Contractor to increase use of recycled materials

Adrian Ringrose

Contractor Interserve is pledged to halve its carbon emissions by 2020 as part of a wide ranging plan to make the business more sustainable.

The firm鈥檚 SustainAbilities plan commits the firm to achieve a 30% reduction in carbon emissions over the next three years as an interim target on the way to a 50% reduction in 2020.

The firm has also pledged to have 75% of materials traceable to their source by 2018 and cut water usage by 20% by 2016.

Tim Haywood, Interserve鈥檚 group finance director and head of sustainability, said the plan was 鈥渃ritical of the future of our business鈥�.

He said: 鈥淭he plan announced today puts sustainability at the forefront of our decision-making. It will define how we work, the decisions that we take as a business and create a new culture among our employees and management.鈥�

Adrian Ringrose, chief executive of Interserve, said the plan 鈥渟et new standard鈥� for the industry.

He said: 鈥淚nvesting in the community, energy and resource efficiency, transparency, innovation, nurturing and motivating employees, and transferring skills and knowledge are integral to our ability to create value.鈥�

The firm said it would collect data on all its target areas throughout 2013 to act as a baseline against which it would measure itself to establish if it was hitting its targets.

Interserve鈥檚 SustainAbilities commitments

By 2014

  • Introduce local employment targets when beneficial to the community
  • Use only sustainable forest products
  • Increase re-use of construction waste by 15%

By 2016

  • 50% of forest products will be certified sustainable
  • 20% cut in use of water
  • Reduce emissions from business travel by 30%
  • Reduce emissions from energy use at construction sites by 30%
  • Reduce construction waste by 25%
  • Reduce office waste by 50%
  • Reduce indirect energy impacts by 15%

By 2018

  • Reduce voluntary employee turnover by 10%
  • Double the number of apprenticeships, traineeships and graduate training opportunities
  • Develop three partnerships dedicated to innovation in sustainability
  • Achieve 75% traceability of construction materials
  • Increase recycled content in materials by 50%
  • Be underway with at least ten co-designed energy security projects

By 2020

  • Invest 3% of pre-tax profits into local communities
  • Introduce 鈥榳ellbeing鈥� Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) into contracts
  • Halve our absolute carbon emissions
  • Introduce closed-loop systems along the value chain

 

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