Sustainability aims act as a wake-up call for construction

Aug 29 2008 Agenda

A tightening market and greater dependence on the public sector means that the construction industry ignores sustainability issues at its peril says Rob Atkinson

The Government’s recently published Strategy on Sustainable Construction is a sharp wake-up call for our industry about the sheer pace of change that is already with us, and it will only accelerate over the next decade.

For those companies which believe they can delay thinking about sustainable issues, I would advise them to think again. Although the strategy is not yet binding upon us, it will influence every public sector procurement project in the land, and that means we will need to meet their expectations not in ten years’ time, but now.

The public sector is responsible for an increasing percentage of construction and with the industrial and commercial new-build market tightening, this work will be a lifeline for many.

At Rok we have long anticipated this change and already 50 per cent of our turnover comes from the public sector, with £1.9 billion of long term partnership contracts in place, particularly with affordable housing and education customers.

The challenge for our industry in delivering the Government’s sustainable construction agenda is to rediscover the traditional contractor-client relationship.

A combination of the last recession when our industry shed a third of its workforce, vertical barriers between trades and a rush in the late 80s and 1990s towards a sub-contractor culture has fragmented our industry to the point that the relationship with the customer is no longer collectively owned.

And unless our industry can recapture that collective approach to adding value, there is no way we will be able to deliver on a sustainable agenda that starts with the procurement process and continues through the life of a project.

That’s why at Rok we have moved to a sustainable business model of direct employment with locally-based teams living and working in the communities that they serve, who work closely with customers to help them meet current and future standards on sustainability.

And with so much emphasis being placed on resource consumption, including energy and water through the Code for Sustainable Homes, our plan to grow a network of trained heating, plumbing and electrical contractors in every Rok office in the country will go a long way towards supporting our customers’ sustainability objectives.

As an industry we also have to look at our own operations. At Rok we have committed ourselves to a year-on-year 10 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

Video conferencing has been introduced across much of the business and we expect this to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by 74 tonnes a year as people have less reason to travel. We are one of only three companies in the country to trial a new diesel/electric hybrid van that could slash the emissions and costs by around 20 per cent. If the trial is successful we will look at extending this technology to other vehicles in our 1,500-strong fleet.

Last year our data, where we had it, showed we diverted 74 per cent of our non-hazardous construction waste away from landfill either by recycling or minimising waste in the first place. We need to compile data from all our operations and step up our efforts to reduce waste. We have also pioneered an innovative delivery system which means the kitchens we install in thousands of properties arrive at our depot with virtually no packaging.

Working with our supply chain, we are ensuring that where possible we source our materials sustainably. For example in the West Midlands, a Rok company was involved with an innovative sustainability project when it built the Wolseley Sustainability Building Centre in Leamington Spa.

The showroom covers everything from substructure to lighting, heat pumps, floor coverings, ventilation and renewable energy sources. Not only does it demonstrate sustainable alternatives for every stage of a project that are better for the environment, but it was made using them.

There are clear steps being taken along the road to creating a sustainable construction industry and although we have not gone as far as the Government perhaps wants us to go, it is clear that within the next decade we will have no choice.

* Rob Atkinson is regional leader for Rok’s operations in the Midlands.