The challenges facing local authority highways teams have never been more complex. On one hand, councils are committed to aggressive Net Zero targets, demanding significant cuts to carbon emissions from every service, including road maintenance. On the other hand, finite budgets mean every decision must deliver demonstrable value for money. This creates the pivotal question: How do we build and maintain greener roads without breaking the bank?
The answer lies in reliable, peer-driven data. This is where the NHT Network’s CQC (Cost, Quality, Customer) Efficiency Network steps in. The CQC is designed to move beyond simple cost comparison, allowing councils to benchmark and compare carriageway costs, quality, and crucially, carbon efficiencies on an unparalleled, like-for-like basis. In this post, we’ll explore how the CQC Network transforms carbon reporting from a necessary compliance exercise into a powerful strategic tool for identifying genuine cost savings and driving long-term sustainability in highway delivery.
Understanding the “C” in CQC: Carbon Efficiency
The first ‘C’ in the CQC Network originally stood for ‘Cost,’ it is now further developed to include Carbon. Alongside cost the CQC, probably now better called CCQC, measures efficiency of an authorities maintenance strategies and plan in respect of the long term efficiency of carbon i.e. how well the authority is decarbonising its maintenance or not. This is a far more useful metric than simply recording total emissions. Why? Because a council with a large road network will inevitably have a higher absolute carbon footprint than a small one, even if the larger council is using more efficient methods.
The CQC focuses on key metrics that link emissions directly to productivity and outcome. This includes the carbon footprint per square metre of repair, and the emissions associated with specific activity types. It projects an aggregated carbon factor for the areas of treatment. These factors are able to be tailored to each individual authority if they have specific materials and treatments carbon data. The default is accepted industry standard carbon factors. Measuring the efficiency of carbon output against the actual work delivered provides the context necessary for improvement.
This is where the benchmarking advantage of the NHT Network truly shines. The data is rigorously normalised, adjusting for variables that otherwise make comparisons useless—such as regional differences in material costs, varying traffic volumes, and differing network sizes. By providing a true, apples-with-apples comparison against peer authorities, the CQC reveals the specific practices that are genuinely less carbon-intensive. It eliminates guesswork and highlights the achievable standards set by other councils that have already successfully transitioned to lower-carbon operations.
The Path to Cost Savings: Carbon along side Financial. Two powerful metrics
The most powerful revelation from CQC data is the direct, positive correlation of Carbon and Cost. In highway operations, high-carbon activities are often synonymous with inefficiency and, consequently, higher expense. For instance, processes that involve excessive use of fossil fuels, long-distance transportation of non-local aggregates, or the requirement for high-temperature material production (e.g., traditional hot-mix asphalt) all drive up both the carbon footprint and the financial ledger.
The CQC helps authorities identify the ‘sweet spot’ where cost reduction and carbon reduction overlap, transforming sustainability from a separate budget line item into a key performance indicator for financial health.
Beyond Compliance: Strategic Use of CQC Data
While regulatory reporting drives the initial need for carbon data, the real value of the CQC Network lies in its strategic applications. The benchmarking insights allow councils to move from simply measuring emissions to actively leveraging carbon efficiency to achieve broader strategic goals.
Informing Capital Investment
Major investments, whether in new plant machinery (e.g., electric gritters), innovative material treatment plants, or the development of local supply chains, require robust business cases. CQC data provides the essential evidence base. By comparing the carbon efficiency of current operations against high-performing peers, councils can accurately quantify the expected carbon reduction and financial return (through energy/fuel savings) of a proposed capital investment, significantly strengthening their case for funding.
Shared Learning and Innovation
Perhaps the most critical strategic use of the Network is shared learning. The CQC model facilitates direct, confidential comparison, allowing members to see exactly which operational practices yield the lowest carbon and cost profiles. This collaboration rapidly disseminates best practices, reducing the learning curve for all members and fostering sector-wide innovation. Instead of reinventing the wheel, authorities can confidently adopt proven, benchmarked solutions from their peers. This helps in ‘Greening the Black’ for a more sustainable, low carbon future road maintenance.
Conclusion and Next Steps
The age of trading environmental responsibility for financial caution is over. The reality, clearly demonstrated through the NHT Network’s CQC data, is that low carbon maintenance strategies are the most cost efficient in the long term. CQC goes further to identify that it is the unclassified roads, the roads most people live on, that when invested in and maintained fully will drive carbon from local roads at the fastest and greatest rate. And it is these roads that are currently driving the very very low public satisfaction.
So for any council the best place to start to achieve long term sustainable cost and carbon savings and drive up the satisfaction of its residents and road users it is the unclassified road network that should be targeted. The CQC Efficiency Network is a powerful, data-driven tool for achieving operational efficiency and significant cost management.
By using normalised data to highlight the correlation between high-carbon processes and high-cost inefficiency, local authorities gain the power to make evidence-based decisions on procurement, investment, and operational practices.
Take the Next Step:
For local authorities not currently subscribed, now is the time to explore joining the CQC Efficiency Network to gain immediate access to these critical benchmarks. Existing members are encouraged to dive deep into their latest reports and focus specifically on those areas where high carbon efficiency is already translating into lower costs for peer councils. Let’s collaborate to make sustainable, cost-effective highways the national standard.
