Written by Olivier Sanga, Environmental Consultant
Today marks the 55th anniversary of Earth Day, a global reminder to champion our planet’s health – its air, oceans, soil, ecosystems, wildlife, and, crucially, human health. This year’s theme, Our Power, Our Planet, urges a unified drive towards renewable energy, aiming to triple global clean electricity generation by 2030.
At BWB Consulting, we are committed to engineering a clean, healthy, and renewable future. We have long championed the vital role of sustainable infrastructure and renewable solutions. Our work actively contributes to a future where clean power drives sustainable growth, low-carbon design is standard practice, and development is truly sustainable.
However, Earth Day serves as a crucial reminder against complacency. Recent Ofgem grid reforms in the UK prioritise connections for renewable energy projects, demonstrating viability in achieving the UK’s 2030 clean power targets. As this transition accelerates, a critical question arises: How can we design these vital renewable energy projects to benefit both people and the planet?
While the environmental advantages of clean energy – reduced greenhouse gas emissions and resource conservation – are clear, the community health benefits are often underestimated. A genuinely sustainable energy transition must holistically consider the environment, public health, and community empowerment.
Embedding Health and Community into Sustainable Design Principles
We must accelerate progress, innovate boldly, and embed renewable energy principles deeper into every project we deliver.
Renewable energy projects inherently offer positive public health impacts, notably by reducing air pollution from fossil fuels. To maximise these gains, health and wellbeing must be central from the initial design phase.
For BWB Consulting, good design transcends mere efficiency or aesthetics. It embodies resilience, inclusivity, low-carbon principles, and future-readiness. It honours the past, understands present needs, and anticipates future demands.
Therefore, we continuously challenge ourselves:
- Who truly benefits from this design?
- How does it address environmental constraints?
- Does it genuinely foster a healthier, more sustainable world?
Implementing this vision involves:
- Careful Siting: Projects should be located to minimise noise, light, and visual impacts on nearby residents, considering landscape sensitivities.
- Enhanced Landscaping: Incorporating screening, amenity benefits, and potentially greenways to promote physical activity and mental wellbeing within the community.
- Air Quality Co-benefits: Studies confirm that replacing high-polluting fossil fuels with clean energy significantly reduces harmful emissions and associated health conditions. Prioritising renewable energy projects in high-pollution areas delivers tangible health improvements for local communities.
- Socio-economic Gains: Creating local employment opportunities, which enhance social connection and mental wellbeing associated with secure employment.
- Proactive Community Engagement: Initiating transparent dialogue and inclusive decision-making from the project’s outset ensures local priorities are reflected and fosters community ownership.
- Creating a Sense of Place: Integrating developments with the local community through multi-functional green spaces, connected routes, and designs that respect local heritage, culture, and biodiversity.
Life-cycle Impact Assessment: Ethical supply chains, low-toxicity materials, and safe working conditions are crucial design and tendering considerations for sustainable infrastructure.
Good Design in Practice: Prosiect Maen Hir
Prosiect Maen Hir, a 360MW solar and energy storage project, exemplifies this approach. It can power over 140,000 homes and displace over 70,000 tonnes of CO2 annually. Crucially, it offers significant community benefits, including a potential 5MWp community solar project generating income for local initiatives. It also explores enhancing public rights of way, improving accessibility and quality of life, and directly promoting community wellbeing.
Driving the UK’s Sustainable Energy Transition
The shift to renewables is happening now, and BWB Consulting is integral to it. While inherently sustainable, renewable energy projects must be designed with environmental sensitivity, inclusivity, and health promotion at their core.
For us, sustainability, place-making, and health are fundamental, embedded from concept to detailed assessment. Our integrated expertise across infrastructure, development, and environmental consulting places us at the forefront of shaping a resilient, low-carbon future for the UK.
Sustainability is a shared responsibility – inherent in every project and decision. This Earth Day, while celebrating progress, let’s intensify our commitment to the essential changes our planet requires. Our clients expect it, our communities depend on it, and future generations will hold us accountable.
Find out more about our expertise in energy here.