:
• SDG 7 – Clean Energy;
• SDG 12 – Circular Economy;
• SDG 13 – Climate Action;
• SDG 14 – Life Below Water; and
• SDG 15 – Life on Land.
The AGS will prioritise these SDGs through writing articles and technical notes on topics such as how clean energy, biodiversity, soil health, sustainable remediation of contaminated land, and the circular economy can be embedded in design and construction work, holding conferences and network meetings to allow for knowledge-sharing, and reducing embodied carbon from internal operations. The AGS Sustainability Route Map will no doubt evolve over time as we explore these important topics further and gain more insights from our AGS membership.
Article provided by Charlotte Day, Graduate Geotechnical Engineer, Ramboll