UK support services and construction group Interserve has set a target to halve its absolute carbon emissions by 2020 compared to 2013 levels as part of a raft of new sustainability goals.
In the mid-term, the more-than-50,000-employee company says it will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions from business travel by 30 percent and from energy use at construction sites by 30 percent by 2016, compared to 2013 level, as part of its SustainAbilities plan. All of the plan’s goals use 2013 as a baseline year for measurement.
Interserve is establishing its 2013 figures, according to the full plan that has a total of 48 goals targeting environmentally and socially sustainable outcomes.
Other green goals include using only sustainable forest products and increasing re-use of its construction waste by 15 percent by 2014.
Along with the GHG goals, the company is targeting a 20 percent cut in water use, a 25 percent reduction in construction waste, a 50 percent cut in office waste and a 15 percent reduction in “indirect energy impacts,” all by 2016.
By 2018, Interserve plans to develop three partnerships dedicated to innovation in sustainability, achieve a 75 percent traceability rate of its construction materials, increase recycled content in its materials by 50 percent and have at least 10 energy security projects underway.
By 2020 the company says it will introduce “wellbeing” key performance indicators into contracts and introduce closed-loop systems along its value chain.
A survey of construction companies released this month found that firms are shifting their business toward green building.
Some 51 percent of respondents to the McGraw-Hill Construction survey said they expect more than 60 percent of their work to be green by 2015. This is a significant increase from the 28 percent that said the same for their work in 2013 and the 13 percent in 2008.
From 2012 to 2015, the number of firms anticipating that more than 60 percent of their work will be green more than triples in South Africa; more than doubles in Germany, Norway and Brazil; and grows between 33 and 68 percent in the US, Singapore, UK, the United Arab Emirates and Australia, the report says.
