RPS serves up a low-carbon breakfast

We were delighted to host a Breakfast Briefing in the Iveagh Garden Hotel, Dublin on Thursday 19th September, centred around informing our clients of the new public procurement guidelines for cement and concrete that recently came into effect.

These guidelines follow the publication of our report ‘Reducing Embodied Carbon in Cement and Concrete through Public Procurement in Ireland’, commissioned by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, prepared by RPS in association with EY and RKD.

 
The four key objectives set out by the report are:
•    Use less concrete and cement by designing, specifying, and managing products on site better
•    Specify lower carbon concrete
•    Specify lower carbon cement
•    Introduce broader carbon management systems for large infrastructure projects

The event kicked off with a welcome and introduction from RPS Ireland Managing Director Willie Madden. This was followed by Joseph Cummins from the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment, who outlined the government’s objectives and approach to reducing embodied carbon through public procurement of cement and concrete.

 
Next to present was RPS Senior Sustainability Consultant Conall Boland who went into some more detail on the green procurement guidelines and what they require of public sector bodies in the short, medium and long-term future, with the minimum 30% clinker replacement guideline a particular focus.

Leading on from Conall’s presentation was RPS Senior Associate Michael Minehane who explored some of the technical benefits of low-carbon concrete and its performance compared to the standard concrete that would have been used in the past.

Next up was RPS Director David Conneran who outlined the different procurement approaches and how to implement them to ensure compliance with the new guidelines, before giving some examples of recent projects that we have worked on which have utilised this approach.

The briefing closed with RPS Senior Director David McHugh facilitating a Q&A session, allowing clients to explore issues in more detail with our expert panel.

Overall the event proved to be a fantastic opportunity to promote the report to our key clients and we would like to thank everybody in attendance for their participation.