A global engineering coalition has issued an urgent call to action to solve the climate crisis through ecology-inclusive engineering frameworks. The Foresight of Nature-Positive Engineering, a new report from Lloyd’s Register Foundation in partnership with the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI), sets out the blueprint for nature-positive engineering (NPE) in ports, offshore renewable energy, and coastal protection. Biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history, with extinction rates 100 to 1,000 times higher than the past ten million years. While crucial to development, the built environment has caused high carbon emissions, habitat loss and resource depletion.
Yet infrastructure could serve as a key leverage point for nature recovery by embracing NPE principles. The approach involves actively protecting, restoring and enhancing natural systems to deliver measurable ecological gains while supporting societal wellbeing.
Three sectors have begun to embrace NPE: coastal protection, oshore renewable energy and ports. Solutions like living shorelines with native vegetation, marine structures with ecological features, or fish hotels within wind farms have been successfully implemented worldwide.
The report outlines three key recommendations: creating a policy-driven enabling environment; launching a toolkit to build technical capacity; and establishing a global engineering NPE alliance. An estimated $44 trillion (over 50% of global GDP) depends on ecosystem services. NPE could unlock significant economic opportunities, as three quarters of the infrastructure that will exist by 2050 is yet to be built.
Jan Przydatek, Director of Technologies at Lloyd’s Register Foundation, said:
“Critical infrastructure doesn’t need to come at the expense of biodiversity. It’s time to fundamentally transform how we approach the built environment. The scaling of nature-based solutions will only be possible when embedded in engineering practice that builds future infrastructure.”RetryClaude can make mistakes.
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