Environment
| Setting sights on greener construction |
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| Written by Mike Watson, 2007 | |
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Increasingly, private and public sector organisations are seeing the commercial and social benefits of reducing the environmental impact of new build and refurbishment projects. Mike Watson looks at how facilities managers can make a difference throughout the construction process by looking more closely at materials resource efficiency. What options are available for building products with higher recycled content?How do site waste management plans assist with materials resource efficiency? The construction industry is the UK's biggest generator of waste, contributing more than 100 million tonnes each year. At the same time, the sector is one of the largest consumers of materials, annually accounting for over 400 million tonnes. The sector continues to be one of the UK's major industries, contributing around 10 per cent of GDP. Major clients, developers and contractors are increasingly looking to enhance their environmental credentials with simple changes to existing practice; and there are three main areas where construction can deliver important environmental improvements - the efficient use of energy, materials and water. Materials use is the one area where significant changes can be achieved without incurring upfront capital costs. Tendering and designIt is becoming common practice, especially among clients, policy-makers and planning authorities, to require contractors to use a minimum level of recycled materials within a project. In Scotland, the Scottish Executive has requested that all its public bodies ask for a minimum of 10 per cent recycled content by value, when procuring major capital projects. As another example, the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is one of the UK's largest public sector construction clients and has set a minimum requirement in prison buildings of 20 per cent of project materials costs to be recycled content. Requirements such as these are also found in PFI projects such as schools and hospitals. To be best placed to meet objectives like this, facilities managers need to be aware of the opportunities to make product substitutions for those options with higher recycled content. There is a wide variety of mainstream products available with different levels of recycled content; for example, cost-competitive concrete blocks are available with anything from 0-70 per cent or more recycled content. Similar variability is found in a range of other products such as insulation, board products, bricks, tiles and, of course, aggregates. Such products are already commonly used; they can be relied upon to meet all relevant quality standards and can be used without concern about cost, risk or performance. To help contractors source products with higher recycled content, the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) provides access to an online recycled product guide. This includes more than 150 products across 35 categories and sets out the recycled materials used in the products, life expectancy and the percentage of recycled content. This is an invaluable tool for specifiers, and is updated throughout the year. WRAP has also developed a Recycled Content Toolkit (http://rctoolkit.wrap.org.uk) that allows facilities managers to find out the projected recycled content of a building and also identify the top 5-10 Quick Win substitutions that will make the biggest contribution to increasing the recycled content. This tool can be utilised throughout a project - at an early stage to estimate the likely level of recycled content in an outline design/specification and later to demonstrate how a project achieves a specific level of recycled content. Applying the principlesGlasgow City Council had long been looking at ways in which it could improve sustainability across all its departments. After consultation with WRAP to review case studies of a range of other construction projects, and analysis on one of its own projects, the Council decided to set an initial minimum requirement of 10 per cent for the inclusion of recycled content in building works across its nine departments. Since the requirement was set in December 2005, it has been included in the contracts for 20 new primary schools. As part of the Council's drive towards improving its sustainability, the demolition team has also got on board and is embracing the concept of recovering, recycling and then storing materials onsite so they can be used in the new build. In one group of schools, 18,000 tonnes of material were recovered and reused over three school sites, leading to a saving of £150,000 - simply by integrating the Council's commitment to achieving a minimum 10 per cent recycled material content by value with the methods recommended in the Institution of Civil Engineers Demolition Protocol. Minimising and managing waste on siteLooking at how waste is managed on a project can help save facilities managers money. By reducing the amount of waste being disposed of at landfill, savings can be made on landfill taxes and disposal costs. Waste costs are much higher than we think. Current estimations are that waste accounts for 1 per cent of a project's costs; however, that is purely the cost of disposal. When material production, purchase, transport, skip hire, labour and landfill costs are all taken into consideration, the total loss of value through wastage is typically more than 15 times the cost of the skip hire. Site waste managementSite Waste Management Plans (SWMPs) are likely to become a mandatory requirement for construction projects in 2008. They provide contractors with a framework for demonstrating their existing Duty of Care requirements for waste management and, additionally, provide the potential to ensure good practice in waste reduction, materials recovery and recycling, leading to cost savings and improved materials resource efficiency. SWMPs bring together a variety of areas where waste can be minimised before it reaches the project on the ground. For example, looking to design out waste at a project's initial stages, choosing less packaging materials and utilising modern methods of construction and off-site manufacture could all help reduce the levels of waste generated during a project's life. In principle, a SWMP should aim to:
One key element of a SWMP is the segregation of waste. This is also one area where facilities managers can make cost savings, as it can be cheaper to dispose of a single waste material than a skip of mixed waste. One method is to use three containers - one for hazardous waste, one for a specific material generated during the current build phase, e.g. plasterboard, and one for mixed waste. Space is often at a premium on refurbishment projects, but this principle can easily be adapted for different waste container sizes, including wheelie bins and 'big bags'. EducationHaving commitments in place for procurement, reuse and recycling is a positive step, but managers must also educate the onsite workforce to make sure these commitments are implemented. Waste segregation and recycling cannot be maximised if all workers are not on board with processes to achieve them. Contamination is a concern to recyclers, and reducing contamination of segregated materials is one example where education can make a real difference to the quality of material sent for recycling, and hence the cost charged to the contractor or client. Take actionThere is much that facilities managers can do to really make a difference to the environmental impact of a build. By looking closely at all areas of the construction process with sustainability in mind, significant progress can be achieved in reducing demand for material resources and creating strong markets for recycled materials, as well as demonstrating the green credentials of the build, the contractor and the client. About the authorMike Watson is Head of Construction at WRAP, the Waste & Resources Action Programme. Please visit www.wrap.org.uk/ |
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