Memorandum by Laing O'Rourke
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Laing O'Rourke seeks to challenge and change
the image of construction worldwide, part of a vision developed
against the background of a very different commercial dynamic—but
arguably a vision of even greater relevance now than when first
set out more than a decade ago.
Within our wider vision the Group also seeks
to be the company of first choice for all stakeholders and, finally,
we say that with leanness and agility we will adopt processes
to compete with world-leading businesses.
In each aspect of this three-pronged vision
the focus is on learning, changing and—above all—behaving
in a manner which transforms the "attractiveness" of
the sector in which we operate. Clearly one of the least attractive
aspects of an industry not noted for its environmental management
credentials is the reputation attached to it around waste—in
all its forms.
With a Group turnover in the order of £4
billion and worldwide employees of around 30,000 we carry significant
responsibilities. As the UK's largest privately-owned construction
Group we seek to challenge and change in a number of ways, principally:
— the practical application of innovative
solutions to complex challenges;
— training and developing employees
and, above all; and
— instilling the culture of everyone
returning home safely every day.
These are the pillars on which our businesses
are built and by referencing these in the context of the over-arching
vision we meet each challenge. Defining waste consistently and
coherently, while creating practical strategies to mitigate waste
in all its forms demands responsiveness within an overall framework—and
real engagement with the consequences of failing to act on waste
at all levels of the business.
This means ensuring that our people are not
operating rules by rote but actively thinking through the waste
mitigation opportunities (and risks) presented at each step within
a supply chain and site assembly process. Empowerment of the individual
comes through shared knowledge and an ingrained understanding
of the importance of tackling waste, against the environmental
consequences of which we are all too well aware.
Our approach to this is within the context of
the various regulatory and legislative boundaries which govern
the industry. While those boundaries are appropriate, we nevertheless
seek to work collaboratively with our clients, suppliers and other
stakeholders to ensure we pursue ways of going above and beyond
regulation.
This means, for example, going beyond construction
to adapt learnings from elsewhere. As a Group we firmly believe
that a radical shift away from the traditional labour intense,
component heavy onsite environment is not only the way of the
past, but the great ally of wastefulness.
Lean, efficient offsite manufacturing and pre-assembly
methods, adopting techniques from industries such as automotive
manufacturing, are the way of the future. Fewer people onsite,
working with fewer pre-ordered materials in an efficient, clean
and effective manner reduces component waste and introduces measurable
cost and safety benefits.
Our commitment to offsite manufacturing is tangible.
It can be seen through our investment in the proposed Steetley
manufacturing facility on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border
which will be the most advanced pre-assembly plant of its kind
in Europe. Additionally we are investing heavily in ensuring that
the onsite teams employed to assemble finished components are
highly skilled, properly rewarded individuals who see themselves
as part of high-performing teams moving from project to project.
While this is the broad aspiration of the Group,
our goals will be better met if we can influence policy direction
in the development and design of public sector construction whereby
the benefits of consistency can be shared. This means the critical
examination of whether bespoke designs, often presenting challenging
and unique concepts in the public realm, are the most sensible
way of minimising waste and maximising shared efficiencies.
Our goal is to become a Total Solutions Provider
for all our clients. This means involvement at the earliest stage
of any project through its design and assembly and on into the
maintenance and eventual decommissioning phases. The resource
benefits that are presented by managing waste at each stage of
this process are limitless—and the Laing O'Rourke Group
is fully committed to playing its part in meeting that challenge
head on.
BACKGROUND
Laing O'Rourke Group (LO'R) is the largest privately
owned construction company in the UK, with offices in Germany,
India, Australia and UAE and around 30,000 employees worldwide.
We specialise in delivering ambitious construction projects and
are responsible for some of the most innovative construction solutions
anywhere in the world. However, as a major construction company,
we are well aware of the growing pressure to reduce the impact
of construction waste upon the environment and further reduce
wastage of resources.
Beyond a growing raft of regulations (such as
the implementation of Site Waste Management Plans) and market
pressures (such as increasing landfill tax), public and private
sector client organisations are increasingly looking to set requirements
to reduce waste, recover and recycle more materials. Reducing
the amount of waste generated, diverting materials from landfill
and reusing recovered materials are genuine cost-neutral and cost-saving
incentives to reduce waste.
