We must build on the need to focus on biodiversity

By Richard Threlfall2021-04-21T05:00:00

Working with nature is key if construction is not to get caught in the middle of two important but potentially contradictory ambitions, says KPMG’s Richard Threlfall

“The profession of the civil engineer, being the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man.” So stated the royal charter granted to the Institution of Civil Engineers on 3 June 1828.

Today the definition offends against the gender diversity for which the profession strives. But it also offends against biodiversity, by presuming that nature is there to be moulded to the convenience of humanity, with no acknowledgement of what the implications for that nature might be.

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