Tackling Global Sustainable Development Head-On

The task for addressing global sustainable development is enormous, implying the need for a major international overhaul of infrastructure. The legacy of widespread non-sustainable infrastructure must be tackled head-on with a set guidance and more sustainable processes, systems and technologies. As last year revealed the highest ever recorded increase in CO2 releases there is significant pressure to respond and to push new development projects beyond the limits of conventional technology to achieve a higher performance.

RPS Director of International Environmental Affairs Dr. Ike van der Putte is a founding-member of FIDIC's Sustainable Development Committee, and former chair of its Environmental Committee as well as a former chair of the UN Environmental Program Sustainable Buildings and Construction Initiative (SBCI). Ike delivered two exceptionally well received presentations on project sustainability to leading representatives from multinational development banks at the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) Multi-lateral Development Bank Conference in Brussels recently.

Some of Ike's most notable successes have been projects leading the Environmental Management Plans for the City of Colombo in Sri Lanka and for the City of Santiago in Chile– the plans successfully addressed matters concerning effective sustainable water and wastewater management and air quality management respectively.

Ike presented on FIDIC's Project Sustainability Management System setting out innovative ways to incorporate sustainable development principles into individual projects; and the Critical Importance of Sustainability in Developing Procurement Strategies – examining general trend in resource consumption and climate change and application of sustainable/green public procurement initiatives – illustrated with a case description of Green Public Procurement applied to wastewater infrastructure projects. The innovative thinking and approaches in PSM and sustainable procurement are also incorporated in the training courses for National Engineering Associations implemented by Ike van der Putte as an accredited FIDIC trainer in Jordan, Ireland and South-Korea with a new series of courses being started in China (2014-2015), and preparations being made for the African continent.

'You may also be interested in this in our news section: Common Carbon Metric(30th August 2011).'