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From the destructive power of storms and floods to the threats posed by heat waves and droughts, the world is facing more and more extreme weather events caused by climate change.

For decades, global reaction has been slow, science ignored and evidence cast aside as an inconvenient truth. But now the need for change is front and center, from reducing and mitigating the emissions we already produce, to adapting and increasing our resilience in the face of unpredictable weather.

At the heart of reducing carbon emissions is the net zero goal, until recently a vague and nebulous goal, which looked good on marketing materials, but few really understood what it meant and implied. That changed, says Rachel Skinner, executive director of engineering professional services consultancy WSP, when the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) released its own standard. “For the first time, organizations around the world have all been able to say exactly what we mean by net zero,” she says.

The standard sets out how companies can align their short- and long-term climate action with limiting global warming to 1.5°C, she continues. “It makes it clear that the first job is to reduce your emissions as much as you can, before using offsetting as a last resort.”

But if there is optimism, there is also realism. Last month, in its annual progress report to Parliament, the UK’s Committee on Climate Change (CCC) sharply criticized the government’s efforts to adopt policies that would take the UK to net zero by 2050. The CCC chairman John Gummer, Baron Deben, said: “Gaps need to be plugged in his strategy urgently. The window for real progress is short. We are attentive to the promised action.

The government’s policies on insulation and the failure to implement promised plans to address the fact that UK homes are among the most common and least energy efficient in Europe have been particularly criticised.

“A huge level of change is needed over the next decade if we have any chance of reaching net zero by 2050,” adds Skinner, whose own organization has pledged to halve the carbon footprint. of its designs and advice by 2030.

The need to keep building

But if the goal is to reach a net zero planet by 2050, new infrastructure projects will continue to be developed. About three-quarters of the global infrastructure needed by 2050 still needs to be built, but the construction industry accounts for 38% of global CO_{of them} emissions.

But mothballing the construction sector is not an option. The world needs flood defenses and new hubs for wind power and hydrogen, while a key argument to emerge from COP26 in Glasgow was that the push for sustainability must be fair.

People in developing countries need a roof over their heads, as well as clean water and sewage systems, says Dr. Andrew Minson, director of concrete and sustainable construction at Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA). “To get to net zero, it’s not enough to say we have to do without it and leave these developing countries stranded.”

The cement industry is one of the most energy-intensive and hardest to reduce, Minson concedes, but it has a roadmap to net zero by 2050. Much of it relies on the use of waste to replace the cement needed to manufacture new low-carbon products. concrete. Recently, an industry initiative called ConcreteZero was launched to help the industry achieve net zero, with WSP being one of 17 founding members.

Designers, Minson says, can use tools like the GCCA roadmap “in very creative ways and achieve sustainable projects,” such as porous concrete pavements to help reduce flooding. Overall, he adds, the roadmap shows the sector’s potential to reduce carbon in the built environment by 40% by 2030, saving five billion tonnes of carbon.

“We’re not waiting for a eureka moment,” Minson says. “It’s not a technological obstacle, it’s actually a political obstacle.” Governments are responsible for around 60% of public procurement for infrastructure projects, he says, but they don’t specify breakthrough technologies such as low-carbon concrete. “And it’s actually not at all for a technical reason, it’s actually because of habit.”

The dual role of infrastructure

According to James Heath, Chief Executive of the UK’s National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), infrastructure has a role to play at two levels. “First, projects can contribute to strengthening society’s protection and adaptation against climate change, taking the form of measures such as sustainable flood resilience measures. Second, the infrastructure itself must be more resilient to the risks associated with its design and operation. »

The National Infrastructure Commission’s design principles have been adopted by the government for all major projects, he says. “They place climate as the very first principle; Not only must projects be built and operated in a way that reduces emissions, but their design must enable the people and businesses that use them to also reduce their broader climate impacts. For example, he adds, the plan for Tideway, a new 25km super sewer under the Thames, includes active travel spaces and parks, as well as the tunnel itself.

Railways are one of the sectors that must adapt to climate change now, while seeking to become more resilient in the future. In the UK, Network Rail recently produced its third adaptation report which, according to the group’s director of safety and engineering, Martin Frobisher, shows “how the railway reacts when the weather takes its toll ( and) also how we minimize our emissions in order to do less.” harm.”

Earthworks pose one of the biggest headaches, he says. Built largely in Victorian times and without design code, they are much steeper than they should be, making them particularly susceptible to landslides caused by heavy rain.

Rebuilding thousands upon thousands of railway embankments is unfeasible, he continues, so instead Network Rail: “focuses on modern telemetry, instrumentation and better weather forecasting so we can safely run the railways during extreme weather conditions”.

Better drainage is also expected to play a crucial role, with large open channels, which can carry huge volumes of water, replacing restrictive underground pipes which often cannot cope with the type of deluge we are currently experiencing due to the climate. change. Channels are also a cost-effective solution and are made using simple concrete-impregnated fabric covers rather than expensive formwork, says Frobisher. These are laid in channels then sprayed with water and left to harden.

The track itself is the most heat sensitive, but learning from countries such as Saudi Arabia, all new tracks in the UK are now stretched and installed under tension. When it heats up, the tension is released, preventing the track from deforming.

Mitigation is also part of the future-proofing of the rail network, adds Frobisher, and decarbonising the network is also a priority, with electricity replacing diesel and solar panels now standard at most new stations.

Unity within the industry and creative solutions to mitigate climate costs can help the infrastructure sector achieve both its net zero and resilience goals.

“Society needs to be much more honest with itself,” Skinner says. “We need to move past all those paper-thin promises and affirmations that can’t be delivered but make us all feel good and keep creating real change.”

The impetus for change is real. It now counts on the collaboration of all levels of government, businesses and communities to make this change happen.

