I can hardly believe that I am writing my final editor’s message of 2020. The last 12 months have flown by and to say that this has been a year like no other is of course the understatement of the century. The COVID-19 pandemic has cast a long shadow over every aspect of our lives - and we are still not free from its far-reaching ramifications.

Despite the difficulties and challenges, the construction and infrastructure sector has been working hard to deliver projects that will help the UK and global economy take steps towards economic recovery in the months ahead. What is clear from the many discussions and debates that Infrastructure Intelligence has been hosting recently is that the recovery needs to be both digital and green to be truly sustainable.

Sustainability dominates this issue of the magazine, with article after article making the case for an approach that will enable us to build back greener and achieve net zero. Climate change is still the most important challenge of our age and without the ingenuity and creative solutions delivered by the construction and infrastructure sector, net zero cannot be achieved.

We will return to the crucial issues of digital, sustainability and how our industry delivers real social value during our editorial and events programme next year. These are all important issues for the future of our industry which are very much connected and I know that there is much interest in them from our readers, so watch this space.

As well as covering the issue of sustainability in some detail, this latest edition of the magazine also includes a report on our recent northern mayors roundtable, which attracted a high-profile line up of panellists, a report on a very interesting and insightful Atkins/Infrastructure Intelligence roundtable on digital transformation, more digital news with the latest from industry trailblazers Arcadis Gen, a roundup of the winners of the British Expertise International Awards and much much more. 

Andy Walker is the editor of Infrastructure Intelligence.

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