This this week's episode we discuss the decarbonisation of global aviation - and specifically a new project that aims to leverage the growth in nuclear technology to accelerate us towards a new world of affordable e-SAF - sustainable aviation fuels

Because for all the pressures of driving towards a net zero emissions future, the world's hunger for air travel continues to grow. Which leaves the environmental cost of traditional kerosene as no longer sustainable.

And to be honest, given the impact of war in Iran, the pressure to accelerate towards new types of fuel is only going one way.

Today I am joined by Caroline Longman, director and guiding mind at nuclear energy consultancy Equilibrion and by Commercial lead Hannah Vickers. Together they are going to talk us through a potential solution - Equilibrion’s flagship e-SAF project, Eq.flight.

Decarbonising aviation is a tough challenge – perhaps one of the biggest challenges of the global Net Zero transition. Unlike road transport, which can lean on batteries, long-haul flight requires high-density liquid fuels.

And global SAF mandates are tightening – the UK and EU have mandated a 2% SAF blend by 2025, rising to 10%–22% by 2030 - making now an increasingly critical moment.

While Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) exists, current bio-based methods face a feedstock ceiling - there simply isn't enough waste oil or land to fuel the global fleet.

The Eq.flight programme attempts to changes the equation by leveraging the carbon-free power of nuclear energy.

Working in collaboration with partners like Rolls-Royce SMR, Equilibrion it is moving from consultancy to delivery, recently launching a call for partners to join a "trusted, outcome-focused" supply chain.

Resources

• Equilibrion website
• The Eq.Flight project
• Eq.Flight - call for partners
• EU mandate on SAF
• Caroline Longman Linked In
• Hannah Vickers Linked In

In this episode we tackle the evolving challenges of managing infrastructure investment risk in a rapidly changing world.

As systemic threats like climate change, population growth and social inequality intensify, infrastructure funding models centred on individual assets, on clearly defined risks, and on relatively predictable climate conditions are reaching their limit.

In short, if we are to continue to attract private sector cash to underpin investment in our vital public assets, we need new thinking.

My guest today is doing that thinking and helping to take the necessary action.

Donna Lopata is senior manager for corporate engagement at the Sydney based Investor Group on Climate Change and has just been working with the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney on some ground-breaking research into Systems Stewardship, a radical new way for infrastructure investors to approach the management of risk in this changing world.

Donna’s work caught my attention at the recent Transforming Infrastructure Performance Summit in Melbourne. In her presentation she pointed out that the Australian infrastructure investment industry is waking up to a stark reality: if the overarching economic and environmental systems fail, no individual portfolio is safe.

However, the IGCC’s report: Systems Stewardship: Managing Interconnected Climate Risks for Lasting Value suggest that a fundamental shift is already underway. Yet while some 85% of investment professionals now apply "systems thinking," a significant implementation gap remains, hampering the transition from high-level belief statements to concrete action.

Bridging this gap requires rethinking everything from procurement and carbon assessment to the very fundamental of assessing risk.

Resources

• Investor Group on Climate Change
• The Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney
• Systems Stewardship: Managing Interconnected Climate Risks for Lasting Value
• Transforming Infrastructure Performance Summit Melbourne 2026
• Donna Lopata Linked In

In this episode we are talking about water sector reform with Mark Thurston, chief executive of Anglian Water, arguably one of the most progressive and innovative water companies in the UK.

Not without its problems and critics of course, but Anglian is certainly one water company that has really taken on the challenge to work with its supply chain to boost infrastructure productivity and cut out carbon.

Mark joined Anglian in July 2024 having previously spent nearly seven years at the helm of the challenging and controversial HS2 project – the subject of our last conversation for the Podcast when he joined me back in 2023 for Episode 5.

No question, it’s a challenging time for the water sector. After years of public anger over sewage spills, service failures and rising bills, the water industry in England and Wales is facing a once-in-a-generation reckoning.

That moment crystallised last summer with the final report of the Independent Water Commission, chaired by Sir Jon Cunliffe. This pulled no punches and in it 88 recommendations called for sweeping reform: replacing Ofwat with a single integrated regulator, creating regional water planning authorities, mandating water metering, and embedding a new “public benefit” duty into company licences.

At the same time, Ofwat’s latest price review has demanded a step-change in asset renewal, resilience to climate change, and service performance - all while keeping water affordable and the sector investable. The stakes could hardly be higher.

