The highways carbon revolution? Turning lower emissions into new revenue

What if choosing a lower-carbon way of maintaining a road didn't simply reduce emissions, but actually created a financial asset which could help pay for the next job?

That's the potentially transformative idea explored in this week's Highways Voices, as Adrian Tatum talks to Gary Cook, founder of Asphalt IQ and Carbon Vault IQ, about technology designed to turn measurable carbon savings on highways projects into traceable carbon credits.

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Mr Cook explains how data captured directly from worksites can establish the carbon impact of what actually happened, rather than relying on generic averages – and why he believes that could change the economics of sustainable highways maintenance.

The conversation begins with the challenge facing authorities and contractors trying to establish accurate carbon figures across complicated supply chains. Mr Cook says scope three emissions can represent up to 95% of emissions on a typical road reconstruction site, yet collecting reliable information covering materials, suppliers and transport remains difficult. Asphalt IQ's answer is to put digital data collection into the hands of the site supervisor, capturing information in real time and supporting PAS 2080 reporting.

But it is what happens next that makes this discussion particularly interesting. Carbon Vault IQ compares the carbon generated by the chosen treatment with a "business as usual" alternative, with the saving potentially becoming a carbon credit. Mr Cook argues this could introduce an entirely new finance stream into highways – one which could help contractors invest in equipment and give authorities more money to spend on preventative maintenance and lower-carbon treatments.

The podcast also tackles the obvious question: how can anyone be confident those credits are genuine? Mr Cook explains the proposed independent methodology approval and third-party auditing process, alongside the use of real-time site data to provide evidence of exactly which materials, plants and transport movements were involved. He also discusses "dynamic issuance", under which some credits could be released over time to demonstrate that the expected longer-term benefit of an intervention has actually been delivered.

Perhaps the biggest prize could be pavement preservation. Mr Cook argues that additional revenue generated through carbon savings could help make treatments such as surface dressing more attractive, allowing contractors to scale their operations and helping the industry move away from an expensive cycle of reactive pothole repairs. It could even help bridge the cost difference which currently prevents some lower-carbon materials and treatments being selected.

As Mr Cook puts it, the ambition is to turn carbon from a "reporting burden" into a "measurable and monetisable asset". If the model works as envisaged, doing the greener thing might no longer simply be an environmental decision – it could make financial sense too.

Highways Voices is brought to you with our podcast partners the Transport Technology Forum, LCRIG, ITS UK and ADEPT.