How Is Sustainability Ranked in the Construction Industry?

The construction industry consumes resources in a way that is not sustainable, using vast amounts at a high rate. As we move towards lower impact ways of constructing buildings and infrastructure, we consider what sustainable construction looks like and how to measure it.

Many principal contractors have made commitments to more environmentally and socially responsible operations and project delivery. Their commitment is considered by a number of ways of performance ranking. This can be through benchmarks such as the Carbon Disclosure Project, FTSE4Good or Considerate Constructors Scheme.

When awarding projects, clients will also pose a number of questions and requirements of their expectations around environmental and social performance which will form part of their assessment and ranking process for bidders. Often, clients will be following guidelines that allow them to compare your contract opportunity to their best practice and regulatory compliance requirements. For example, many public organisations working in procurement for construction adhere to The Construction Playbook, a detailed document outlining 14 key policies that should be assessed when looking to procure public work projects. The closer supplier opportunities are to these criteria, the higher they rank in terms of potentially winning bids.

Principal contractors will look to partner with other contracting organisations that can help them achieve the best scores against these criteria and hence be successful in work-winning. CHAS delivers assessment and accreditation services to help contractors demonstrate how they are best placed to make their contribution to the procurement process.

What Does Sustainable Construction Mean?

Sustainability in construction — as with all industries — is measured by assessing the performance of social, environmental and economic principles. These three pillars of sustainability are often informally referred to as “people”, “planet” and “profit”. The ultimate project will rank highly for all three — but balancing all three areas can be one of the greatest challenges in implementing sustainable construction.

In construction, sustainability is about creating projects which have positive outcomes for society and the environment. The goals of sustainable construction include:

1. sourcing renewable and recyclable resources and reusing materials where possible to avoid sending waste to landfill.
2. having a positive impact on wider society by creating good jobs and providing skills training, responsible approaches to human rights and modern slavery in supply chains, and greater encouragement of diversity and inclusion.
3. targeted outcomes associated with a circular economy and net-zero emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

How Is Sustainability Ranked in the Construction Industry

There are a number of resources available for sustainable construction standards and assessment tools. The Passivhaus Trust is an independent, nonprofit organisation that provides guidance on low energy design standards and BREEAM is another sustainability assessment method for environment construction, including new builds and refurbishment of existing infrastructure.

Achieving ISO 14001 certification demonstrates a commitment to reducing the negative impacts of construction on the environment and improving sustainability in line with the Environmental Management System’s requirements. The Common Assessment Standard is the industry gold standard for 12 key areas of risk management. A focal point of the review of risk in the Common Assessment Standard is health and safety.

The Common Assessment Standard also includes environmental questions to establish whether or not a company has taken the necessary steps to reduce negative environmental impact of projects. Compliance is crucial in achieving environmental management standards and gaining accreditation is an accepted way for companies to demonstrate their sustainability criteria. These steps include:

• Producing an environmental policy for your company
• Putting in place environmental planning to reduce your impact on the environment
• Active evidence of environmental strategy and implementation of initiatives
• Policies for management, review and adaptation where environment practice can be changed or improved.

Successful implementation of the Common Assessment Standard clearly demonstrates your business is compliant with valuable areas of sustainability and environmental management. It makes it easy for clients to identify your approach to sustainable construction, opening up new work possibilities, which is why the Common Assessment Standard is becoming the recognised construction-wide standard of accreditation. The process can also help you locate areas of performance improvement. By working with CHAS, you can carry out your Common Assessment Standard accreditation process and reap the rewards it offers.

Opportunities to Improve Sustainability in the Construction Industry

In such a varied industry with so many layers to each project, there are a huge number of opportunities to create more sustainable outcomes. The materials used on a construction project are the perfect opportunity to implement more sustainable practices. Considered planning and usage will help reduce the amount of waste on a project, as there will be fewer materials ordered at the beginning stages. Having limited materials on-site will influence the way they are used, maximising efficient use and reducing the chance of reckless waste. If there is waste, care should be taken to find ways to recycle it to reduce the amount of material that ends up going to landfill. Over time the capture and recycling of ‘waste’ materials in construction has vastly improved but with good management practices on site there is still room for improvement.

The industry has also seen a move to more modular and off-site construction with elements arriving on site in a ‘finished’ form. This significantly reduces waste from the approach to manufacturing in controlled environments. This can still produce material that leads to waste on site, notably through protective packaging such as plastics. So while off-site construction can help reduce waste we still need to be aware of the need to find ways to capture, recover, reuse and recycle.

