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Business Minister Shriti Vadera launched the joint industry-Government Strategy for Sustainable Construction which sets out challenging but achievable targets to be delivered by industry. These include commitments to: Recruit 230,000 additional trained construction workers by 2010; Cut the number of work-related deaths by 10 per cent year on year; Supply an extra 13,500 apprenticeship placements by 2010; Achieve a 50 per cent reduction in the amount of construction, demolition and excavation waste to landfill; Ensure 25 per cent of materials used in construction projects are responsibly sourced by 2012; Ensure all construction projects over £1 million have biodiversity surveys carried out and instigate the necessary actions by 2012
Shriti Vadera said: “Our aim is to become a world leader in sustainable construction. An efficient construction sector is essential for the investment in infrastructure and buildings that underpin our competitiveness.
“With the current pressures such as the cost of fuel presenting an extra challenge for the industry, it is even more important that we encourage the sector to perform as efficiently and sustainably as possible. Improvements in these areas will save costs and increase profitability in the long-term.
“This strategy, which has uniquely been developed jointly by Government and business, will provide greater certainty over what is expected from the sector in future, from training and developing skills to tackling the challenges of climate change.”
Buildings are responsible for almost half of the country’s carbon emissions, produce around a third of landfill waste and account for a quarter of all raw materials used in the economy. It is therefore important that industry changes the way it designs and builds to reduce its environmental impact, and to enable the UK to meet its carbon reduction commitments. The Strategic Forum for Construction is today also publishing its ‘Construction Commitments’ to promote best practice across the industry, along with its latest four-year targets to ensure their delivery. These commitments support the Strategy for Sustainable Construction.
As part of this industry initiative, key government departments have today also signed up to the ‘Construction Commitments’, which include best practice on procurement such as collaborative working across the supply chain and whole life costing.
The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) welcomed the publication of the ‘Strategy for Sustainable Construction’, and commends the Government for working with industry to create a long-term vision for a more sustainable built environment.
The CIOB’s initial response on the draft strategy identified a number concerns with the draft version of the strategy, including: A lack of detail on how to address the problems associated with non-domestic buildings and existing building stock; a lack of clarity about organisational roles and responsibilities, and overall accountability for delivering the strategy; targets that were not challenging enough to deliver the desired outcomes.
Steven Wielebski a CIOB Ambassador said: “The strategy has addressed many of our concerns but still fails to acknowledge the potential of decarbonising the industry’s energy supply at source.
“50% of the UK’s CO2 emissions comes from energy produced from non-renewable sources and is consumed in building services. We would argue that addressing this problem at source should be a major priority for the UK Government and for the Strategy.
“The challenge now will be to clarify the UK construction industry’s role in delivering the sustainability objectives within a national and international context. The newly launched Construction Commitments initiative* will go someway to achieving this in encouraging the industry to exceed current best practice.”
The CIOB has pledged its commitment to the Construction Commitments, and looks forward to continuing to play its part in helping the government achieve the objectives set out in the Strategy for Sustainable Construction.
“Moreover the UK house building industry has recognised that there are a number of technical issues associated with the code for sustainable homes, and is in discussion with the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and the Department of Communities and Local Government) (CLG) on how these can be overcome. It is likely that this particular work will provide further benefits and guidance to the construction industry in general, as the pursuit of sustainable construction becomes more prominent.”
Responding to today’s publication of the Government’s Sustainable Construction Strategy, the UK Green Building Council has welcomed the document, but warned that it represented the tip of the iceberg in terms of effort needed.
Paul King, Chief Executive of the UK Green Building Council, said:
“This strategy should be welcomed. It has almost unprecedented buy-in from across government departments, which is good to see.
“It also sets a number of targets, for both government and the private sector and it’s encouraging to see some of the industry associations setting targets for their own members, backed up by a measurement and monitoring process.
“However, this can only be the first step. We need to see a ramping up of ambition, within government and across the industry if we’re to achieve the carbon reductions and responsible use of resources necessary to play our part in stopping run-away climate change.
“The built environment needs to be at the heart of our efforts to slash emissions - not by 60%, the government target which the strategy endorses, but by 80% by 2050. We also need to have a clearer vision about our sustainability goals. The strategy proposes 25% of our materials to be responsibly sourced by 2012 - but how long until we set out a pathway to 100%?.”
By Roland Ravenhill
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Airstream Business Communications Ltd