Sustainability report of the European large geotechnical institutes platform

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Abstract

The European Large Geotechnical Institutes Platform (ELGIP) is a group of 15 leading research organizations in geotechnical engineering that aims to promote internationally the profession and its societal relevance. One of ELGIP's objectives is to drive sustainability in geotechnical engineering and establish a common platform for sustainable practices and knowledge transfer across national borders in Europe through its working group Sustainability. This lecture summarizes the latest efforts of ELGIP's Sustainability working group (WGS), with contributions from ten organizations from the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The current practice in geotechnical engineering is evaluated qualitatively, by highlighting selected projects with significant components related to sustainability within WGS, and qualitatively, by presenting the level of involvement of the partner institutes in relation to each specific sustainable development goal (SDG) of UN’s 2030 Agenda. Finally, general recommendations with respect to the future development of current practice are made based on the outcome of the evaluation. The lecture demonstrates the important role that geotechnical engineering can play in achieving sustainable development goals.

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Short Curriculum

Thea Lind Christiansen is a Project Engineer specializing in Environmental Geotechnics at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI). She earned her Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a focus on geotechnics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 2018. Her professional journey includes a stint as a Consulting Geotechnical Engineer at Sweco Norge AS from 2018 to 2022 before joining NGI. In Sweco she had, among other things, academic responsibility for the geoscience subjects. Among her engagements are presentations on Sustainable Geotechnics at a seminar for Excavation Support and Support Structures in 2023, as well as a talk on Environmental Remediation on Langøyene in the Oslo Fjord during the Geotechnical Day in 2022. Furthermore, in 2021, Thea undertook additional education by completing the CEEQUAL Version 6 Projects Assessor Training Course provided by BRE.