Sustainability Report 2011 - Balfour Beatty Rail

Profitable markets
Influencing for sustainability
Promoting our sustainability successes
We enhanced our media engagement effort and promotional
activities to share the benefits of more sustainable infrastructure.
Positive mentions in the media of our sustainability activities
increased threefold over the year to 784 in 2011 (2010: 224).
For example:
• interviews of senior management in publications such as
Construction News, CEO Magazine, Excellence in Leadership
and Guardian Sustainable Business
• presentations on sustainable construction for the ICE, ecology
for CIRIA, scope 3 carbon at the Carbon Show in the UK and
on Carbon Capture and Storage at the PowerGen Asia
conference in Malaysia
• features and published case studies such as the Public
Sector Journal
• external speaking events such as Mike Peasland sharing his
views on leadership models and sustainability.
“Balfour Beatty’s contributions during
2011 have been invaluable, whether this
be the funding of our STEP leadership
programme, supporting our campaign
on Display Energy Certificates or sharing
their expertise in our Olympic learning
legacy programme.”
Paul King, Chief Executive if the UK-Green Building Council.
36
Innovation cuts
time and cost
The issue: Nexus, a passenger transport executive based
in the north east of England, needed to retain ballast on a
700 metre stretch of railway embankment on its Metro
network – and quickly.
Our response: Balfour Beatty designed and developed a
solution that reduced the time of the project by 25% and
also cut the cost by 40%.
How we did it: We offered nine alternatives to the original
design, one involving a ballast retention system from
Switzerland known as Rugeli. Steve Marshall, Contracts
Manager, commented: “Our solution was both simple and
sustainable, as recycled steel track is used. We needed
considerable determination to implement however, as Nexus
was unfamiliar with the system and asked us to take full
responsibility for the design.”
The outcome: Nexus was delighted with the result and
intends to use the Rugeli system on a 1.2 kilometre stretch
of track in 2012.
Innovation
Innovation is a key ingredient in our 2020 vision. In assessing our
operating companies progress against the minimum expectations
in the roadmap in 2010, two areas in particular were identified
as particularly challenging – climate change adaptation and
understanding indirect water impacts (water footprinting).
During 2011, we commissioned two projects to develop tools
that our operating companies could use in both these areas.
Parsons Brinckerhoff developed a suite of water footprinting tools
for Balfour Beatty, which we believe to be a first in the construction
sector. These tools estimate the amount of water and quantify the
environmental stress of this consumption associated with our
premises and used in the manufacture of the materials used on our
construction projects. These tools were piloted on our Terminal 2B
project at Heathrow (see our Meeting our customers’ needs
section) and training in their use was delivered to our sustainability
teams around the world. You can find out more about our climate
change adaptation framework here (see our Energy, carbon and
climate change section).
Further examples of innovation include:
• Use of modular pump houses by our utilities business
• Closed loop process for waste plastic into cable protection
covers (see our Waste section)
• Use of 99% recycled content materials for “patch” repairs
on roads in the UK on our local authority contracts
• More durable concrete sea defences (which avoid the use
of structural steel (see our Materials section)
• Development and use of local spend calculator by Mansell
to measure its impact on local economies
• Measurement of whole-life carbon for a commercial
development (see our Energy, carbon and climate change
section)
We believe that our eco-lootion site accommodation cabin is
already the most sustainable on the market with its innovative
battery pack design, waterless urinals, integral rainwater harvesting
and effluent incinerator unit reducing CO 2 emissions by up to 80%.
It was also the first cabin to achieve an A rated Energy
Performance Certificate. Its development continues in partnership
with the University of Strathclyde, the Building Research
Establishment and Arup to create the next generation of low
carbon, sustainable cabins.
Awards
Tabitha Crawford, Sustainability and Innovation Officer,
Balfour Beatty Capital Group based in Nashville, USA was
named “Southeast green innovator of the year” in 2011.
Our plans for 2012
We will continue to respond to opportunities to influence
the sustainability agenda in the UK and beyond, including:
• participating in DEFRA’s biodiversity offset pilot programme
in the UK
• contributing to the revision process of the international
standard for environmental management systems ISO 14001
• deliver a thought leadership series of seminars at Ecobuild,
the UK’s largest construction related exhibition (including
Building Information Modelling, low carbon refurbishment,
lifecycle carbon tools, water footprinting and policy
development for green infrastructure)
• continue our work on greening the industry with the Strategic
Forum for Construction and The Green Construction Board
in the UK
• continue to broaden our influencing effort in North America.
Balfour Beatty Sustainability Report 2011