Most local authorities have declared a climate emergency or ambition to be carbon neutral or zero, often by 2030 and mostly based on a greenhouse gas Scope 1 or 2 assessment.
Tackling Scope 3, however, is a different story.
The impact Scope 3 has on highways infrastructure construction and maintenance is notoriously difficult to assess and address.
It requires whole-system change across an entire sector so all component parts of the ecosystem must pull in the same direction.
Wherever you are in the system – planning or highways authority, maintenance contractor, politician, regulator, or developer – you need to get as close to zero carbon as possible. Addressing this hidden carbon is why ADEPT has introduced Live Labs 2, with funding and the close involvement of the Department for Transport (DfT).
Unusually for a Government-funded programme, but embedded into both Live Labs 1 and 2, DfT accepts both risk and the chance of failure, and acknowledges the role for the department in regulatory change.
There is an understanding that some solutions might fail and others might work, but not be scaleable.
This is why there is some financial offsetting through the bids and why we are asking for a local political champion to support communications.
Additionally, the risk of introducing untested innovation into a local authority setting is being shared by the Government, councils and the private sector.
With so many local highways authorities (LHAs) and so much contractual variation, long-term planning can be difficult for the private sector.
Contracts with tarmac and concrete manufacturers might require a change in materials, but without consistency, it makes for a very stop/start piecemeal approach, rather than the wholesale changes that are needed.
That is one reason why commercial and industrial partners are keen to be on board.
Annual spend in highways maintenance is hard to quantify – figures suggest in excess of £2bn – but LHAs are not currently obligated to demonstrate that maintenance methods are zero carbon.
Clear assessment methods will examine the impact of specific interventions, the investment business case models and a five-year monitoring and evaluation programme will show whether a solution is sustainable.
fferentiation is now made through the colour of materials.
Whether or not they become fully autonomous, cars will become even more intelligent, so rather than using kerbstones, could we put a digital line in a residential area so that when the car goes towards it, it veers away?
The heat, energy and materials that go into white and yellow lining across the UK annually is another facet of hidden carbon – could you remove them completely?
Could they be replaced with a locally powered digital solution or have LED lights embedded where the kerbstone used to be that can be switched to one-line/two-line and change colour to indicate pedestrian or vehicle areas, like a modern 24/7 cat’s eye?
That kind of thinking is fundamentally challenging, but that is what Live Labs 2 is asking.
Scope 3 requires us to look at highways’ assets through a different lens.
Evidence from the Live Lab 1 white papers suggest that bringing in people from outside traditional sectors is a key element of success.
Traditional ways will not provide zero carbon solutions – people from transformational change, technological and digital backgrounds think differently.
The programme will get into that space, with the added support of academia.
Live Labs 2 will be hard work. I wouldn’t want any local authority chief executive to think this is a useful way to find funding to plug a hole in an infrastructure project or compensate for a maintenance regime that needs more money.
Its purpose is to step back and say we are truly serious about zero carbon in our area and acknowledge that the carbon element of highways and asset construction and maintenance has not featured in our thinking so far.
It is an opportunity to find out the true carbon impact in a locality, join with other entrepreneurial areas, and test and track interventions over an extended period to truly demonstrate that the infrastructure is not making a significant carbon contribution.
If these interventions are proven, you could be instrumental in transforming and scaling up sector-wide across the UK.
If you are an ambitious authority who wants to push the boat out, come and join the party.
Neil Gibson is chair of the Live Labs Commissioning Board and highways commissioner to Liverpool City Council
@ADEPTLA
Live Labs 2 is the latest Department for Transport funded programme, run by ADEPT, which will focus on decarbonising local roads in the UK