Laing O'Rourke's Corporate Responsibility (CR)
Strategy (and more specifically, its Environmental Management
Objectives) sets targets and strategy for key elements of the
sustainable construction agenda. For example, we have a corporate
target to reduce waste from our construction sites and in the
imminent future we intend to introduce corporate indicators for
m3/£100k spend, the percentage of waste we send to landfill,
and our total spend on waste.
To accelerate our waste management agenda from
"compliance" to "minimisation" and "resource
efficiency", Laing O'Rourke engaged with the Government's
Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP). WRAP has supported
Laing O'Rourke in finalising its revised Site Waste Management
Plan (SWMP) template and developing accompanying guidance, which
was rolled out to all sites in advance of the introduction of
the Site Waste Management Plan Regulations in April 2008. Together
with training site staff on how to implement the resulting SWMP,
LO'R is committed to integrating waste minimisation, sustainable
waste management, and waste data reporting requirements into its
procurement procedures. In addition, Laing O'Rourke is looking
to increase the use of recycled material in its construction projects
by trialling WRAP's Recycled Content Toolkit across LOR's businesses
and projects.
Innovative technological solutions such as design,
off-site production, logistics and better site management practices
including procurement procedures, are all part of Laing O'Rourke's
agenda for improving waste performance. We believe we have put
in place a coherent process which fits with our CR strategy, is
integrated into core business processes and can deliver significant
waste savings in the construction process.
1. TECHNICAL
SOLUTIONS FOR
MINIMISING WASTE
Design
Laing O'Rourke believes substantial savings
can be achieved by adopting principles of standardisation in design
or by engaging with the supply chain to ensure that standard manufactured
components can be adjusted to suit a specific design.
For example, plasterboard is a product which
often attracts a significant amount of waste from over-ordering
or from cuts, because the panels do not match the designed dimensions.
On the Laing O'Rourke Meath Gardens Project, standard length plasterboards
of 2.7 m (instead of 2.4 m) were used as we recognised that there
was an opportunity to save money and reduce waste by using boards
which matched the floor to ceiling height. Production of waste
plasterboard was greatly reduced as all horizontal cuts and joints
were virtually eliminated from the dry lining works.
The water industry is another sector which has
adopted innovative solutions to reduce waste through trenchless
technology. Through our alliance with Welsh Water, we have rehabilitated
approximately 370,000 metres of pipeline during the 2007-08 period
with approximately 332,000 metres being undertaken through trenchless
technology. We have estimated that this trenchless technology
has saved around 295,000 tonnes of waste, all of which could have
potentially been sent to landfill.
Material specification
We believe there are considerable opportunities
to minimise waste through product specification, through a "closed
loop" or "cradle to cradle" approach, or by using
secondary or recycled aggregates which have low environmental
impact.
At Heathrow Terminal 5, Laing O'Rourke and BAA
strove to include products with a high recycled content in the
construction of buildings and infrastructure. Over 80,000 tonnes
of recycled and secondary aggregates were brought onto the project
in addition to the crushed aggregates generated on site. This
included crushed glass from local municipal recycling banks that
was used in the construction of the site roads. Up to 30% of the
concrete mix used in the construction of the buildings, taxiways
and aircraft stands is pulverised fuel ash (PFA), a waste product
from the power generation industry. Using this recycled product
and an innovative variable thickness concrete saved over 9,100
tonnes of CO2 emissions.
In 2000, Laing O'Rourke used recycled aggregates
as capping for service access roads and car parks at Glasgow International
Airport, with similar practices being adopted at Edinburgh Airport
for the construction of a 1,320 space single level car park and
a multi-storey short-stay car park directly outside the airport
terminal building.
By January 2004, Laing O'Rourke was responsible
for recycling over 33,000 tonnes of aggregates sourced from both
off-site and on-site sources and utilised as a sub-base.
EXAMPLE: EDINBURGH
AIRPORT MULTI
STOREY CAR
PARK
— Recycled and reused 29,000 tonnes
of hard and soft landscaping.
— Prevented 1,200 truck movements,
saving £72,000.
— Using RSA rather than virgin stone,
saving £10,000.
— Saving £165,000 when comparing
recycling costs to landfill.
— 50% reduction in truck movements.
2. OFF-SITE
MANUFACTURE
Off-site manufacture can offer significant advantages
compared to site assembly since the risks associated with weather,
programming, trade co-ordination, on-site plant and equipment
and project health & safety are reduced. Laing O'Rourke has
embedded off-site manufacturing into its core business strategy
which is being demonstrated by our investment in the Steetly Manufacturing
centre which is due to come on line in August 2009.
