Investigating the multiple influences affecting sustainability in a multidisciplinary engineering consultancy

Sustainability has been an issue receiving growing attention in the past decade and the construction sector has not escaped notice. There has been a response at both the Government and industry level, to the agenda; with agreement that the industry must address sustainability by acting to minimise its impacts on both the environment and society. While much focus has been placed on how to minimise these impacts in the building sector, far less attention has been given to the infrastructure sector. Again while attention has been given to the construction process and acknowledging the potential for maximising impact reduction at the design stage, the focus given to the relationship between sustainability and consultant engineers has been limited. This research sets out to understand the influences affecting sustainability in a multidisciplinary engineering consultancy, with an emphasis on the environment and the design stage. Utilising a selection of research methods (i.e. case studies, archival analysis, interviews, causal loops and questionnaires) an understanding was developed illustrating the influence that clients, strategic and operational organisational issues, policy and engineers knowledge, have on implementing sustainability. Relating the research to the existing literature, it was possible to propose a number of interventions to promote the integration of sustainability within a consultancy.