Entrepreneurs lie as much as venture capitalists. With the difference that they usually don’t know they’re lying. We have selected for you the lies that come up frequently. It probably won’t improve employers’ honesty (or yours), but it will let you know when you’re lying and…why not, help you imagine that you’re telling the truth with humility.

In order not to fall into the trap, you can look for counters of each lie and you will find that investors perfectly know the music of lies and this will prevent you from making a fool of yourself by being caught in the act of lying and therefore losing your financial assistance. . .

“Our projections are low”

An entrepreneur’s projections are rarely conservative. If so, they wouldn’t cost a dime. Do you know a single entrepreneur who gets a result corresponding to the most realistic of his projections? Most of the time, an entrepreneur cannot really predict how their products/services will sell. With this random success, the manager is plunged into conjecture: if there are too few sales, the business will not be interesting, and if sales are doing better than expected, this success could be interpreted as delusional by its driver. For these reasons, curiously, let’s say, all projections point to 50 million for the fourth year.

“X (Name of a well-known company) will sign a contract with us next week”

The problem is that the following week the contract is not signed. Not the following week. And of course, the one who made the decision was transferred to another department. Also, tough luck because the CEO got fired; or defying courage, it is possible to invent a natural disaster. The only way to play this card is when the contract is signed, because no investor whose money you want will fall for it.

“Key employees will join us when we find funding”

Generally, when an investor calls his key employees who are none other than the VPs of Microsoft, Oracle, or Sun, interested investors are always surprised that some believe them capable of giving up their comfortable salary at Microsoft to join a company. start up. . If it is true that there are key employees willing to accompany you, make sure that they call the interested investor after the meeting to confirm the truth of your words.

“No one does what we do”

This colossal lie provokes two logical conclusions. For starters, if no one is doing what you’re doing because there’s no market yet. Then you are so bad that you can’t even use Google to know your competition. Generally speaking, if you have a good idea, know that at least five companies are doing the same thing. And if you have a great idea, there are fifteen companies working on it. So avoid lying like that, it will do nothing but hurt you.

“No one else can do what we do”

If there is something worse than the lack of a market and incapacity (yours, in this case), it is arrogance. Maybe no one else can do what you do, but it’s only a matter of time before a first company achieves the same thing and then ten more companies appear in ninety days. You must distinguish yourself, of course, but not in this way!

“Hurry up because other investors are interested. »

You have the art and the way to bring the good news. You are not the only one because at any time in the world, a hundred entrepreneurs in the world make identical comments. Unfortunately, we are the bearers of bad news: the fact that you are reading these lines shows that you are not one of them. Fortunately ?

“Oracle is too big/stupid/slow to be a threat”

While some have a private jet, a huge ship, or fancy chauffeured cars, this time you fly Southwest Airlines out of Oakland and steal free peanuts. There is a reason why some have acquired great abilities and a reason why you only have small abilities. It’s certainly not because these people are fat, dumb, and slow. Competing with Oracle, Microsoft and other big companies is proving to be a very difficult task. At best, the businessmen who tell this lie are naive. If you see bravery in this, investors see stupidity in this.

“We have a team that has proven its worth”

Who and by what criteria(s) judged your team so well? Because one of the members interned at a big box over the summer? Or because the founder worked in Silicon Valley for 2 years? No need to argue, if you and your team have already proven yourself to be an investor by bringing in billions, fear not, you know.

“Patents protect us”

Don’t talk about patents more than once. If you say that word a second time, investors may suspect that your business relies too heavily on it. If you say the word a third time without realizing it, you might as well hold a sign over your head that says “I Suck.” Sure, you have to patent what you do, but ultimately, patents are mainly there to impress your parents. You don’t have the time or money to sue reputable companies for infringing… Don’t ‘cheat’ the ‘patent’, but take the proper steps to do so.

“We only need 1% of a market of x trillion dollars”

This lie raises two problems. First, investors are not interested in a company whose goal is to reach 1% of a market. Second, it’s not as easy as you think to get a 1% market share. Therefore, even if it doesn’t kill, don’t make a fool of yourself trying to fake nonsense. If we can give you some advice, it is better that you show that you are aware of the difficulty of taking a company to success.

Once in a while, I like to watch a YouTube ad almost to the end. They are the ones who are really good. If a post manages to get someone after so much saturation to get rich in 24 hours to stay, then you have to admit that has its merit.

In my case, in the advertisement that I saw this morning, appears a coach who is aimed at the self-employed with the promise of helping them to increase their turnover. At the end of the video, he promises to give you an Excel sheet where he explains his method in detail free of charge. The funnel is not surprising. Common sense. I leave an email that I never use for anything to see the spreadsheet.

I receive an email and I arrive on another video where, apart from the spreadsheet, the coach explains to me again how it works. Again nothing from the other world. All common sense. That yes, everything is very well structured and explained.

Maybe my case is different. While it’s impossible not to sound a bit arrogant while saying this, I might already have this freelance thing a little more optimized than average. I’m not saying that I can’t learn anything from this coach. Surely if I do a session with him he will be able to tell me things and/or give me ideas to charge more. The target audience are people in the digital sector in Germany who charge very little and/or charge little per hour. They are not aware that they have such a high demand profile and that they practically only have to charge more for the same services. If you are offering something that is in high demand, you should charge more because there is not as much supply. Common sense. We agree. It seems that their public, perhaps for lack of confidence, did not dare to take the plunge and that all it took was a coach to tell them that they could do it.

This led me to the conclusion that good consultants confidently sell common sense. This combination is the winning combination. This is what helped me multiply my monthly income as a freelancer by 5 times in three years. It’s also what helped a friend find her first job in the digital world (she’s already on her second, charging double). On second thought, I think I should become a coach… 😉

Stay tuned.