Safety of structures in the climate emergency

In the current climate emergency and the race to achieve zero emissions, we must ensure our structures remain safe as we develop and implement any climate-motivated innovation or change of approach.

This Theme Page will be used to both collate content around this topic and to allow professionals to share safety issues for others to learn from.

In 2019, engineering consultancies around the world began to respond to government declarations of a climate emergency by declaring their own Climate and Biodiversity Emergency, which CROSS supports. One of the commitments of the organisations signed up to in the declarations is to share knowledge and research on an open source basis.

This knowledge hub presents safety information from CROSS and third party organisations related to the climate emergency. CROSS are interested in sharing safety information on this topic, including safety information related to:

• designing, constructing and managing structures in response to the climate emergency
• designing with new and emerging materials
• the design and construction of leaner, lower-material structures e.g. through the use of reduced loading, decreased factors of safety, advanced analysis methods etc.
• the impact of climate change on existing structures, including how structures are adapted and managed to combat the effects of climate change
• designing and constructing new structures to combat the effects of climate change
• the reuse and life extension of existing structures
• the use of off-site manufacture and modern methods of construction (MMC)
• designing and constructing structures for a longer design life and/or to be more adaptable

If you would like to suggest safety related information that could be published on this Theme Page, please contact team@cross-safety.org.