In his landmark lecture for the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), Arup Director Peter Head explores how the world can begin to make the transition towards an ecological age of civilisation.

“Human development is now following a dangerously unsustainable path globally,” he explains. “Waves of investment in low and middle income countries are accelerating this problem because they are following an unsustainable model. Our urban areas and methods of food production consume land and non-renewable resources inefficiently. But we can do something to turn the situation around: we can move towards an ecological age.”

Peter Head’s Brunel International Lecture explains how we can develop and retrofit urban centres to improve resource efficiency while maintaining or improving quality of life. He uses ecological footprint analysis to show how we can move towards the goal of environmental sustainability, setting out a vision of life in a sustainable community of the future.

ICE established the Brunel International Lecture in 1999 in memory of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Since then they have covered a variety of topics ranging from infrastructure and technology for the third millennium to sustainable development, poverty alleviation and water for the third world.

Entering the Ecological Age: the Engineer's Role - the report accompanying Peter's lecture is available from the global Arup website in English, Arabic, Korean, Polish and Spanish.