No net zero without behavioural change
- robball6
- 12 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Last week, the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) at the Association of Directors, Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT) published a report on the barriers to decarbonising local highways with recommendations on what could be done about it. In short, BIT’s findings are this: everything from how highways authorities are funded to procuring contracts to leadership and risk taking needs to change if we are to get to net zero.
BIT carried out its research by studying the seven Live Labs 2 projects, conducting interviews with the local authorities involved in the projects as well as others. In its report, The role of behaviour change in decarbonising the UK’s local highways infrastructure and assets, it goes on to identify the eight biggest barriers to decarbonising transport infrastructure and makes eight recommendations which it thinks could help overcome those barriers.
For anyone working in the sector, the barriers identified by BIT will be familiar:
1 Financial pressure due to lack of funding mean that authorities have to prioritise immediate financial savings over possible long-term benefits.
2 There are no economic, statutory or social incentives to use low carbon or sustainable materials so it’s a difficult to make a case to do it.
3 Skills and knowledge in areas such as carbon literacy, sustainability regulation and innovation are lacking.
4 The need to count or reduce carbon is not generally incentivised in the contracts that authorities award.
5 Entrenched behaviours reinforce current ways of working and any changes require lots of resource – which is often in short supply.
6 A risk-averse culture, with a fear of the financial and reputation cost of failure, means that new methods and materials are often rejected in favour of the known.
7 Senior and political leadership in local authorities are not supportive of decarbonisation, hindering any progress or change.
8 Siloed working practices between local authorities and across teams and departments within local authorities limits the sharing of best practice and lessons learned.
BIT’s recommendations for change make sense too. Apparently, BIT’s unofficial nickname is the ‘Nudge Unit’ but it seems like some pretty hefty shoving will be required for some of these recommendations to be taken up. Many of them require action and change from national government departments:
1 Reduce the use of competitive bidding by councils for funds, as this discourages collaboration between local highways authorities; switch to funding based on needs or formulas.
2 Create a strategic spatial plan for the UK which integrates major infrastructure, energy, transport and water supply projects so that highways investment decisions can be better aligned with wider decarbonisation plans.
3 Communicate information about the decarbonisation funds that are available to local authorities and provide relevant training and support.
4 Legislate so that local highways authorities must consider long-term outcomes including decarbonisation in their investment decisions.
5 Create a Local Highways Expertise Hub where local highways authorities can share and access knowledge, case studies and training.
6 Mandate carbon reporting and targets, with a standardised methodology for measuring and reporting carbon savings.
7 Incorporate decarbonisation goals, such as carbon management plans, carbon reduction and the use of energy efficient equipment, into contracts.
8 Encourage risk taking and experimentation through training, support and reward.
Clearly, as the report identifies, not every barrier will apply to every local authority. We know from the councils that we work with that there are trail blazers out there who are making decisions based on decarbonisation and long-term goals, trialling and deploying various low carbon solutions.
However, as the report highlights, more local authorities need to be procuring work based on decarbonisation. New technology – such as ours, which reduces carbon emissions from an initial pothole repair by 85% compared to traditional methods and which lasts longer – already exist. But we need changes in legislation, procurement rules and behaviours to make it easier for more highways authorities to do things differently. Business as usual means emissions as usual.
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