Jacobs Appointed Strategic Environmental & Technical Advisor to UK Ministry of Defence

Appointed as Strategic Environmental & Technical Advisor by the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence (MOD), Jacobs is supporting the Defence Estate Optimisation (DEO) portfolio, the MOD’s single biggest estates change program within defense.

DEO is investing £5.1 billion ($6.5B) in more modern and sustainable infrastructure with projects ranging from new homes for military personnel and their families through to bespoke technical and medical facilities and training infrastructure.

“This is a significant opportunity to leverage collective intelligences, programmatic thinking and alternative solutions to optimize outcomes from the change program,” says Jacobs Head of Sector - Cities & Places Europe, Alex Lane. “We look forward to combining our global experience with national security and defense infrastructure with our expertise across sustainable, non-military health infrastructure, buildings and cities solutions to help maximize better outcomes for military personnel, community benefits and sustainability.”

Defence Infrastructure Organisation Head of Estates Catherine Davies says: “Working with industry experts helps us to ensure we are finding the right future use for sites which are surplus to military requirements, considering local needs and generating value for the taxpayer. These appointments offer a great opportunity to embrace social value, to create diverse teams working on MOD sites and to positively impact local communities.”

As well as delivering new and refurbished accommodation for over 40,000 military personnel and their families, DEO will create new and refurbished training and office space for over 64,000 MOD personnel, and 101 specialist medical facilities and vehicle workshops tailored to military needs. 

DEO is on target to release enough surplus MOD land for over 32,000 new homes to be built across the country, as well as a range of community enhancing construction projects including schools, offices, shops, parks and open green spaces.

One of three Strategic Environmental & Technical Advisors appointed, our role is to deliver environmental and sustainable development support for scheme design activities across 13 disposal sites in England and Scotland. Services include planning appraisals, concept master planning, site environmental and technical surveys, stakeholder engagement, obtaining necessary approvals and other support.

Jacobs partners with armed forces and government agencies on national security infrastructure and resiliency – allowing those who protect and defend our communities to focus on making the lives better for those they serve. Working across land, air, maritime and space, we provide full life-cycle services supporting national security infrastructure and operations. Whether it’s energy, water, transportation, civil or other critical infrastructure, we reduce carbon emissions and environmental impacts, improve operational efficiency and more.