A global coalition of engineers has issued an urgent call for a fundamental shift in infrastructure development, urging the industry to adopt “nature-positive engineering” (NPE) to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises while unlocking economic opportunity.

The appeal comes in a new report, “Foresight of Nature-Positive Engineering,” released by Lloyd’s Register Foundation in partnership with the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI). The report outlines a blueprint for safely scaling NPE in vulnerable coastal and marine environments, including ports, offshore renewable energy projects, and coastal protection.

The authors argue that despite infrastructure’s historic contribution to carbon emissions, habitat loss, and resource depletion, it can be a key leverage point for ecological recovery.

NPE is defined as actively protecting, restoring, and enhancing natural systems to deliver measurable ecological gains alongside supporting societal needs and wellbeing, moving beyond merely “doing less harm” to “doing more good.”

BIODIVERSITY RISK

The report highlights the steep decline in biodiversity, noting that extinction rates are currently 100 to 1,000 times higher than the past 10 million years. The financial risk is substantial, with an estimated $44 trillion – over 50 per cent of global GDP – moderately or highly dependent on the ecosystem services that nature provides.

Savina Carluccio, Executive Director of ICSI and an author of the report, emphasised the dual role of engineers.

“Today, engineers face both a responsibility and an opportunity to become stewards of the natural systems we all depend on, which are under immense pressure,” Carluccio said. “This demands a fundamental shift in infrastructure development – moving from viewing nature as a constraint to recognising it as a critical ally in achieving human and planetary well-being.”

Nature-positive engineering takes concrete steps to deliver measurable gains for nature, and has shown promise in coastal and marine environments, but now is the time to scale it.

The Foresight Review is a rallying call to mobilise the profession to lead the transition to infrastructure that enables both people and nature to thrive.

Three sectors have already begun to embrace principles of NPE: coastal protection, offshore renewable energy and ports. Solutions like living shorelines reinforced with native vegetation, marine protection structures enhanced with ecological features, or fish hotels incorporated within the design of wind farms to protect fish from predators, featured in the report, have all been successfully implemented across the world.

Drawing on some of these examples, the report goes on to outline its three key recommendations to accelerate the implementation of NPE on a larger scale.  These include: the creation of a policy-driven enabling environment, leveraging technology for integrated planning and procurement; the launch of a toolkit to build technical capacity among both professionals and those in education; and the establishment of a global engineering NPE alliance to promote knowledge sharing and showcase examples of best practice.

As well as preventing the collapse of ecosystem services that nature provides, NPE could also be the key to unlocking significant economic opportunities, as experts estimate that three quarters of the infrastructure that will exist by 2050 is yet to be built.

Director of Technologies at Lloyd’s Register Foundation Jan Przydatek said: “Critical infrastructure is essential to keeping people safe and supporting economic activity, but it doesn’t need to come at the expense of biodiversity. It’s time to go beyond carbon-neutral infrastructure that minimises harm to fundamentally transform the way we approach the built environment for the next generation.

“The practice of nature-positive engineering is in the early phase of implementation. The scaling of nature-based solutions to the extent required will only be possible when it is embedded in engineering practice that builds future infrastructure.