How did CEEQUAL develop?

CEEQUAL was developed over a period of four years by a team led by the Institution of Civil Engineers, with Government financial support from the DETR and DTI Partners in Innovation schemes, and from the ICE's Research & Development Enabling Fund. A broad spectrum of over 40 leading civil engineering consultants and contractors, professional and industry associations, and government agencies actively participated in the process. There was wide industry consultation and input through development workshops, and the assessment and award criteria were extensively trialled on more than 20 civil engineering projects.

What are CEEQUAL's objectives in relation to other environmental tools?

The ICE and Project Partners' objective in setting up CEEQUAL was to encourage the attainment of environmental excellence in civil engineering projects and thereby to deliver improved environmental performance in project specification, design and construction.

The original development of CEEQUAL, from 1999 to 2004, was managed by Crane Environmental Ltd, and received active support and participation of relevant Government Departments and Agencies, professional and industry associations, and leading civil engineering consultants and contractors. The organisations contributing resources to the project in cash or in kind were Project Partners, many of whom now own shares in CEEQUAL Ltd, the company set up to run the Scheme into the future.

The formal development of the scheme began in September 2000 with a Feasibility Study for delivery of a scheme framework and business plan by April 2002. The Development & Implementation phase of the project started in May 2002 and saw the scheme through further trials. The first set of assessments was undertaken in the spring and summer of 2003 using Version 1 of the scheme. These first eight awards were presented in June and September 2003.

In the development of CEEQUAL, account was taken of the substantial body of research and experience relating to environmental issues on construction projects, environmental management of design and construction, and the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) – an award scheme that has achieved a voluntary improvement in the environmental specification, construction and performance of buildings.

However, unlike the BREEAM scheme for buildings, where there are specific schemes for different types of building, CEEQUAL is an assessment framework appropriate to any civil engineering project, such as roads and railways, airports, coast and river works, water supply and wastewater treatment, power stations, retail and business parks. Instead, the differences between the different types of civil engineering projects are taken account of in the scoping-out process carried out at the beginning of each assessment.

CEEQUAL includes environmental aspects such as the use of water, energy and land, ecology, landscape, noise and dust, archaeology, waste minimisation and management, and community amenity. Awards are made to projects in which the clients, designers and constructors have gone beyond the legal and environmental minima, to achieve distinctive environmental standards of performance.

For the time being at least, CEEQUAL is a scheme operated by and for the UK construction industry. However, discussions are in progress for country-specific versions of CEEQUAL to be developed in the future.