WSP's David Symons lists his Top 10 green highlights for 2023! 💚🌍

David Symons , UK Director of Sustainability and Future Ready Innovation Leader at WSP , discusses below his ten green highlights of 2023! 

💚 1. The Environmental Improvement Plan set out the UK’s environmental agenda for the coming 20 years. Implementation is of course key, but five yearly plans across ten goals is a great framework.

☀ 2. Chris Skidmore's independent Net Zero Review confirms the huge growth opportunities from decarbonisation and that ‘not zero’ rather than ‘net zero’ is the largest threat.

⚫ 3. The Colombian Government announced an end to new oil and gas exploration projects, prioritising long term thinking.

🚗 4. The zero emission mandate means from next year, at least one in five cars sold in the UK will need to be electric, rising each year.

⚡ 5. Ripple Energy secured planning permission for the UK’s first community owned solar park at Derrill Water in Devon. I’m especially excited about this as I’m one of the 8,700 members looking forward to sourcing renewable energy.

💹 6. The #NetZero guidelines for professional services firms launched at #COP28. For the first time, we have a framework for how lawyers, engineers, accountants and management consultants can consider net zero effectively. I was pleased to be involved in drafting these guidelines and look forward to seeing them fully launched in 2024.

🛩 7. From regulators who banned airline adverts promoting green travel, to 100 professional athletes who challenged fashion brand Lululemon to beef up its climate work, 2023 saw it increasingly harder for companies and governments to talk green without taking action.

🏗 8. National Grid completed the largest continuous pour of cement-free concrete at its Hurst substation in South London. There's no net zero economy without zero carbon construction, so it's great to see practical examples.

🐻 9.  Fat Bear Week continued to grow in popularity. It's an annual fixture, but as an event it continues to grow each year and is a simply brilliant way that Katmai National Park promotes nature conservation and awareness.  And well done to this year’s winner, Grazer, who’s well set up for winter!

😊 10. And finally, I continue to be proud of the great work my WSP colleagues are making on embedding #FutureReady thinking across our projects. From designing buildings and transport for growing neurodiversity, to our work designing for future climate and net zero, together we’re having tremendous impact.