Civic Engineers doubles down on low carbon agenda

The nationwide practice, which employs 120 staff across studios in Manchester, London, Leeds and Glasgow, has reported strong results for the financial year, annual turnover growing by 22% to £7.3m.

Julian Broster, co-founding director of Civic Engineers, said: “We recognise that our strong growth has been in contrast with many businesses that have suffered unfairly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the role of engineering is becoming more important as we work to ensure healthier cities, mitigate flood risks and find creative solutions on the journey to Net Zero. These areas have always been a key focus for our business.

“Given the difficulties that many young people are facing right now, what has been particularly heartening over the past year is that we’ve managed to take on 10 new graduates who are working across our four studios. Our employee headcount has grown by 27% and I’m especially enthused by the growth in younger members of the team who are bringing energy, challenge and new ways of thinking to the practice.”

Client work includes the 6.5-acre urban park at Mayfield Manchester for U+I, advising Liverpool City Region Combined Authority on transport policy and a new waterfront development at Custom House Quay in Glasgow for the city council.

Having launched its climate charter last year in response to the International Climate Emergency, outlining pursuit of a sustainable design agenda based on the founding principles of the business, efforts are now underway to improve carbon savings across all of Civic Engineers’ projects, by working with its clients to achieve the best possible outcome on the journey to net zero carbon emissions.

Asha Vickers is one of several new staff to join Civic Engineers over the last year. She joined as a graduate structural engineer after graduating from the University of Sheffield with an MEng degree in structural engineering with architecture. She said: “In my eyes, Civic Engineers is much more than a place of work; it is a place of education, interaction, and expansion of my knowledge. Their position on sustainability and wellbeing is at the forefront of their work and their dedication to combatting climate change is important to me as I value making a positive impact on people and the planet.

“The opportunities provided by Civic Engineers allow for growth and progress in ways that typical graduates would not be exposed to.”

As Civic Engineers continues to grow, it is raising its ambitions to better measure and assess the environmental impact of each project delivered on behalf of its clients. Broster adds: “In our view, our annual financial growth is not an effective way, on its own, to measure our success and achievements.

“Right now, we’re developing our methods to better report on carbon savings collectively across all of our key projects. Capturing and reporting on these savings and identifying further ways to reduce carbon consumption, will be absolutely critical for the business and our clients going forward.”

Civic Engineers is also working on Manchester’s Northern Gateway on behalf of Manchester City Council and the Far East Consortium, delivering three developments within the masterplan, including Collyhurst, Victoria Riverside and New Cross Central.

At Queensway in Southend-On-Sea – part of a joint venture partnership with Porters Place Southend, Civic Engineers’ involvement includes the transformation of an urban motorway into a sustainable street with green infrastructure, flood resilience and accessibility for up to 1,760 new homes as part of a major £500m redevelopment.