ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

To be an honest and ethical business is important to us, as is the need to strive for continuous improvement in how we do things.  Driving out wasteful costs wherever possible not only allows us to be more competitive, it also fits within our objectives to be a more efficient business and a better supplier for our clients. 

From our Workington based office, to being on-site, we closely monitor our consumption of electricity, gas, vehicle fuel and materials – with the aim being to minimise our environmental impact, unnecessary spend and to be more cost effective and efficient for our client.

We began to monitor costs and savings, including direct waste (skips) and indirect waste (tipper wagons) as part of our environmental policy implemented in 2010. 

We continually reinforce our commitment, with our employees, towards reducing waste outputs both as a business and as individuals.

At our Workington office:

• Harvested rainwater is used in cisterns and for outdoor taps, and water displacement devices are fitted to wc cisterns.
• Electricity and gas consumption is minimised as outlined fully in our environmental policy document.  
• All lighting is low energy.
• Diesel and petrol is minimised by the sensible scheduling of journeys between projects, using crew buses when appropriate.

On site:

• Efficiency is always a key priority to ensure that the construction programme and any subsequent loss of revenue is minimised.

Careful consideration is given at the earliest stage of a new project and at every stage that we are involved, wherever possible, with the following:

Materials

• Assist the architectural team to design out waste, for example, set ceiling heights to match plasterboard/sheet material lengths.
• Re-use materials where possible, for example, de-nailed carcassing timber for partition walls or crushed stone for hardcore.
• Refurbish and re-use where possible fixtures and fittings such as furniture and light fittings.
• Purchase where possible locally sourced materials.

Direct and indirect waste

• Segregate waste by setting up separate fenced off compounds (where space is available) for waste categories, to increase its re-use potential or more effective disposal.
• Encourage re-cycling of waste where possible.  For example, for a recent client we were able to:
  
  
  • Offer clean timber free to local residents as fuel for their homes.  (As the project coincided with some bitterly cold temperatures and heavy snowfall, this was particularly appreciated.)
  • Supply and deliver clean and free inert rubble and stone knocked out of walls to local farms.  (Farmers use these materials for hard standing areas and to prevent muddy field entrances, etc).
     
• Reduce the use of materials with excessive packaging.
• Store materials carefully to avoid incidents that could be harmful for the environment.
• Avoid unnecessary stripping out works.
• Consider other options in lieu of landfill (such as to store and donate or sell re-usable materials).

We believe that by following the principles of good environmental practice our tonnage of waste has been almost halved since implementing these measures.

We have been able to reduce our carbon footprint, consequently we have also become more efficient in how we work and our clients pay less for waste disposal.