You only need to open the newspaper nowadays to see the effects of climate change. Rising temperatures are threatening both food and water supplies, with the fresh food aisles of your local Sainsburys or Tesco’s empty and reserves in reservoirs running low. Storms are becoming stronger and periods without rainfall are lasting longer, leading to droughts.
As a leading manufacturer of water management and drainage products, we review what solutions can help combat climate change and reduce our risk.
Adaptation
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) defines adaptation as “the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects” which put simply is the doing what we can to live with and minimise the destruction and suffering that comes from climate change.
An example of this could be the installation of a retaining wall to hold back flood water from rivers or canals or to protect harbours and beach fronts from rising sea levels, or areas of coastal erosion where homes and infrastructure are at risk. Or it could be the installation of an underground concrete tank to hold excess water, reducing the risk of flooding on land that might otherwise not be able to be built on, so developers don’t lose any valuable land take - which is so badly needed for new homes to combat the housing crisis among our increasing population.
An article by BBC Environment Correspondent, Jonah Fisher, suggests that nearly 200,000 properties in England may have to be abandoned by 2050, due to rising sea levels and a general consensus among scientists and climate professionals is that decades of sea level rise is inevitable.
This means adaptation is necessary and not a “nice to have” if we are going to save our coastal areas and places at risk of flooding and so that we can build homes and infrastructure that can cope with stronger storms and flooding.
However, we are not going to solve our climate change with adaptation alone - mitigation is also needed.
Mitigation
While adaptation looks at solutions to control the effects of climate control, such as coastal erosion or flooding, mitigation looks at the root cause of the problem, that is, climate change itself.
IPCC describes mitigation as “human intervention to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases”.
Marshalls Civils & Drainage have put in place a Code of Conduct and sustainability to create better futures for everyone: socially, environmentally and economically. Day-to-day, this means reducing our environmental impacts and taking responsibility within our operations.
This includes offering water management and retaining wall products that offer safe and secure solutions, from three UK manufacturing units that reduce the distance required in delivering them, and this reducing vehicle movements and carbon emissions. Some 98% of Marshalls products are Made in Britain.
As we constantly look to reduce our carbon footprint we have installed LED lighting within our facilities, with motion detectors that automatically dim or deactivate when no motion is detected. The energy used throughout our production facilities and offices is generated by 100% renewable energy - another step in reducing our carbon footprint.
We also use crushed and recycled materials in our manufacturing of drainage and retaining wall products and replace cement content where possible. This reduces the need for virgin material and the associated impacts on carbon emissions as well as reducing material extraction and the carbon generated by those additional process and vehicle movements.
Our specialism in water management solutions, including surface water, storm water, foul water and flood water, means we understand the value of capturing and recycling rainwater, which we recycle throughout our operations - to reduce our reliance on previous water resources, and we recycle as much timber as possible.
We explore solutions that favour customers and end-users positively in terms of sustainability, construction programmes, Health and Safety, and cost savings, and understand we have a responsibility to share our knowledge through training and CPDs. Marshalls’ precast concrete products have a long design life, in many cases, over 120-years and can be used for a number of purposes, including sewerage, infrastructure, civils and sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) applications - such as stormwater attenuation and storage. Our products are built to last, easier to install and less costly to maintain.