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Topics such as the environment and recycling can provoke strong views, but whether you believe that the way we live is threatening our planet, or current news items about global warming and pollution are just scare stories it certainly seems to be true that they are issues that are not going to go away.
There can’t be a politician who hasn’t added the phrase ‘carbon footprint’ to their vocabulary, which is a clear indication of how legislation is going to increasingly focus on such things as sustainability and waste. One area where this is likely to have a significant effect is the construction sector.
The UK construction industry consumes more than 400 million tonnes of materials each year and generates over 100 million tonnes of waste. Around 30 million tonnes each year ends up as construction waste going straight to landfill.
Ian Coull, Chair of the Sustainability Forum, commenting on recent initiative said: “In order for the industry to improve its sustainability, we must set targets and goals for reducing waste and improving the use of resources. This goal to halve waste by 2012 is an excellent place to start, and it’s now up to the entire industry supply chain to take action, not only for the environment, but also to deliver cost and efficiency savings.”
The Sustainability Forum is an advisory group of the Strategic Forum for Construction.
The principal role of the Strategic Forum for Construction is to coordinate, monitor, measure and report on progress on headline target recommendations made in Accelerating Change under the headline targets. The Forum comprises of six members: Construction Industry Council, Construction Clients Group, Construction Confederation, the Construction Products Association, NSCC/SEC Group and the TUC.
The Sustainability Forum is taking forward the programme of work begun by the Sustainable Construction Task Group which advises the DTI and delivers guidance to the industry through Constructing Excellence
Another name that is likely to become increasingly familiar is WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme). This organisation works in partnership to encourage and enable businesses and consumers to be more efficient in their use of materials and recycle more things more often. This helps to minimise landfill, reduce carbon emissions and improve our environment.
Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by Government funding from Defra and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Defra’s BREW (Business Resource Efficiency and Waste) programme includes a focus on construction. WRAP is working with other BREW partners, BRE/MTP, Carbon Trust, DTI technology programme, Envirowise, the Environment Agency, NISP and the Regional Development Agencies, to deliver increased resource efficiency in construction.
Getting Things Done
WRAP is helping a range of organisations in the public and private sector to make more efficient use of materials and reduce waste on construction projects. Many are in the process of setting minimum requirements for recycled content as one element of sustainable procurement practice. As a result, the supply chain is increasingly motivated to measure and improve performance on waste management and use of recovered material. This will drive down the amount of waste sent to landfill and make recycling more economic.
Just last month, the Scottish Executive announced that it has asked all public bodies in Scotland to include minimum requirements for recycled content in tender specifications for construction procurement. The recommended target is for at least 10 per cent of the total value of materials used on projects over £1 million to be derived from recycled and re-used content.
Also, Yorkshire Forward has become the first Regional Development Agency in England to set such a requirement in the projects it funds. A minimum requirement of 10 per cent came into effect from 1st December.
Other organisations have also taken action. For example, Glasgow City Council, the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), KPMG, British Land, Welsh Heath Estates and the Northern Ireland Central Procurement Directorate are all setting minimum requirements of 10 to 20 per cent. As a result, more recycled materials are being used in the construction industry, thereby alleviating demand for the extraction of natural resources and, more importantly, reducing the amount of waste ending up at landfill.
WRAP can help both clients and contractors look at how they can increase materials efficiency in a number of ways. The organisation provides free advice, guidance, training and tools to implement changes. For example, WRAP’s web-based Recycled Content Toolkit helps design teams and contractors quantify the top five to 10 opportunities for increasing the overall recycled content within a building. Guidance and model wording are available to help construction clients set targets within their procurement policies and processes.
Tomorrow’s World
But the projects outlined above are just a small measure of the way things are developing. Recently the Sustainability Forum, together with WRAP called on the construction industry to achieve a 50% cut in materials waste going to landfill by the year 2012.
Responding to the Strategic Forum for Construction’s decision to focus on waste reduction as a key component of sustainability, the two organisations believe this is a measurable and achievable industry-wide target for reducing material waste in construction. The Forum and WRAP are working jointly on how best to help the industry to achieve this target.
By adopting best practices in waste management and minimisation, including the target to halve waste, the Sustainability Forum believes major construction projects like the 2012 Olympics and the Thames Gateway regeneration can act as models for the industry. In the Thames Gateway, for example, waste reduction on planned new housing alone could amount to one million tonnes, representing savings in materials and landfill costs of more than £600 million .
A number of influential client and industry organisations are already leading the way, including the Olympic Delivery Authority and the Major Contractors Group who have committed to setting minimum requirements on waste and recycling. The Planning Policies for Sustainable Building guidance document recently published by the Local Government Association and Planning Officers’ Society also sets a clear direction on waste and recycling.
“This is not a ‘challenge’ to the industry, but a real opportunity for long-term environmental responsibility from the sector, which is one of the UK’s biggest generators of waste. We already have evidence demonstrating the significant benefits to be gained and we can help put it into practice,” said WRAP’s Head of Construction, Dr Mike Watson. “If this can be translated into action throughout the supply chain, halving construction waste by 2012 is a real possibility.”
More information on all of WRAP’s programmes can be found at www.wrap.org.uk
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