Sustainable Construction
We support our customers to help them meet the challenge of creating a more sustainable built environment.
We do this by encouraging early supplier engagement in projects so that we can help customers and clients develop and select the best products, services and solutions for their project. Our development of new solutions and provision of sustainable construction information allows them to create more efficient buildings and infrastructure, and by doing this we also help to deliver our own targets on sustainability across our value chain.
Whole life and carbon
The carbon debate is often focused on capital or embodied carbon measurements that incorporate carbon emitted during materials production and construction. This overlooks the bigger picture. Crucially, embodied carbon measurements fail to consider performance over an asset's lifecycle, risking sub-optimal design and specification, as well as higher running or maintenance costs.
To meet the government's construction sector deal target of 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, working together with our Clients and Customers to adopt a whole-life approach to carbon is vital.
Put simply, whole-life analysis measures anticipated carbon impacts over the lifetime of an asset. This includes extraction of raw materials, product miles and construction, through to maintenance, repair, reuse and recyclability following demolition. Both RIBA & RICS acknowledged the importance of whole-life specification, issuing guidance for members that became mandatory in 2018.
We’re working continuously to enable sustainable construction through the new solutions including technology and product development. Collaboration and early engagement are key to this.
Our approach to construction encompasses innovative sustainable products, efficient building systems and practical solutions. We recognise the important role we have in promoting sustainable construction by optimising our products, their use and whole life performance. We make an important contribution to a better built environment through the provision of systems, solutions and guidance for the materials we provide. Sustainable construction considers issues such as building design, the responsible sourcing of materials, material technology and performance benefits, processes and methods of construction, energy and resource efficiency, Building Information Modelling (BIM) and the long-term operation and maintenance of the built environment. By providing sustainable construction materials, systems, solutions and guidance to optimise the use and whole life performance of our products we can support our customers in delivering a positive contribution to a sustainable built environment.
Sustainable construction
To help our customers understand our solutions and their attributes throughout the whole life cycle of their use we classify them within four categories.
