CSEI Seminar Series: Delivering systems solutions for improved human and ecological health – Professor Peter Head
Peter will outline the development and use of integrated systems CHEER (collaborative human, ecological,economic resource) modelling for improving decision making and connecting to sources of private impact capital. He will show how this approach can support decentralised nature-based solutions that communities can take forward, enabling them to find funded pathways to a more resilient way of life.
Prof Peter Head CBE FREng FRSA
Peter is a civil and structural engineer who has become a recognised world leader in major bridges, advanced composite technology and integrated systems planning for sustainable development in cities and regions, working in Maunsell, AECOM and Arup.
In 2008 he was named by the Guardian Newspaper as one of 50 people that could ‘save the planet’.
He was cited by Time magazine in 2008 as one of 30 global eco-heroes and has been one of CNN’s Principle Voices.
In 1998 he was awarded the OBE for his work on the Second Severn Crossing project and then in 2011 the CBE for services to Civil Engineering and the Environment.
In April 2011 he set up The Ecological Sequestration Trust, a Charity which has brought together the world’s top scientists, engineers, economists, financiers, health, ecology and other specialists to create the www.resilience.io tool to help accelerate tackling climate change and inclusive regenerative development. It was prototyped and used by the Accra Metro Area to create an integrated systems investment plan to meet SDG 6 water and sanitation by 2030.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGyCyxyatAQ
Resilience Brokers is the operating company. www.resiliencebrokers.org
Peter helped to write SDG11 and was on the Planetary Health Commission and co-authored Human Health in the Anthropocene. He is a member of the UNDRR GAR Advisory Board. He edited Roadmap 2030 “Financing and implementing the Global Goals in Human Settlements and City Regions”
https://ecosequestrust.org/roadmap2030/
Peter is visiting professor in sustainable systems engineering at University of Bristol. He also lectures on Performance Based Procurement at Oxford Brookes University
In 2019-20 Peter was a member of the GLAC Scaling Sustainable Infrastructure Solutions Lab and also co-founded Pivot Projects.
In 2020 Peter co-founded Pivot Projects which has brought together a large team of up to 500 global volunteers to help countries find resilient development paths in COViD 19 recovery which through green investment and job creation also address climate change and global goals. www.pivotprojects.org A new systems AI tool is being developed to help regions on this journey.
CSEI seminar series background
On 27 June 2019 the UK became the first major economy to pass a net zero emissions law requiring that all greenhouse gas emissions are brought to net zero by 2050. The new law poses major economic, scientific and engineering challenges, and a complete transformation of the way we think of and deliver infrastructure, including Net Zero cities, as well as several hundred billion pounds of investment.
A large body of evidence, from both research and industry, sets out what needs to be done, and by whom, in order to reduce both infrastructure and industry’s carbon footprints. It is in this context that the Seminar Series will explore how a systems approach to infrastructure and seeing infrastructure as a system of systems are key to achieving climate change mitigation and a reduction in carbon and other forms of pollution. The seminars will also highlight the broad challenges we face to achieve our carbon reduction and sustainability ambitions, and the significant opportunities these ambitions yield, as well as new sustainable approaches to infrastructure design, planning, operation and delivery. The series aims to offer different perspectives – from academia, industry and policy – and to be very interactive.