The honest answer is that most environmental measurement is performative, not transformational. Vast effort goes into producing data that influences almost no design or commercial decision. The numbers land in the sustainability report; the design is already frozen; the material is already specified or procured and the project carries on, with opportunities missed.
Where measurement has changed decisions, it’s because the data arrived in the right place at the right time. Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are a good example. They’ve made embodied carbon a live conversation in design and procurement, not a retrospective one. But coverage is patchy, methodologies vary, and vast parts of the global supply chain still have no EPD at all. So, until we have genuine standardisation across global value chains, decision-grade data will remain the exception, not the norm.
Companies should invest time in identifying where their environmental impact lies, in their products and services, and collaborate with peers to develop consistent measurement that’s valuable at the point of use. A measurement system that doesn’t help change a design choice, procurement decision, or supplier relationship isn’t measuring impact – it’s reporting, and reporting isn’t the job.
Simon Richards
Sustainability Director, Sir Robert McAlpine
About Simon Richards
As Sustainability Director at Sir Robert McAlpine, Simon Richards leads the strategic integration of environmental and social performance across one of the UK’s most iconic construction and civil engineering portfolios.
About Sir Robert McAlpine
Sir Robert McAlpine is a UK-based, family-owned building and infrastructure company, proudly building Britain’s future heritage.
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