entries found
First Electric Powered JCB Mini Excavator
Kier Construction has tested the first electric powered JCB mini excavator whilst on their Chertsey High School site. They agreed to use the mini excavator within the ground floor of a new building so it could be trialled within a confined space. The mini excavator is powered entirely by electricity, meaning it produces zero emissions and significantly less sound than...
Re-Use of Material following the CL:AIRE Code of Practice
Excavation works form a large portion of civil engineering projects worldwide. The most common practice is to dispose of the material excavated and to purchase virgin material for backfill purposes. Ferrovial Agroman is leading the way in sustainable construction on our Heathrow site in line with the airport’s sustainability strategy “Heathrow 2.0”. With a total of 354,000m3 of material required...
Telematics
The UK Government is required to achieve an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, however the National Atmospheric Emission Inventory recently highlighted that emissions produced from diesel run vehicles increased by 20% in 2016 compared to 1990 levels. The health impacts associated with diesel engines are now well known and London has introduced low emissions zones and Non-Road...
Protecting the Workforce from Dust
Mace’s Greenwich Peninsula Upper Riverside team continued with our sustained effort to safeguard our workforce from works that generated dust. As part of this the team procured full head and face mask breathing systems for working in higher dust exposure areas. This builds upon the team’s previous efforts which included conducting training sessions, using portable vacuum backpacks and enforcing Class...
Carbon Emission Conversion
From October 2013, under the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic and Directors’ Reports) Regulations 2013, quoted companies are required to report their greenhouse gas emissions on an annual basis. A quoted company is a company whose shares are traded on a stock exchange, such as the London Stock Exchange. Other non-quoted companies can also voluntarily report their annual greenhouse gas emissions....
HSE Construction Dust
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published some guidance about construction dust, as this can be a serious occupational health hazard. Regularly breathing in any type of dust can cause serious lung diseases including cancer, and over 500 construction workers are believed to die every year as a result of exposure to silica dust. Needless to say, creating excessive...
BREEAM
BREEAM is an international scheme providing third party assessment and certification of sustainability performance of individual buildings, communities and infrastructure. BREEAM accreditation was launched in the 1990s by BRE, the Building Research Establishment. BREEAM assessment can take place at several stages of the built environment life cycle, from design and construction, to operation and refurbishment. The assessment is carried out...
Bi-monthly Environmental Blog
Construction Industry Publications Ltd has started publishing a topical environmental blog relating to the environmental agenda within the built environment. The environmental policy and regulation landscape is constantly evolving and CIP are committed to ensuring that everyone in the sector is kept abreast of policy, regulation and best practice examples to ensure that we as an industry are playing our...
Clean Air Day School Engagement
To support ‘Clean Air Day’ on 20th June 2019, Mace’s Sustainability Manager at Helical’s Farringdon East OSD project visited the local Charterhouse Square Primary School to talk about the importance of clean air. The assembly was delivered to 120 children aged between four and ten, and covered the following key points: Why is clean air important? What stops our air...
PM10 Real Time Dust Monitors
In order to set the highest standards in environmental monitoring and awareness, the E03 project has bought, installed and used two Aeroqual dust sentry real-time monitors. These PM10 dust monitors offer continuous, long-term monitoring in all conditions with notification emails being sent automatically, should the set limits be exceeded at any point during the construction stage (200μg/m3 as a 15...
World Environment Day 2019
A full site stand down took place on World Environment day so that two topics of concern for the construction industry could be discussed with the staff. Dust, air quality and vehicle idling were all discussed with staff, with the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. Posters and information were also displayed on site in key locations.
Carbon Footprint
During our discussions about the project, we decided to focus on our impact on the environment at the Ardmore Hill site in Armagh. The site is a small social housing scheme located in a rural community in Armagh. We initially put plans in place to minimise the carbon footprint on the site through a car sharing programme, and using local...
British Safety Council’s Time to Breathe Campaign
In March 2019, the British Safety Council launched their Time to Breathe campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the dangers of ambient air pollution to outdoor workers. As the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) currently does not provide guidance on the risk of ambient air pollution, Time to Breathe is calling for HSE to recognise expose to ambient air...
Ravex Diesel Filter Kit
The site has been trialling a Ravex RVT diesel “fume buster” on a front shovel mini excavator which is being used to clear debris internally. This ensures cleaner exhaust fumes and enables site personnel to work safely in confined spaces next to diesel powered machinery. Looking for solutions that work in confined spaces and thinking outside of the box makes...
Air Quality Trials
This site employed Capita to undertake wellbeing based air quality trials and provide performance indicators. Six headings were considered covering humidity, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), temperature, illuminance and noise. Results have been provided, identifying changes and improvements which have now been actioned. Results confirmed against a health building score and currently are generally satisfactory but areas of improvement...
