The unavoidable use of natural resources, energy and land within construction makes it vital that we minimise these impacts through smart design and good site management. The case studies below show the steps Balfour Beatty Construction is taking as a sustainable contractor.

• Sustainable Timber
• Sunderland Aquatic Centre
• Beyond Waste Management
• Carbon Recognition with the C-Change Trust

Sustainable Timber (return to top)

Balfour Beatty Constructions Barkentine NHS Primary Care Centre project in East London has become one of the first to achieved ‘Full Project’ Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) Certification.This means that certified sustainable and legal timber was supplied and installed not only to every finished building element, but also to the site establishment and temporary works in accordance with the FSC Full Project certification scheme.

Full project certification was received in 2007 and issued by the certification body BM TRADA. The pilot has also enabled Balfour Beatty to develop a robust timber tracking mechanism which is currently being rolled out across the business. This tracker will enable the move from the already impressive 77% certified sustainable timber for direct purchases, to the goal of 100% across our whole supply chain.

Sunderland Aquatic Centre (return to top)

Balfour Beatty has constructed the greenest 50m pool in the UK – Sunderland Aquatic Centre. Most of rain that falls on the building is harvested, filtered and used back in the pool itself, we believe this is the first pool in the UK to do this. We believe it is the only 50m pool in England and Wales to achieve the highest possible BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) rating of ‘Excellent’. The huge timber beams are all sourced from a sustainably managed forest in Austria.

Finally to minimise energy wastage the pool has a super insulated external fabric and a combined heat and power unit. The technology adopted on this project is anticipated to be taken forward into future projects

Beyond Waste Management (return to top)

Balfour Beatty’s contract at 40 Holborn is a city centre site bound by roads on all sides with little space outside the building footprint and as a result consideration has had to be given to the environmental impact of all activities and practicable actions taken to minimize any local nuisance or any affect on the wider environment and community. Examples of best practice within the scheme include; the recycling of demolition materials on site using a mobile crusher resulting in greatly reduced lorry movements and subsequent CO2 emissions and reduced congestion of city roads; the accurate measurement and recording of waste and recycling materials on site which will result in the production of less waste and more recycling; the minimization of plasterboard waste through recycling and also the use of FSC certified timber

Carbon Recognition with the C-Change Trust (return to top)

In recognition of the carbon emitted by business flights taken by employees, Balfour Beatty Construction is committed to donating an ‘offset’ to our chosen partner, the C-Change Trust.

The C-Change Trust is a charitable organisation who has four core aims
• Reduction of the carbon footprint of the companies they work with
• Investment in education through their "Carbon Busters" scheme
• Investment in the UK’s green spaces
• Investment in renewable energy within the UK

Our partnership with the C-Change Trust is part of our drive to measure and thus reduce our carbon emissions.

In some parts of the business our initial target is to reduce the need to fly by increasing the use of video or telephone conferencing wherever possible and during 2007 the ratio of flights to video conferencing was 12 to 1; our target for 2008 is 10 to 1. Each of us who flies needs to consider the use of video or telephone conferencing as a first option as this will not only help reduce our carbon emissions, but it will also release time spent travelling and save on the cost of the flight.