Elina Kalliala

16 September 2024

New global collaboration initiative to guide decarbonisation in the infrastructure sector

Designed to help reduce carbon emissions in every phase of infrastructure projects no matter where an organisation is on their carbon impact journey.

Ramboll CEO Jens Peter Saul addressing attendees at the 2024 FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference.
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Infrastructure leaders from all over the world gathered in Geneva for the 2024 FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference, with the ambition of ‘Transforming lives with infrastructure’. Supporting that ambition, FIDIC launched a new long-term initiative designed to assist projects and organisations to reduce carbon emissions throughout the lifecycle of their infrastructure projects.
Carbon Collaboration Initiative
The initiative was first proposed by Ramboll CEO Jens Peter Saul during FIDIC’s first global leadership event in April 2023, and is supported by a core team of experts from Ramboll, Mott MacDonald, Arup, Arcadis, WSP, and researchers from the University of Cambridge.
“Infrastructure accounts for over 70% of total carbon emissions worldwide. So, the engineering and consulting industry has the responsibility and opportunity of helping to significantly reduce this impact,” says Jens Peter Saul, CEO of Ramboll. “If climate change were a pandemic, we would quickly come together and share best practice, knowledge, and data of how to overcome the virus. But climate change is even more serious, so we need to act now.”
Integrating sustainability into infrastructure projects
To get started, the first step involves developing a Carbon Management Framework (CMF). The CMF is not a rigid standard but flexible guidelines that can be tailored to the needs of different projects and stakeholders. It provides a clear pathway for the industry to advance from basic carbon awareness to the comprehensive integration of carbon management strategies across entire portfolios of projects.
The CMF outlines a phased approach for implementation, encouraging project teams to engage with stakeholders, establish benchmarks, and continuously monitor and report progress.
“Our Carbon Collaboration Initiative reflects our unwavering commitment to lead the way in driving down carbon footprints in infrastructure projects around the world,” says Basma Eissa, Head of Policy, ESG & Sustainability and CMF project manager at FIDIC. “With our unique ability to bring together diverse stakeholders, including engineers, developers, and financial institutions, we aim to foster global collaboration on adopting sustainable practices. This initiative is crucial as we move toward a low-carbon future, enabling our members to leverage best practices, benchmark progress, and achieve tangible reductions in emissions through whole-life carbon management. FIDIC is proud to use its convening power to promote such essential transformations in how we build the future.”
Objective of the Carbon Collaboration Initiative include:
  • Influence and advocacy: The initiativeaims to influence industry practices and advocate for the widespread adoption of carbon management strategies.
  • Measurement and improvement: It provides a structure for measuring carbon impact and driving continuous performance improvement.
  • Guidance and flexibility: The CMF offers guidance that is adaptable to different levels of organisational maturity, helping stakeholders progressively adopt best practices.
  • Sustainability integration: By embedding carbon management into the core of project planning and execution, the framework supports organisations in contributing meaningfully to global sustainability efforts.
Understanding the Carbon Management Framework
The CMF is organised into four levels, three of which focus directly on projects and a fourth which considers the decarbonisation of wider systems.
Applicable to different stages of carbon management maturity, the CMF helps foster a mindset oriented to reducing carbon emissions, using carbon data to optimise design and enable decision making on materials and techniques to cut emissions. Lastly, it supports developing and delivering projects with whole life carbon reduction central to a project's outcomes and delivery model.
Infrastructure leaders from all over the world gathered in Geneva for the 2024 FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference, with the ambition of ‘Transforming lives with infrastructure’. Supporting that ambition, FIDIC launched a new long-term initiative designed to assist projects and organisations to reduce carbon emissions throughout the lifecycle of their infrastructure projects.
Carbon Management Framework
The initiative is underpinned by a Carbon Management Framework (CMF), the guidelines for which were initially proposed by Ramboll CEO Jens Peter Saul at during FIDIC’s first global leadership event in April 2023.
With a core team of experts from Ramboll, Arup, Arcadis, WSP, and researchers from the University of Cambridge, the CMF has evolved into comprehensive and flexible guidelines that are rapidly gaining support from many important players throughout the sector.
“Infrastructure accounts for over 70% of total carbon emissions worldwide. So, the engineering and consulting industry has the responsibility and opportunity of helping to significantly reduce this impact,” says Jens Peter Saul, CEO of Ramboll. “If climate change were a pandemic, we would quickly come together and share best practice, knowledge, and data of how to overcome the virus. But climate change is even more serious, so we need to act now.”
Integrating sustainability into infrastructure projects
The CMF is not a rigid standard but flexible guidelines that can be tailored to the needs of different projects and stakeholders. It provides a clear pathway for organisations to advance from basic carbon awareness to the comprehensive integration of carbon management strategies across their entire portfolio of projects.
“We wanted the CMF to be very adaptable, guidelines that can be applied at different project levels and by organisations with varying levels of carbon management maturity,” explains Basma Eissa, CMF project manager at FIDIC. “It aims to deeply integrate sustainability into the design, decision-making, and operational processes of infrastructure projects.”
The CMF outlines a phased approach for implementation, encouraging organisations to engage with stakeholders, establish benchmarks, and continuously monitor and report progress.
About the Carbon Management Framework
• Influence and advocacy: The CMF aims to influence industry practices and advocate for the widespread adoption of carbon management strategies.
• Measurement and improvement: It provides a structure for measuring carbon impact and driving continuous performance improvement.
• Guidance and flexibility: The CMF offers guidance that is adaptable to different levels of organisational maturity, helping stakeholders progressively adopt best practices.
• Sustainability integration: By embedding carbon management into the core of project planning and execution, the framework supports organisations in contributing meaningfully to global sustainability efforts.
The CMF is organised into three levels, each representing a stage of maturity in carbon management practices.
It helps foster a mindset oriented to reducing carbon emissions. It uses carbon data to optimise design and enable decision making on materials and techniques to cut emissions. Lastly, it supports organisation-wide integration of carbon management strategies, while standardising sustainable practices.

If climate change were a pandemic, we would quickly come together and share best practice, knowledge, and data of how to overcome the virus. But climate change is even more serious, so we need to act now.

Jens Peter Saul
CEO of Ramboll

Want to know more?

  • Elina Kalliala

    Sustainability Director, Transport

    +358 50 5111866

    Elina Kalliala

  • Deborah Spillane

    Global MarComm Lead

    +45 53 67 10 43

    Deborah Spillane