A first for Ireland: building carbon reduction into the tender

On most road schemes, the decisions that shape a project’s carbon footprint are made by the contractor and their supply chain. On an 11.5km resurfacing scheme on the M7 in Co. Kildare, AtkinsRéalis helped make them at the tender stage instead. 

The AtkinsRéalis Dublin roads team assisted Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) in piloting the CO2 Performance Ladder - a Dutch procurement tool, used for years in the Netherlands, that rewards bidders for committing to lower carbon. The M7 Kildare Bypass scheme was the first time it had been used in Ireland. 

What AtkinsRéalis did 

The idea is simple but unusual: make carbon reduction something a contractor competes on, rather than something asked of them later. AtkinsRéalis drafted the contract so that the level of carbon reduction a tenderer committed to earned them a notional discount in the tender assessment - the more ambitious the commitment, the stronger their award advantage. To keep it honest, the chosen level was written into the contract, backed by independent certification and a financial penalty for falling short. 

Working alongside TII and the Dutch certifying body SKAO, the team ran a workshop to introduce the approach to bidders, evaluated the tenders, assessed the feasibility of the winning contractor’s proposed measures, and carried out site supervision through construction. All five bidders chose to pursue certification - a sign the incentive worked from the outset.

What it delivered 

The successful contractor, Jons Civil Engineering, committed to level four of the Ladder’s five levels and backed it with real measures: reusing the old road surface as Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (a first on an Irish motorway), switching plant and vehicles from diesel to Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil, bringing an electric mini-digger on site, and changing day-to-day habits like cutting engine idling. 

The results, independently certified, were striking: a 21% overall cut in carbon, an 84.5% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions and 20.3% in Scope 3 emissions - 311 tonnes of CO2e saved on a single resurfacing scheme.

Why it matters 

The M7 pilot has since won an Engineering Excellence Sustainability Award and was named Environmental Engineering Project of the Year and Best Green Public Procurement Project of the Year for 2025. More importantly, it changed how TII buys: the Ladder is now built into all of its pavement renewal framework tenders, so the approach proven on one scheme is shaping many more. 

For anyone considering environmental or infrastructure work with AtkinsRéalis in Ireland, this is the kind of project on offer - where commercial, technical and sustainability thinking meet, and doing something for the first time in the country is part of the job.

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