About CEEQUAL

What is CEEQUAL?

CEEQUAL is the evidence-based sustainability assessment, rating and awards scheme for civil engineering, infrastructure, landscaping and the public realm, and celebrates the achievement of high environmental and social performance.

It aims to deliver improved project specification, design and construction of civil engineering works. CEEQUAL rewards project and contract teams in which clients, designers and contractors go beyond the legal and environmental and social minima to achieve distinctive environmental and social performance in their work. In addition to its use as a rating system to assess performance, it also provides significant influence to project or contract teams as they develop, design and construct their work, because it encourages them to consider the issues in the question set at the most appropriate time.

CEEQUAL was launched in 2003, and more than 196 final and 75 interim Awards have been achieved with a further 274 projects and contracts currently being assessed (June 2013). The accumulative civil engineering value of work that has been or is currently being assessed totals is just over £23 billion. With the longest track record of verified sustainability assessments of civil engineering worldwide in the industry, CEEQUAL takes a very broad view of ‘civil engineering’ in including all infrastructure for modern life, and landscaping and work in the public realm.

Introduction and What’s new in Version 5?

The CEEQUAL Scheme is available in three forms, CEEQUAL for:

UK & Ireland Projects | International Projects | Term Contracts

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How does CEEQUAL work?

CEEQUAL is a self-assessment process that CEEQUAL trained-Assessors use to rigorously assess project or contract performance on management and a range of environmental and social issues of concern, arranged in Version 5 in nine sections (12 in Version 4). Assessors use the appropriate CEEQUAL Manual to score performance against questions relevant to the project or contract, Assessors collect evidence supporting their scores for each question, and use our Online Assessment Tool for capturing those scores and evidence. Upon project or contract completion, each Assessment is externally verified by a CEEQUAL-appointed Verifier. Once the Assessment score is ratified, the project or contract is awarded a percentage score and is then presented with a CEEQUAL Award certificate that demonstrates their level of achievement.

Click here to see the full Assessment Process.

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Who can use CEEQUAL?

The CEEQUAL Scheme is relevant to clients of civil engineering, infrastructure, landscaping or public realm projects and contracts, to civil engineering design companies and to civil engineering construction companies, including:

Private sector clients
Public sector clients
Contractors
Designers & Builders
Other users (e.g. Funders and regulators of construction schemes who may want reassurance that projects are carried out in an environmentally and socially responsible way).

The Highways Agency, Network Rail, Costain, Balfour Beatty, Mott MacDonald and Atkins are just a few of the 200+ organisations that have adopted the CEEQUAL Methodology on their projects and contracts.

Many public sector clients and funders such as Welsh Assembly Government, Thames Water, London Underground and Crossrail are specifying the use of CEEQUAL on large-scale projects, and some clients have started to select contractors based on their experience of applying CEEQUAL.

CEEQUAL Awards are applicable to all civil engineering, infrastructure, landscaping and public realm projects and contracts of any size or description. The coverage includes:

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Why use CEEQUAL?

CEEQUAL is the only sustainability assessment tool available with almost 10 years’ operational experience that can be used for the assessment of all types of civil engineering, infrastructure, landscaping and public realm projects/contracts. Unlike decision-support tools, it uniquely uses rigorous evidence-based assessment criteria and external verification to provide a result that can be made public and used in publicity. Integration of the question set in the development of projects also positively influences design and construction management and often leads to better projects than would otherwise have been the case.

Promoters of major civil engineering projects are required to undertake a regulatory Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and consequently to prepare an Environmental Statement (ES), normally at the preliminary or outline design stage. However, this does not extend to smaller projects or to a post-construction evaluation of the environmental quality and performance of the project as actually implemented. The CEEQUAL Scheme complements the statutory requirement, by operating during and (for Whole Project, Construction Only and Design & Build Awards) after design and construction, checking what is actually built and how it is built, but not (yet) how it is actually operated when complete.

Award recipients report a range of benefits from using CEEQUAL as a driver for improvement and having their work assessed.

Demonstrating commitment to the sustainability agenda and public recognition to clients, within both the team and the organisations involved, to the industry as a whole, and to stakeholders and the general public.
Significant Improvements to projects and adoption of best practice ranging from whole-life costing, waste minimisation, resource efficiency (materials, water, energy) and responses to predicted climate change effects, to reducing complaints and environmental incidents.
Enhanced team spirit using CEEQUAL provides encouragement and a target for project teams to deliver high performance, and to develop a positive “we must score well” attitude, and rewards teams that have gone the extra mile.
Reputation-building and good PR including delivery of the applicant’s environmental, sustainability and/or corporate social responsibility policies.
Cost savings projects have reported cost savings through the use of the CEEQUAL Scheme, ranging from a contractor who saved 30,000 (three times the CEEQUAL fee) after implementing a CEEQUAL-triggered waste minimisation programme, to a project team reporting 3.3% [5 million] less costs than originally planned, due partly to the use of CEEQUAL).

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Development History

CEEQUAL was originally developed by a team led by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), with financial support from the UK Government and from the ICE's Research & Development Enabling Fund.