Without action, the country faces a potential shortfall of around a third of today’s public water supply by 2050. Right now, Anglian is responding with plans to deliver new reservoirs in Lincolnshire and the Cambridgeshire Fens, and battling to unlock delivery without compromising environmental protection or public trust.

So Mark finds himself once again at the heart of the infrastructure challenge. But his background perhaps brings rare experience of leading mega-projects under intense public and political scrutiny - experience that I’d say the water sector urgently needs right now.

So let’s explore those challenges.

Resources

• Anglian Water website
• Anglian Water annual performance report 2025
• Independent Water Commission - Cunliffe Review
• Ofwat's AMP8 final determination
• Anglian Water's Business Plan for AMP8
• HS2 website

In this episode of the podcast we are explore the way the UK Armed Services has been radically upping its game in terms of the support, promotion and development of professional engineering careers.

To do this, I'm joined today by Squadron Leader David Littlemore from the Royal Air Force, currently executive officer infrastructure at Cyber and Specialist Operations Command.

David is also fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, in fact, the only chartered civil engineer in the RAF, and I'd say that he is also a passionate advocate for merging the best of military and civilian engineering training to create complete and capable professional engineers fit for the future.

David’s engineering career journey was unorthodox. He started straight from school, aged 16, working in a bridge design office, where he progressed through ONC and then HNC studies before gaining a degree in Civil Engineering at Durham University. He then switched to the military by being commissioning into the Royal Air Force in 2008.

Since then his career has bridged the gap between civilian consultancy and high-stakes military infrastructure, tackling work across the UK and from the South Atlantic to the Middle East.

And today, as a Chartered Civil Engineer, he is certainly testament to the "long winding road" of modern professional engineering careers.

Beyond his technical expertise in project management and infrastructure delivery, he mentors young technicians and engineers and is committed to helping the next generation understand the profound value of professional recognition, and what it takes to build a career.

Resources

• RAF Cyber and Specialist Operations Command
• RAF professional engineering careers
• David Littlemore Linked In
• ICE routes to membership
• ICE Council
• QUEST scholarships

In this episode we dive into the infrastructure sector’s journey towards digitisation, decarbonisation and modernisation – a journey which to be honest, seems like one that we have been on for some time.

To do this, my guest is Mark Coates, Vice President of Infrastructure Policy Advancement at software giant Bentley Systems and the guiding mind behind TIP, the Transforming Infrastructure Performance global Summit initiative, the latest iteration of which was held last month in Melbourne.

Full disclosure – from the earliest days TIP back in 2022, I have been working with Mark to deliver the summits – in London, Manchester, Singapore, Toronto, New York and, as I say, most recently Melbourne. And it’s fair to say that, throughout this global journey, we have seen many common failings across the delivery chain but also, thankfully, identified a huge number of positive lessons to be shared.

One thing that is clear is that “business as usual”, the "old way" of delivering projects - siloed data, stagnant productivity, and resource-heavy construction – is broken.

Hence the need for a Transformation of Infrastructure Performance. Born from a UK government initiative and now championed by the National Infrastructure Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) alongside partners like Bentley Systems and the Institution of Civil Engineers, TIP has evolved from a local policy framework into a worldwide movement aimed at repairing this broken model. It’s goal is to help governments around the world to find better ways to deliver the infrastructure needed to support their communities.

So let’s hear more – what does the roadmap look like for a future where infrastructure truly performs for people and the planet?

Resources

• Transforming Infrastructure Performance Summit Melbourne
• UK government 10 year Infrastructure Strategy
• Mark Coates Linked In
• Bentley Systems Year in Infrastructure 2025
• Australian Infrastructure Investment Monitor
• Bentley Systems website
• Construction Leadership Council

In this week's episode we take a deep dive into the global infrastructure investment market as I chat to Jon Phillips, chief executive of GIIA, the Global Infrastructure Investors Association.

The Association represents the world's foremost institutional investors who together manage over US$2.2 trillion in infrastructure assets across 68 countries. And as we stand in 2026, the landscape for private capital has never been more complex.

The podcast is being recorded during the latest Transforming Infrastructure Performance Summit hosted by software giant Bentley Systems and the Institution of Civil Engineers in Melbourne so gives us an opportunity to also explore how the infrastructure market is fairing on this side of the world and the pressures, challenges and opportunities that clients and investors face in the Australian and South East Asian market.

