Breaking silos - why do we like silos so much?

Introducing the new Breaking Silos series, CIWEM Early Careers Network chair Kieran Murnane and ICE Future Leader Aimee Jones urge the industry to collaborate.

(Picture left: Kieran Murnane, pictured right: Aimee Jones)

We are in the midst of a global climate and nature emergency. Sentences like this are often thrown around the industry, from project meetings and lectures to conversations at conferences and events.

It’s become almost business as usual to mention these interconnected crises. By raising them we tick a box. But are we actually doing enough?

The industry is moving too slowly

The severity of these global emergencies is not being matched with sufficient urgency.

The industry is starting to mitigate its contribution to these issues, but at a dangerously slow pace.

Clients and projects continue to prioritise budget and programme, often failing to recognise that our existence relies on the health of our natural systems.

Image credit: Shutterstock

We need to shift mindsets across the industry towards protecting and enhancing nature as a business-as-usual activity.

We need to move away from building purely functional infrastructure to creating spaces that actively generate positive social outcomes.

We need to focus on resilience.

Adaptation as well as mitigation

Historically, most of the industry’s effort in the fight against climate change has been on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reaching net zero.

While this is of course crucial, we now need to accept the ‘baked in’ impacts of climate change that we will continue to face in decades to come.

This means focusing efforts on adapting to climate change and bringing resilience to our infrastructure, all while delivering social outcomes to bring our communities into the heart of projects, remembering the fundamental missions of our work.

Action needs to be taken immediately.

What are silos and why do we like them so much?

Our collective industries, sectors, professions and individuals need to take responsibility and drive change collaboratively, breaking down the dangerous silos that have developed over time.

A word thrown around regularly, a silo’s most basic definition is a tower, trench or pit whose primary purpose is to store animal feed and prevent any interaction with the surrounding air and environment.

It is apt that it has taken on a strikingly similar second meaning; representing the artificial structures that we in our various sectors have built to keep us talking to the people we are familiar to and comfortable with.

Engineers with engineers, ecologists with ecologists, finance managers with finance managers. Animal feed with animal feed.

They’re the isolated groups that keep us in our comfort zone. So why break them down?

Introducing Breaking Silos

With this in mind, we’re launching an initiative to bring together a diverse group of young professionals who will delve into a broad range of themes through this article series, including:

1. Climate resilience
2. Shifting mindsets and putting nature first
3. People positive infrastructure
4. Influencing decision-making as a young professional

The initiative fosters connections between the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), aligning with the 2023/24 presidential themes of both institutions.

Each article in the series will be written by an ICE member and a CIWEM member.

The need to break down siloes and increase collaboration is at the heart of this initiative being driven by ICE’s Future Leaders and CIWEM’s Early Careers Network.

In time, we hope to see more institutions joining us!

Supporting the theme of collaboration

We’re facing a many interconnected challenges that can’t be solved by individual disciplines or organisations.

As such, collaboration is a key thread running through the presidential themes of both CIWEM and ICE.

Bushra Hussain, CIWEM’s current president, speaks of the need to connect a community inclusive and accessible for all.

She is passionate about connecting multi-disciplinary professionals and communities across the world, as well as tapping into the wisdom that can be found in cultures from every corner of the globe, in order to address the global water and environmental challenges we are facing.

ICE President Professor Anusha Shah has emphasised the importance of making connections for a nature- and people-positive world.

Image credit: Shutterstock

She believes that building assets which do less harm to our natural world is not good enough anymore. Our infrastructure needs to interact with nature in a way which is restorative and regenerative, rather than extractive. And a net zero and a nature-positive future is impossible without being people-positive.

The need for collaboration and for making connections doesn’t just apply geographically, though greater global cooperation is a key emphasis for Bushra and Anusha.

It also relates to the siloes that exist within the departments, organisations, and sectors we work in.

If young people from different institutions can start to make cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary collaboration business-as-usual, this will set the standard for what’s to come as they move from industry newcomers to leaders.

The role of early career professionals

We need early career professionals to be connected to the wider industry, to be aware of the challenges and the role we play, and to be connected to the other institutions and individuals working in this space.

We need a solid foundation of knowledge to build upon and make changes in the industry.

We need to make our voices heard about these challenges, as we bring a fresh and unique perspective to the industry.

Most importantly, we need to channel our passion to make impactful change in the industry, not being afraid of rocking the boat or challenging the status quo.

And we need others to amplify our voices.

Join us in this critical conversation.