Background

 

How was CEEQUAL developed?

CEEQUAL was developed by a team led by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), with government financial support from the UK Government and from the ICE's Research & Development Enabling Fund.

The development of CEEQUAL was managed by Crane Environmental Ltd, with active support and participation from relevant government departments and agencies, leading civil engineering consultants and contractors as well as professional and industry associations such as CIRIA, the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) and the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA).

The organisations contributing resources to the project are the Project Partners listed on the right, many of whom now own shares in CEEQUAL Ltd, the company set up to run the scheme.

Following extensive industry-wide consultation and trialling, the scheme was launched in September 2003 and the first eight Awards presented at the ICE. The Scheme went public in June 2004 with the publication of Version 3 of the Assessment Manual for Projects.

Since then, CEEQUAL has become the accepted UK industry scheme for assessing environmental and sustainability performance in civil engineering and public realm projects, and is now widely used by major civil engineering clients, designers and contractors.

A substantially revised and updated version of the CEEQUAL Manual – Version 4 of the CEEQUAL Manual for Projects – was launched in November 2008. A new ‘Term-Contracts’ version of the Manual relating to maintenance and small works is currently being developed and is due to be launched in 2010.

 

What are CEEQUAL's objectives in relation to other environmental tools?

The objective in setting up CEEQUAL was to encourage the attainment of environmental and social excellence in civil engineering and public realm projects and to deliver improved environmental and sustainability performance in project specification, design and construction.

In the development of CEEQUAL, account was taken of the substantial body of research and experience relating to environmental issues on construction projects, environmental management of design and construction, and the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM).

However, unlike BREEAM, where there are specific schemes for different types of building, CEEQUAL is an assessment framework appropriate to any civil engineering or public realm project. The CEEQUAL Assessment Manual can be applied to roads and railways, airports, coast and river works, water supply and wastewater treatment, power stations, retail and business parks, and projects of any scale – from less than £75,000 to £3 billion and beyond.

The differences between the various types of civil engineering projects are taken account of in the scoping-out process carried out at the beginning of each assessment.

CEEQUAL includes environmental aspects such as the use of water, energy and carbon, land use, ecology, landscape, noise and dust, cultural heritage, waste minimisation and management, and social issues such as the effects on neighbours and community relations.

Awards are made to projects in which the clients, designers and constructors have gone beyond the legal and environmental minima, to achieve distinctive environmental standards of performance.

CEEQUAL is a scheme currently operated by and for the UK construction industry and is also being used in the Republic of Ireland. Discussions are in progress for country- or region-specific versions of CEEQUAL to be developed in the future.