While globally 2025 saw record-breaking fundraising, the industry is grappling with a fascinating paradox: a massive hunger for "bankable" projects set against a backdrop of geopolitical shifts, from the evolving impact of the Trump administration to the cooling of the AI-driven digital infrastructure boom.

Jon’s career spans the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to Heathrow, and nearly a decade at the helm of GIIA, where he now sits at the intersection of policy, delivery, and capital.

Which makes him the perfect person to give us a quick update on the global infrastructure investment market.

Resources

• The Global Infrastructure Investors Association
• GIIA’s latest Infrastructure Pulse survey
• Jon Phillips Linked In
• Australian Infrastructure Investment Monitor
• Victoria State infrastructure strategy
• Transforming Infrastructure Performance Summit Melbourne

In this week's episode we return to the New Hospital Programme - still one of the most ambitious public infrastructure programmes the UK has seen in decades.

The last time I was in NHP’s Waterloo office in London was for episode 143 just before Christmas. Then I spoke to Emily King and Doug Baldock about the scale and urgency of the challenge to replace ageing and unsafe hospital infrastructure, and the shift towards industrialised construction through the £37bn Hospital 2.0 programme.

Today, we’re going deeper into the “how”.

Because £37 billion of ambition only becomes reality if the market can actually deliver it.

To do that I am joined by Emma Whigham, Alliance Director for the NHP Alliance, and Rick Lennard, Chief Operating Officer for the New Hospital Programme. Together, they’re at the sharp end of designing and procuring the Hospital 2.0 Alliance - the new commercial and delivery model intended to underpin the programme for the next 12 years.

This is about more than building hospitals. It’s about reshaping how the NHS works with industry, creating a stable pipeline that gives suppliers the confidence to invest in skills, manufacturing capacity and modern methods of construction.

It’s about standardisation without stifling innovation. And it’s about learning from decades of fragmented delivery to create something more programmatic, predictable and collaborative.

So let’s crack on and explore how the Alliance is structured, what early market engagement has changed, where the market pushback really is - or is likely to be.

Resources

• New Hospital Programme: Plan for Implementation
• Government hospital investment press release
• Hospital 2.0 Alliance
• Supplier Guide.
• Egan review 1998
• Latham review 1994

This week's special 151st episode was recorded in front of a live audience at last year’s brilliant Transforming Infrastructure Performance Summit hosted by Bentley Systems and the Institution of Civil Engineers in Toronto Canada.

In fact, right about the time this episode is published I will be in Melbourne helping the team to deliver the next event in this TIP series – so look out for podcast flowing out of that!

Back to this episode and my guest is Peter Weltman, Vice Chair of the Canada Infrastructure Council, Director at consultant Technomics and until 2023, Financial Accountability Officer for Ontario.

We discuss the critical issue of Housing-Enabling Infrastructure and its impact on the future of Canada’s Communities – and in particular the work being done to help Canada respond to its growing housing challenge,.

Because Canada’s housing challenge is not just about bricks and mortar - it’s about the infrastructure that makes communities liveable, sustainable, and connected. Roads, transit, water systems, energy grids, digital networks, and social infrastructure all form the backbone that enables housing to be built, scaled, and supported over the long term.

Without this foundation, new homes risk becoming isolated developments rather than thriving communities.

As population growth accelerates, climate shocks intensify, and affordability pressures mount, the question is not whether Canada needs more homes, but whether we can deliver the enabling infrastructure at the speed and scale required.

That means moving beyond fragmented planning toward coordinated investment, smarter regulation, and nation-building programs that unlock land and create confidence for both communities and private investors. The creation of the new Major Projects Office (MPO) should help by creating a single point of contact to get projects built faster – the question is how - and what needs to change first.

The Council is at the heart of shaping Canada’s infrastructure ambitions – we’ll hear how later on – and has just produced its first National Infrastructure Assessment report which I reckon will provide essential reading for all.

So lots to chat through, and I kicked off by asking why is infrastructure so critical to solving Canada’s housing challenge.

Resources

• Canadian Infrastructure Council
• CIC National Infrastructure Assessment report - Building Foundations for Tomorrow:
• Transforming Infrastructure Performance Toronto Summit
• Technomics website