That original development of CEEQUAL was managed by Crane Environmental Ltd, with active support and participation from relevant government departments and agencies, leading civil engineering consultants and contractors as well as professional and industry associations such as CIRIA, the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) and the Civil Engineering Contractors Association(CECA).

Following extensive industry-wide consultation and trialling, the Scheme was launched in September 2003 and the first eight Awards presented at the ICE. The Scheme went public in June 2004 with the publication of Version 3 of the Assessment Manual for Projects.

Since then, CEEQUAL has become the accepted UK industry scheme for assessing environmental and sustainability performance in civil engineering and public realm projects, being now widely used by major civil engineering clients, designers and contractors, and continuing development of the methodology has been an integral part of Scheme management since 2004. The recent launch of not only CEEQUAL for International Projects but also CEEQUAL for Term Contracts now makes the CEEQUAL Methodology available for all civil engineering, infrastructure, landscaping and public realm works.

Building on nearly ten years’ experience in operating and developing the tool, CEEQUAL launched its newly upgraded and extended version to the world on 26 March 2012. Version 5 completes CEEQUAL’s transition from environmental assessment and awards to a sustainability assessment and awards scheme. The Assessment Manuals have been reviewed, revised and updated by CEEQUAL’s panel of experts to reflect current industry best practice. The previous twelve sections have been reduced and refined to nine sections, and a completely new section on project strategy has been added. Other types of projects, such as marine and offshore, will be able to use CEEQUAL Version 5 for Assessments more easily.

The new ‘Project Strategy’ section has been developed for the CEEQUAL Assessment in order to challenge project teams on whether a project is contributing (or will contribute) to moving society on a pathway towards sustainable living. Projects will be encouraged to adopt wider aspects of sustainability and will be assessed on implementation of the core principles of sustainability in their design and construction.

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Collaborating Organisations

CEEQUAL was an initiative of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and its creation involved a great deal of collaboration with many relevant bodies. As we develop the Scheme, we continue to collaborate with a range of organisations. Here are details of some of them. We will add further details to this page as we can.

	Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) The idea for CEEQUAL was born at a meeting of the ICE’s Environment & Sustainability Board in 1999 and the ICE supported CEEQUAL through the feasibility study and development stage via its Research & Development Enabling Fund. The Institution is now one of CEEQUAL’s main shareholders and therefore a key partner in the Scheme. The Chairman of CEEQUAL’s Board is and has so far always been the ICE-nominated Director (currently Mr Eric Hughes) and all CEEQUAL certificates carry the ICE crest alongside the CEEQUAL logo and are signed not only by CEEQUAL’s Chairman but also by the ICE President. Find out more about the ICE’s work on energy, environment & sustainability and other CEEQUAL-related topics
	Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) As the organisation representing the collective views and business interests of the consultancy and engineering industry in the UK, the ACE was one of the organisations represented on the Project Advisory Group during the development of the CEEQUAL assessment methodology and Manual. ACE is the leading business association in the sector, with around 650 firms employing more than 90,000 large and small, operating across many different disciplines as its members. ACE’s representation and lobbying to government, major clients, the media and other key stakeholders, enables it to promote the critical contribution that engineers and consultants make to the nation’s developing infrastructure. ACE are also shareholders in CEEQUAL and continue to support CEEQUAL’s progress. Find out more about ACE’s work on sustainability
	Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) CECA, the representative body for civil engineering contractors, was one of CEEQUAL’s development partners and has been promoting the Scheme since its launch in 2003. John Wilson, CECA’s Technical Officer is a member of the CEEQUAL Technical Advisory Group and provides liaison between CEEQUAL and CECA. Find out more about CECA’s work on the environment and other CEEQUAL-related matters
	American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Since autumn 2009, CEEQUAL has been working with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to assist in the development of a US equivalent to CEEQUAL. In partnership with the American Public Works Association and the American Council of Engineering Companies, ASCE launched Version 1.0, for piloting, of a sustainable infrastructure project rating system at the ASCE Annual Conference in Las Vegas in October 2010. Since then, the development of the system has be vested in a new organisation, the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure. We look forward to continuing to assist ASCE and ISI in developing their system and to adding to the learning we have already gained from the experience that has been fed into the development of Version 5. Find out more about ASCE’s work on sustainability, infrastructure and other CEEQUAL-related topics
	Australian Green Infrastructure Council (AGIC) CEEQUAL is pleased to have established a formal technical collaboration with the Australian Green Infrastructure Council (AGIC), which is developing a sustainability assessment and rating tool for infrastructure projects in Australia, utilising where appropriate the underlying CEEQUAL methodology. In return, we look forward to learning from their development project and scheme (anticipated to be launched for trials early in 2011) in the development of future versions of CEEQUAL. Find out more about AGIC
	GLENIGAN Established in 1973, Glenigan are the UK's largest provider of construction contract leads and industry analysis. They currently invest 3.1million and make over a million research telephone calls per year to deliver trusted insight into UK construction activity and trends. Their exclusive partnerships with key industry organisations such as The Builders' Conference and CEEQUAL means they provide the most comprehensive coverage of UK tenders and construction contracts and the most complete industry analysis available in the market. Find out more about Glenigan