In addition Laing O'Rourke owns Crown House
Technologies (CHt) a subsidiary company which is experienced in
the field of off-site manufacturing of mechanical and electrical
building components for air-conditioning, heating, cooling, ventilation,
electrical services and sprinkler systems. With an in-house manufacturing
capability the projects delivered by CHt have led to improvements
in quality, reduced labour, reduced material waste, logistics
and improved production performance.
The modular plant rooms arrive on-site ready
for installation using a "plug and play" approach. Delivery
to site can be on a "just-in-time" basis as the plant
room is pre-commissioned and remains sealed until use. The plant
rooms are manufactured in CHt's manufacturing facility in Wolverhampton.
Expanded Big Block, a new specialist division
of Expanded Limited (owned by Laing O'Rourke) has started to install
a prefabricated large format blockwork system manufactured by
Xella (and many other manufacturers). Standard blocks are 1,000mm
long and 645mm high and are made from calcium silicate; a substance
with much lower environmental impact than concrete as it contains
no cement—just lime, sand and water. Big Block construction
has many benefits over conventional blockwork including shorter
programme, less wastage on site as no cutting of blocks is required,
no requirement for scaffolding as all laying can be done from
scissor lifts, no manual handling of blocks is required and calcium
silicate has high thermal mass.
Logistics
Consideration of waste during design, construction
and even operational phases of Terminal 5 enabled the successful
implementation of waste hierarchy. Over 97% of waste material
was recycled or recovered. A "just-in-time" logistics
strategy adopted at Heathrow Terminal 5 and on-site housekeeping
practices such as designated storage areas and segregated vehicle
and pedestrian routes ensured that materials were delivered to
the work place as they were needed, and not stored on site. This
reduced the amount of material damaged on site and therefore reduced
waste. Typically on a construction project, this can account for
10% of materials ordered, which then often end up in a skip unused.
Laing O'Rourke and BAA worked with suppliers
to reduce the amount of packaging delivered to the T5 site. To
ensure buy in, sustainability workshops were run for suppliers
focusing particularly on reducing packaging waste. Other steps
were taken to reduce waste from the outset:
— All suppliers were encouraged to
reduce packaging as far as possible and choose reusable materials
to package their products.
— Where packaging is unavoidable suppliers
were encouraged to take back the packaging they supplied for reuse.
— Agreements with the cable suppliers
enabled cable drums to be returned to the supplier for reuse.
— Standard specifications for products
such as paint enabled them to be ordered in large quantities,
thus reducing waste and enabling large packaging to be returned
eg ICI Dulux paint cans were returned to the supplier.
On site consolidation of waste using compactors
and roll packers, whilst not reducing the weight of waste significantly
reduced the volume of waste sent off- site, reducing the number
of vehicle movements. Consolidation of hazardous materials during
construction significantly reduced the transport of these materials.
3. SITE PRACTICES
TO MINIMISE
WASTE
(a) Procurement procedures
Laing O'Rourke's advocacy support from WRAP
included the identification of opportunities for waste minimisation
and resource efficiency through procurement practices. Laing O'Rourke's
Site Waste Management Procedures require subcontractors (by contractual
agreement) to provide information on their waste streams and their
ideas to reduce waste quantities. Early engagement of the supply
chain, together with designers is key to identifying and reducing
waste where Laing O'Rourke plays the role of Principal Contractor.
(b) Segregation to improve recycling
Where possible, segregation is provided on Laing
O'Rourke projects for waste streams such as wood, metals, plasterboard,
paper and office wastes, canteen wastes etc. Segregation facilitates
recovery.
Laing O'Rourke has supported Uponor Infrastructure,
one of our suppliers on our water contracts to achieve the "Environment
Business Outstanding Achievement Award" at the City of London
Corporation's Sustainable City Awards in 2007 as well as being
highly commended in the resource conservation category. Uponor's
scheme, begun in 2005 to take back and recycle customer polyethylene
(PE) pipes and fittings waste using its own vehicles, has reclaimed
more than 260 tonnes of PE so far.
4. TRAINING AND
AWARENESS ON
WASTE MANAGEMENT
AND MINIMISATION
Laing O'Rourke includes its procedural requirements
for waste management within its environmental awareness courses
for its senior managers, environmental co-ordinators and site
supervisors. Waste Management requirements are also included in
our site inductions. In 2008 Laing O'Rourke will engage its supply
chain to start to roll out this training to its key suppliers
and contractors.
| 