Sourcing materials that are renewable, or themselves recovered and recycled, is also an opportunity to implement more sustainable construction methods right from the concept stages. Sourcing materials locally is another straightforward but crucial opportunity to improve sustainability. By sourcing locally, the social aspect of sustainable construction is being met by helping to support local jobs and creating a positive financial impact for the community.  From an environmental point of view, sourcing materials that arise from local sources, for example bricks, aggregates or timber, can have a lower impact than shipping from overseas. This may not always be the case if materials have been imported in the first instance, further demonstrating the importance of knowing where your materials come from.

Buildings use energy in their construction, and also over their lifetime. Energy consumption in the built environment is an opportunity to reduce impacts by making buildings more thermally efficient meaning they take less energy to heat or cool. They can also be designed to allow better use of more natural light, again reducing energy consumption. The energy that has to be supplied should come from renewable sources either through the provision of on-site solutions such as solar, or by contracting to a renewables contract for grid-based supplies.

Reducing mains water consumption is an opportunity for many construction sites. Reducing water in the build is a great step, and implementing water-saving devices will maintain the sustainability of a site post-completion.

The Advantages for Construction Companies of Sustainability

Sustainable construction should not only prioritise the environmental impacts of a project. To uphold the three pillars of sustainability, we must also consider the social aspect of the construction industry. The construction sector contributes £117 billion to the UK economy — 6% of total economic output. There are also 2.4 million jobs in the sector — 7% of the UK total. Providing masses of employment helps to create a sustainable construction industry in the UK by fulfilling the social element of sustainability. Creating any job improves the economy, but providing specifically green jobs that commit to protecting and promoting the environment will create a more sustainable future for the industry. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) predicts that changes in production and the use of energy have the potential to create around 18 million jobs in the world economy.

The Government’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution is a commitment to 250,000 green jobs, transforming the economy and putting clean, green technology at the forefront of industrial change. This will have an impact on new construction projects and also the refurbishment of existing buildings. Adopting sustainability best practices can have a positive effect on workers too. Having a sense of purpose has a significant influence on employee engagement and including employees in sustainability initiatives will generate enthusiasm in being part of something that really matters. This sense of pride in their work positively impacts health and wellbeing in the workforce.

Sustainable construction projects are collaborative by nature. Planners will set the sustainability objectives at the planning stage. However, the importance of the reduction of waste, the introduction of new materials, and better practices are communicated to whole teams throughout the project. Improving communication across the project team, including on site, will help implement techniques while raising awareness and educating all those involved in ways to improve sustainability in projects moving forwards.

Many construction company managers believe costs are a barrier to improving sustainability in the industry, it’s crucial to look at the evidence of the potential for money saved. The financial advantages of sustainable construction processes are rooted in the whole-life costs and impacts of projects. Buying materials responsibly, based on exactly what you need, you can save costs on excess materials as well as waste management. These small steps will have positive financial repercussions, but the reduction of cost doesn’t stop there, as green buildings can come with lower operating costs.

Aside from the social, environmental and economic benefits of sustainable construction, a commitment to improving the industry’s sustainability is also very good for your company’s reputation. It can give you the edge over your competitors at the bidding stage, but new projects also often come with clear commitments to environmentally and socially-responsible ethics. So, once a company builds a reputation for being proactive in this area, they can expect to see more sustainable projects coming their way.

How Building Managers Benefit from Sustainable Construction

The World Green Building Council, located in London, reports on savings achieved through long-term use of energy efficient practices in construction. Their review of costs for property development outlines that ‘the energy savings alone typically exceed any cost premiums associated with their design and construction.’

At the cost of a greater investment of time and money today, building managers will benefit from a reduction in running costs, saving costs over the lifetime of a project through better design and delivery. The World Green Council also suggests these cost savings come ‘with a reasonable payback period.’

Improved health and productivity is another benefit of more environmentally friendly construction builds. Research shows that companies that invest in healthy building design improve workers’ mental and physical health, in turn benefitting from fewer absences. Building managers can use this as a promotional tool when selling or leasing builds as the working environment is a safer and healthier option than other buildings that don’t rank as highly in sustainability.

This makes the benefits of sustainable construction extremely far reaching. From the workers on site throughout the construction phase, to promotion of the benefits of environmentally friendly buildings and the residents or workers who eventually end up in that space, each will reap the benefits of those projects that have a more positive environmental and social impact.

Follow the CHAS blog to get guidance on current construction regulations and advice on improving sustainable construction practices. 

Begin your journey towards sustainability by becoming a CHAS contractor and demonstrating environmental compliance through assessment schemes such as PAS91 (CHAS Advanced) and the Common Assessment Standard (CHAS Elite). As an accredited CHAS member, you can demonstrate your compliance with sustainable building legislation to clients, prequalifying for more work opportunities.