Sustainable development on site
Fellow PETs, rather then clog up the Watsapp I thought I would bring a query here…
Whilst writing AER 3 I have noticed that I have still some way to go to get ‘Ability’ within ICE attribute 7 – Sustainable Development and I was wondering what methods other sites have. On site at Southbank Place there are a few schemes that they have used to try and tick the sustainability box; they have employed operatives from the surrounding area, use sustainably sourced aggregate for the concrete (according to London Concrete anyway!), used precast elements in the design and not worked past 1800 so that there is limited noise pollution. To me, there does not appear to be a massive emphasis on being sustainable; it is just a box to be ticked. I went to Laing O’Rourke’s in house lecture (delivered by the project leader on site) on how they are improving sustainability across the business. The project leader managed to cram the hour long presentation into 10 minutes and left me with the feeling that sustainability was viewed more as a hindrance than anything else.
Has anyone had similar experiences? What sustainable development initiatives have you had on your site?
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Fred, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Come the 23rd of Jan when Trump hits the White House climate change will finally be exposed as the Chinese propagated lie that it is – sustainability and environmental issues will be over.
But to actually answer your question, I am unaware of any sustainability initiatives either in the design or the construction of my project. I have used my TMRs as an opportunity to show my “personal commitment to sustainability” by writing about how elements of the services design could have been improved with a little more thought and a few extra dollars.
“Interesting” sustainability fact…5 May 2016 was for first day since 1881 that Britain burnt no coal for electricity production.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/half-electricity-low-carbon-first-time-report-drax-climate-change-environment-a7414936.html :
James, unfortunately I fear you may be right with regards to President Trump….the world will just sweep the issue under the carpet for the next 4 years!
It’s interesting that you mention there are no initiatives on your site, does the Australian construction industry have to subscribe to any climate change legislation (like the UK’s 2008 Climate Change Act)?
Fred I’d be really surprised if the asset that you are building is not being assessed using something like the BREEAM measure. If you want to be Trumpish about it, an asset has a greater bottom line value if it has higher sustainability credentials
The metric heads in BREEAM are:
• Management
• Health and Wellbeing
• Energy
• Transport
• Water
• Materials
• Waste
• Land Use and Ecology and
• Pollution
The asset gains BREEAM points against these measurement heads – I’ll leave you to determine how that can be achieved….but it is being measured.
Fred,
Ditto on the last minute sustainability cramming (although I’m expecting this to feature quite heavily in Ph 3).
The environmental guys have given me the Tideway Sustainability Statement (which is actually not that bad a read) and a RIBA Publication called 101 rules for sustainable buildings and cities (I’d recommend this for you Fred as it has cartoons so you don’t have to struggle with the long words). They’re too big to post but just send me an email if anyone wants a copy and i’ll share on dropbox.
Tony, stick it in the dropbox. Thanks.
Fred
On BPS Phase 3 we are attempting to achieve BREEAM status but the implementation does feel a little lastminute.com.
In the grand sustainability scheme, a considerable bonus for Battersea is that we are taking an old industrial area and turning it into a des res…
Another point of note which may be worth looking at for your site are the planning considerations. These are the obligatory requirements (Sect 61) set out by Local Authorities but plenty of the specific clauses have sustainable items included. (Noise, dust, NRMM emissions etc)
On the BREEAM side of things for my site, there is no rating and this will be the case until construction starts on the superstructure for the first two above ground buildings. The demolition and the podium deck (included in the enabling works) are not rated.
The site is however a member of the considerate constructors scheme, https://www.ccscheme.org.uk/, which looks at a whole raft of local engagement and operating hours etc. This is maintained by a Stakeholder Liaison Manager who had the responsibility of keeping all the surround businesses (hotels, bars, offices, university, museum and council offices) happy – working hours, dust, damage etc (Very cushy job, lots of schmoozing). the SLM was also responsible for media engagement and anything else along these lines.
Carillion focuses quite heavily on work placements for Homeless and ex-offenders and will routinely pay for their transport and food during the working week. This puts an extra administration burden on the construction manager but seems to work. At least one ex-offender was offered paid work at the end of his sentence after completing a work placement – he was the best gate man we had, better than guys that had been on site for months. There were two people running work placements and school visits etc (I forget the job title but will find it out). This all looked good on paper but in practice there would often be a new placement turn up that no one would know about apart from the two people who organised it (but they never went on site and the placement invariably got placed with myself or another engineer or manager).
Australia uses the Green Star rating over here: ‘Green Star is Australia’s trusted mark of quality for the design, construction and operation of sustainable buildings, fitouts and communities.’ We are not aiming to achieve any green star accreditation through this project. We do the bare minimum to abide by regulations, limitations, planning constraints and nothing more. Multiplex is on a Design and Construct. They are not interested in the whole life costs of a building as there is nothing within the Clients requirements to do so. The cheaper they can build the building, the more pennies of profit to be made.
That is echoed in Brisbane on Casino Towers but, it seems that government contracts are different. The 1 William Street Job (Qld Govt) had to be green star accreditted and the paperwork was enormous. Items had to be materials had to be tracked to ensure items were sustainable. It didn’t stop them ending up with asbestos on site though.
We are currently working on a bid for Queens Wharf development in Brisbbane. It is on Crown Land and therefore attracting the same attention. There is a need to promote social sustainability with a commitment of 5-10% of the workforce having to be apprentices. This needs to be back-back in the contracts to the sub-contracts as well. More to follow I expect.