The construction sector is one of the main sectors responsible for carbon emissions and accounts for 10% of the carbon footprint globally. This sector will play an important role in the EU's long term objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% by 2050. Energy and environmental issues are therefore increasingly becoming key factors in market competition. As a result, technological innovation aimed at reducing carbon emissions can be viewed as a major strategy to boost competitiveness of the European construction industry, within and outside Europe. This is the rationale behind the project TERRE, which aims to train a new generation of engineers and scientists in carbon efficient design of civil infrastructure.
TERRE targeted the geotechnical construction industry, a major component of the overall construction sector, which is strategically important in infrastructure development (transportation, flood and landslide protection, building foundations, waste disposal). This project explored novel design concepts for low-carbon geotechnical infrastructure through 15 PhD projects carried out by ESRs who were ‘trained through Research’ in low-carbon design. Design concepts included eco-reinforced geomaterials, binders ‘recycled’ from waste, ‘engineered’ vegetated and bare ground-atmosphere interfaces, shallow geothermal energy, and shallow soil carbon sequestration.
Many PhD research projects were oriented towards a potential technological application in their later stage by involving industrial full and associated partners. This synergy between industry and academia ensured that the research remained problem-driven and that the fundamental research had a tangible social, environmental, and economic impact.
TERRE recognised that fundamental concepts concerning greenhouse gas emissions, carbon sequestration and, more generally, sustainable development are often not addressed in higher education in civil engineering. TERRE addressed this knowledge gap by organizing annual Schools to help rethink civil engineering design. These were mainly designed for early-stage researchers but were of equal benefit to established researchers and practitioners in the civil engineering field.
