Try to see if your company’s expertise match with any of the recommended fields of work by Giving Green and High Impact Engineers! Especially this latter link is probably interesting for you and your colleagues.
I think that @Ulrik Horn’s suggestion about how to adapt to worst-case climate scenarios is a good one, especially if you focus on places that are likely severely hit but don’t have adequate plans for adaptation yet.
Some first ideas, going by the expertise of the company:
Chemical regulation (e.g., REACH) and LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) - Helping firms comply is probably not the most cost-effective, since compliance is mandatory, so they’ll just find another consultancy firm. Counterfactual is probably low here.
Circular economy. I’d say this really depends on which sector you’re trying to make circular. Something related to the circular use of rare earth materials for the energy transition seems promising, but this is still a broad theme.
Soil remediation. - Don’t know enough to comment.
Environmental permits and environmental impact assessments (effects on water, air quality, biodiversity, etc.). Similar to my first comment—if this is for compliance, firms will hire a consultant anyway, so the counterfactual here is lower. If you do EIAs or permitting for important new environmental infrastructure (e.g. hot rock geothermal), this may be different.
District heating networks. This is interesting, if you can contribute to quickly deploying geothermal energy around the world! Talk with the folks at Project Innerspace to know more.
Electricity grids. There’s a big potential here to electrify heavy industries that now rely on fossil fuels. The price of renewables has been dropping quite rapidly, but there’s quite a challenge in using renewables for hard-to-decarbonise processes like cement. Talk to or visit the websites of e.g. Future Cleantech Architects, Clean Air Task Force, and Industrious Labs to know more! I reckon energy storage and load shifting could be interesting ones to look at too! And maybe easier to get government funding for.
Sustainability and biodiversity consultancy—A little to broad to comment on.
Mobility solutions (design of roads, bridges, etc.) - no comment
Sewerage and water infrastructure—EU countries have a lot of their sewerage and water infrastructure in order already, so within the EU I don’t think this is the most cost-effective work on the margin. Some really innovative solutions could be interesting, perhaps. E.g. desalinisation?
Building and factory design. This seems promising. Lots of industrial processes are hard to get rid of (e.g. we’ll need cement, and worldwide demand is set to increase!) but there hasn’t been a lot of work on clean production in this area. Looking at cleaner production of cement, steel, or other industries seems promising, and factory design is probably a big part of that. Try to reach out to Industrious Labs!
Try to see if your company’s expertise match with any of the recommended fields of work by Giving Green and High Impact Engineers! Especially this latter link is probably interesting for you and your colleagues.
I think that @Ulrik Horn’s suggestion about how to adapt to worst-case climate scenarios is a good one, especially if you focus on places that are likely severely hit but don’t have adequate plans for adaptation yet.
Some first ideas, going by the expertise of the company:
Chemical regulation (e.g., REACH) and LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) - Helping firms comply is probably not the most cost-effective, since compliance is mandatory, so they’ll just find another consultancy firm. Counterfactual is probably low here.
Circular economy. I’d say this really depends on which sector you’re trying to make circular. Something related to the circular use of rare earth materials for the energy transition seems promising, but this is still a broad theme.
Soil remediation. - Don’t know enough to comment.
Environmental permits and environmental impact assessments (effects on water, air quality, biodiversity, etc.). Similar to my first comment—if this is for compliance, firms will hire a consultant anyway, so the counterfactual here is lower. If you do EIAs or permitting for important new environmental infrastructure (e.g. hot rock geothermal), this may be different.
District heating networks. This is interesting, if you can contribute to quickly deploying geothermal energy around the world! Talk with the folks at Project Innerspace to know more.
Electricity grids. There’s a big potential here to electrify heavy industries that now rely on fossil fuels. The price of renewables has been dropping quite rapidly, but there’s quite a challenge in using renewables for hard-to-decarbonise processes like cement. Talk to or visit the websites of e.g. Future Cleantech Architects, Clean Air Task Force, and Industrious Labs to know more! I reckon energy storage and load shifting could be interesting ones to look at too! And maybe easier to get government funding for.
Sustainability and biodiversity consultancy—A little to broad to comment on.
Mobility solutions (design of roads, bridges, etc.) - no comment
Sewerage and water infrastructure—EU countries have a lot of their sewerage and water infrastructure in order already, so within the EU I don’t think this is the most cost-effective work on the margin. Some really innovative solutions could be interesting, perhaps. E.g. desalinisation?
Building and factory design. This seems promising. Lots of industrial processes are hard to get rid of (e.g. we’ll need cement, and worldwide demand is set to increase!) but there hasn’t been a lot of work on clean production in this area. Looking at cleaner production of cement, steel, or other industries seems promising, and factory design is probably a big part of that. Try to reach out to Industrious Labs!