Ecosia Search Engine 
Not only has the site switched its default internet search engine to the Ecosia on all of its computers, they have also developed this previous innovation further by using it to offset the carbon footprint generated by the measured electricity usage of the temporary site set up. Additionally, this information is displayed on a graphic chart promoting the environmental benefits...
Using Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil as Generator Fuel
At 21 Moorfields, we are trying to reduce our carbon footprint and minimise the disturbance to the local community who surround our central London site. Following this aim, we have decided to trial the use of a hydrogenated vegetable oil to fuel two generators on site whilst we transfer the mains power supply from low to high voltage. The ‘Green...
Environmental Performance and Report
The Wellington Place 7 and 8 project team, led by Dan Miller, has shown great leadership and professionalism by using their sphere of influence to achieve the environmental targets set at the beginning of the project. Highlights Include: 59% reduction in CO2 emissions from the following measures: 100% Renewable energy electricity supply, primary and secondary lighting circuits that reduce unnecessary...
Automated Tracking of FSC Timber
Qflow was developed to automate the tracking and auditing of FSC timber deliveries to construction sites. The tool was deployed by Canary Wharf Contractors Ltd at the Wood Wharf project for a three month trial in September 2018, and has since been adopted full time. It automates the data capture and analysis for key compliance areas, eliminating the need for...
Keeping the Air Fresh
Remediation of a contaminated site can result in the release of unpleasant odours, which, whilst not harmful to health or the environment, can be a significant nuisance, impacting on local residents’ quality of life. To mitigate this, the project has on site a trailer-mounted odour suppressant system that can be used to minimise smells travelling over the site boundary. This...
Laser scanning to reduce over-digging and the impacts of unnecessary truck movements
At Marble Arch Place, Multiplex is digging a five storey basement, which will result in a large number of ‘muckaway’ trucks being required to remove the soil and clay required. Whilst laser scanning is now commonly used on sites, there are few companies that have used it extensively in basement digging. Multiplex used this extremely precise technique to avoid removing...
Used Coffee Grounds Fuel Logs
The UK produces 500,000 tonnes of coffee grounds per year. At Marble Arch Place, Multiplex is working with ‘Bio-Bean’ to produce clean fuel from used coffee grounds. The site’s busy office and canteen produces about 30 litres of grounds a week in special collection bins, which are then picked up on a weekly basis. This reduces greenhouse gas emissions by...
Monitoring Dust, Heat and Humidity
A member of the site team has designed and constructed a small, lightweight, battery powered device to monitor airborne dust generated in close proximity to potentially offending works. It can also be adapted to monitor heat and relative humidity. Via a telephone link, it sends an alarm/notification to a designated member of the management team if inappropriate levels of dust,...
Emissions Log
Wooldridge Demolition are continuously looking to develop new ways in which we can monitor and reduce our impact on the environment. Now run on every one of our sites, we initially introduced an emissions log and lanyard card to one of our sites in Farnham. Data is recorded and logged by Traffic Marshals when anyone arrives on site. This information...
Belu Water Social Enterprise
The project team at Mace’s 25 Grosvenor Street made the decision to procure their site water from ‘Belu’, a registered social enterprise. Whilst several water providers donate some of their profits to charity, Belu donate 100% of their profits to the international development charity Water Aid. This supports their work in making clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal...
Source Containment of Dust and Debris
As part of the Fosse Park enabling works, there is a requirement to break out the existing concrete slab which is being undertaken by McDermott Building and Civil Engineering Ltd on behalf of Bowmer and Kirkland. To ensure that the activities minimise dust and debris nuisance, a containment shroud has been fitted to the arm of the excavator around the...
Hybrid Excavators
J. Murphy and Sons Ltd has developed Hybrid 360 Degree Excavators. The excavators use an all electric swing motor generator system to capture and regenerate energy as the machine is operated, the energy is then converted and stored. Stored energy can be used for the machine swing or to assist the acceleration of the engine. This decreases diesel usage and...
Aerosol Can Piercing Tool
The site is registered with a T15 exemption, which allows us to pierce any aerosol cans on site. The cans must be pierced with an acceptable piercer that meets the air pollution guidelines for gas emissions. The piercer is roughly £900 to purchase, but if a site plans to use over 600 cans over its duration you can make a...
Self-Climbing Facade
Ardmore are working on site at Commercial Road, Aldgate East to erect a 21 storey apart-hotel to include a two floor basement in within close proximity of London’s vibrant Shoreditch. Ardmore have worked closely with ISHBECK TITAN to create a new self-climbing façade to protect their workforce, environment and the general public. It has taken the company 18 months alongside...
PM10 Real Time Dust Monitors
In order to set the highest standards in environmental monitoring, the E03 project has bought and installed two Aeroqual dust sentry monitors. They offer continuous monitoring in all conditions with notification emails being sent automatically should the set limits be exceeded at any point (200μg/m3 as a 15 minute mean). The limits have been set after an independent specialist consultant...
