The IES environmental SCIENTIST Journal features a chapter by Terra Praxis Founding Directors, Kirsty Gogan and Eric Ingersoll. The chapter, “The Swiss Army knife of energy: powering the UK’s reindustrialization“, discusses how new digital tools and factory-built reactors could unlock clean energy on Britain’s existing industrial land faster and more cheaply than anyone thought possible.
This issue of the Institution of Environmental Sciences (IES) journal, environmental SCIENTIST, explores how to keep the UK running in the context of an increasingly insecure environment, proposing that the answer lies in restoring and developing sustainable, resilient, and innovative infrastructure.
Guest edited by Professor Lindsay Beevers (University of Edinburgh), the issue digs into the kinds of infrastructure needed to meet targets for housing, green energy provision, and sustainable transport. The issue gets to the heart of the key constraints facing UK infrastructure in a time of policy upheaval and climate change, and explores new opportunities for innovation, development, and progress. As guest editor Lindsay Beevers attests, addressing these challenges “requires prioritized investment, innovation and strategic planning to create resilient and efficient interdependent infrastructure networks.”
Authors in the issue present case studies of successful, nature-inclusive housing, look at the latest innovations in sustainable building materials, ask how our energy needs could be met by a new approach to nuclear, and examine how we can improve policies on waste infrastructure. Without shying away from the numerous challenges that UK infrastructure faces—including aging and insufficient water systems, complex housing stocks, and fragmented public transport policies—articles in the issue propose how the UK can take advantage of opportunities to build better, more resilient, and more future-friendly infrastructure.
Chapter 5 by Gogan and Ingersoll, “The Swiss Army knife of energy: powering the UK’s reindustrialization“, addresses the infrastructure trilemma. The UK faces three simultaneous imperatives: decarbonizing the economy, strengthening energy security, and reindustrializing communities that have been left behind by decades of deindustrialization. The conventional wisdom is that these goals are in tension—going fast on net zero means it is expensive, and energy security means clinging to fossil fuels. But a new approach to nuclear energy, enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced manufacturing, suggests the opposite: that all three objectives could be pursued together, faster, and more affordably than the current trajectory allows.
Other chapters include:
1. Introduction – Infrastructure under pressure: challenges and opportunities – Lindsay Beevers
2. Estate regeneration: a sustainable solution to London's housing crisis? – Timothy J. Dixon
3. Sustainable transport infrastructure: which path to take? – Ralph Smyth
4. Building nature back in: the prospect of nature-centric housing – Matthew Pritchard & Tom Oliver
5. (see above)
6. Microorganism-based composites and the future of regenerative construction – Juliana Calabria-Holley & Kevin Paine
7. Building resilience and sustainability into UK housing markets and infrastructure – Samer Bagaeen
8. Are water and sanitation systems resilient to climate change? – Guy Howard
9. Net zero high-density buildings and infrastructure – Sean Smith
10. Waste infrastructure for a resource resilient and circular UK economy – Dan Cooke
The Institution of Environmental Sciences unites the interdisciplinary field around a shared goal: to work with speed, vision, and expertise to solve the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. As the global professional membership body for environmental scientists, the IES supports a diverse network of professionals all over the world, at every stage of their education and careers, to connect, develop, progress, and inspire.