Strategy
The Aurora Engineering Partnership, which comprises QinetiQ, AtkinsRealis and BMT plus a Provider Network of 220 competitively selected suppliers, including Cala Sustain, has been developing the strategy to help Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) understand and reduce the carbon footprint of the equipment and support solutions it provides to the Ministry of Defence.
The Aurora Engineering Partnership, which comprises QinetiQ, AtkinsRealis and BMT plus a Provider Network of 220 competitively selected suppliers, including Cala Sustain, has been developing the strategy to help Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) understand and reduce the carbon footprint of the equipment and support solutions it provides to the Ministry of Defence (MoD). As Lieutenant General Richard Nugee, who led the MoD’s 2021 Climate Change and Sustainability Strategic Approach Review said, climate change is now “firmly a Defence Problem”. Understanding the climate benefits and operational advantages of reducing emissions is vital to maintaining and enhancing defence capabilities.
In the future, defence equipment will need to operate in a climate changed and energy-transitioned world. By designing and delivering greener kit, UK Defence can increase equipment performance and reduce the fuel, spare parts and other resources required to maintain and operate it.
Assessing the current and future Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions of defence equipment allows us to better understand GHG-related risks and liabilities, and to inform acquisition decisions from an emissions’ perspective.
The partnership is supporting the DE&S Environmental Authority in developing a Whole-Life Equipment Emissions Management Framework that enables project teams to forecast the GHG emissions associated with each stage of their project lifecycle, one of the first of its type in the world. This is being done in consultation with the MoD Climate Change and
Environment team, and the climate change and sustainability leads for the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.
In early lifecycle stages, the framework can calculate emissions data using high-level estimates of weight, material type and published conversion factors, informed by comparisons with similar systems. As a project progresses through its design, development and manufacturing stages, accurate data will be provided by the supply chain, including forecasts of in-service energy efficiency, which are validated by actual operational energy consumption. End-of-life GHG emissions are then modelled to encourage consideration of ‘circular economy’ principles: re-use, re-purpose and recycle.
But understanding the whole-life carbon footprint of defence equipment is only a means to an end. The real value comes from using emissions’ information to inform decisions relating to equipment procurement and through-life support. We are working with stakeholders across the MoD to ensure carbon footprint considerations are embedded into wider acquisition policies, processes and tools.
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