ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY
than the normal targets on waste-to- landfill – prevention is better than cure, essentially.
On emissions, energy use at offices and depots is a “drop in the ocean” compared to emissions from company vehicles (approx 48%) and fuel consumed by plant (46%), necessitating a focus on operational efficiency.
Clearly the industry has only so much plant to go around, and not all of it is energy efficient. The small plant market – generators and lighting columns, for example – is getting more sustainable, with options like power cubes that run on fuel during the day and rechargeable batteries at night, and LED-based lighting.
Improvements are coming less slowly in the large plant market, and indeed Brewitt noted that well-intentioned legislation is having some perverse consequences – such as Balfour Beatty’s new tampers, bought in 2008, which actually chug through twice as much fuel as the older versions to ensure the engines comply with European standards on particulate pollution.
“You’d think they’d be more fuel efficient compared to the old ones, but in fact they consume almost twice the amount of fuel,” Brewitt said. “We’re trying to alter the gearbox ratios, and we’ve trialled a hydrogen fuel cell on a different piece of equipment with the intention to install it on the tampers.”
But ultimately, reducing the amount of plant
used on a given project, wherever possible, has to be the best way to cut
emissions, he said.
He admitted that sustainability can be about compromise and balance – other key factors like safety and cost also have to be considered. “You may choose something less fuel efficient for safety reasons, for example. As long as you’ve considered it all and made the right decision, that’s what’s most important, even if the environmental impact specifically might be greater.”
Self-assessment and contractual requirement
Those targets are overseen by a steering group chaired by managing director Mark Bullock, showing how seriously they’re taken at the highest level.
Every six months, each operating company in the group completes a self-assessment and gets a percentage score on a worldwide scale, with Balfour Beatty Rail and most others in the low to mid 70s (some overseas operating companies do less well).
Brewitt’s own background is in environmental management, and he has 14 years at the company under his belt – but he noted that his equivalents at other operating companies within Balfour Beatty are chartered civil engineers, for example, bringing different types of experience to the role.
He noted that in high-rise construction,
clients often drive environmental quality, by specifying certain BREEAM ratings and so on. But in rail, that’s only now becoming the case, and it’s often the contractor driving that.
On Crossrail West Outer Electrification, for example, both Balfour Beatty and Crossrail wanted it CEEQUAL-rated (you can find out more about CEEQUAL in the April/May 2014 edition of RTM), but it wasn’t specified explicitly in the tender, so in the end the costs were split halfway. “We drove that and we prompted the question,” Brewitt said.
Other recent contracts – like that for the Crossrail substation works on the existing network – have included sustainability more directly.
Employee engagement
“Communicating sustainability is not a straightforward thing,” Brewitt said. “We don’t want to bombard employees with communications. We have our Zero Harm safety programme and lots of comms geared towards safety, and we have to be careful that people don’t feel overloaded and just switch off. Employees can also be quite critical if they’re told to act in certain ways, if they think the business as a whole isn’t doing something.”
Employees have had training courses and site briefings, while everyone involved in buying anything – including designers, engineers and project managers – has had sustainable procurement e-learning.
“That brings everyone up to a certain level,” Brewitt said, “and employee surveys show 88% of people say they understand what sustainability is and 75% understand what they can do in their role to contribute to sustainability. But there is a long way to go in terms of embedding sustainability completely.
“The most important thing is to teach the principles, and then people can make the decisions themselves, while considering the impact something could have on cost, other employees, communities and the environment.”
Sam Brewitt
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opinion@railtechnologymagazine.com
rail technology magazine Jun/Jul 14 | 67
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