Arup at the heart of London Climate Action Week

Arup’s initiatives across the week have reflected the firm’s commitment to London, leading citywide conversations on biodiversity in our urban environments and harnessing our expertise to establish new strategies and partnerships across a multitude of sectors. Highlights include:

Helping local authorities shape and implement Climate Action Plans
Local governments across the UK declared a Climate Emergency in 2019, committing to accelerated emission reduction targets and climate adaptation objectives. Since then, Arup has partnered with over 30 local authorities to develop and support the implementation of Climate Action Plans (CAPs), including London Borough of Waltham Forest and London Borough of Lambeth. This informed the firm’s recently published guidance for local governments related to transitioning from declaring a climate emergency, to implementing strategic action. 

Following this, and launched as part of the Mayor for London’s Climate Resilience Review, Arup has developed bespoke climate adaptation plans for 60 London schools. The programme found that 93% of surveyed schools experience overheating, related to the urban heat risks threatening both London’s building stock and city environments globally.

As part of the Climate Resilient Schools Programme, Arup identified the most significant risks facing each individual school, with specific and measurable recommendations to address them. Prior to its official launch during London Climate Action Week, the programme won the Climate Resilient Places category at the Flood and Coast Excellence Awards.

Unlocking support to bring nature back into our cities

A Breakfast with Arup was held at the Natural History Museum, bringing together private funding bodies, government, infrastructure and property sector leaders to discuss ways to unlock support for the development of high-quality green spaces that can  accelerate a city's journey to a net zero, resilient and equitable future . 

Chaired by Arup’s Environment and Biodiversity Director Jonathan Ben Ami, Greta Talbot Jones, Aviva Investors, Jane Wakiwaka, The Crown Estate, and Arup’s Rory Canavan, discussed the challenges and opportunities around bringing nature into our cities as a systemic solution to many of the challenges facing our urban environments.

New partnership set to unite businesses to responsibly offset London’s carbon emissions

Announced on Friday 30 June, BusinessLDN and Arup have established a new partnership to explore the benefits of a collective Carbon Offsetting Fund led by London businesses. Supporting the Mayor of London’s ambition to become a net-zero city, this initiative will be available to any organisation to ensure businesses have equal opportunities in taking climate action, sharing best practice and experience the co-benefits of pooled expertise and integrating resources.

The partnership will build on Arup’s recent work with the UK Green Building Council to create carbon offsetting and pricing guidance. Focussing on the collaboration of private and public sector actors, the Carbon Offset Fund will explore shaping the investment for responsible offsetting, futhering opportunities to tackle climate change locally and maximise social value.

Exploring net zero data strategies in the built environment with the Open Data Institute

Published during London Climate Action Week, the latest co-written report by the Open Data institute (ODI) and Arup marks ten years of collaboration between the organisations. Exploring net zero data strategies in the built environment highlights the need for data-informed approaches to decarbonisation. 

The findings outline how achieving net zero goals requires the development of net zero data strategies for how we collect, use, and share carbon data at business, sectoral, national and global scales. These strategies can improve the ability to track carbon emissions, determine what’s working well in emissions reduction/removal, identify hotspots to prioritise interventions and enable more seamless reporting. Although the concept of a carbon data strategy for a net zero economy, or a ‘net zero data strategy’, is still in its infancy, the report explores utilising data as a tool for decarbonising our urban environments and accelerating a just green transition. A critical factor to its success remains to be collaboration between organisations, industries, and cities.