Sustainability and tunnelling – Vision underground

As global demands for infrastructure intensify, underground construction continues to play a pivotal role in enabling urban development and mitigating surface-level constraints.Yet, as tunnelling projects expand in scope and complexity, the imperative to integrate sustainability becomes more pronounced.This issue of Geomechanics and Tunnelling is dedicated to exploring innovative approaches, challenges, and opportunities in achieving sustainable underground construction.Tunnelling operations, from excavation to long-term operation, are resource-intensive, with significant implications for carbon emissions and material use.Elisabeth Hauzinger et al. highlight the untapped potential of recycling excavation materials onsite, presenting life cycle assessments that reveal how optimizing equipment use and transport can dramatically reduce carbon footprints.Similarly, Markus Auinger et al. underscore the growing regulatory focus, such as the EU Taxonomy Regulation and Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), emphasizing their implications for the entire lifecycle of tunnel projects -from design to maintenance.