News Analysis: The green dream

Contractors who continue to see sustainability as an afterthought to their core business risk alienating clients who are increasingly placing environmental issues on a par with other considerations.

The results of a survey by Overbury, seen exclusively by Contract Journal, show that two out of three construction clients and consultants think it is ‘very important’ to use an environmentally-responsible contractor on a fit-out or refurbishment project, and a further 34% agreed it was ‘quite important’. Only 2% of those questioned said it was unimportant.

Proactive with ideas

Simply doing a good job on site isn’t good enough any more. Clients and consultants expect every member of the team involved in a fit-out or refurbishment project to be proactive with ideas. Indeed, 87% of respondents said they would be very keen to have suggestions from the principal contractor.

Instead of just talking about sustainability and environmental plans, most respondents were committed to taking practical steps forward, with almost 100% likely to implement some of these ideas into the refurbishment programme.

More than three-quarters (77%) of respondents now consider environmental issues when putting together a brief for a refurbishment contract. Environmental issues were once considered something of an afterthought and usually added in at a later stage and only then if the budget allowed.

But by considering these issues much earlier, significant cost savings can be gained in both the long and short term. The team working on the project can pool resources and experience to get the best products and prices, and the long-term running of the refurbished office will be cheaper and more efficient.

Historically, few companies could claim to have a specially-appointed corporate social responsibility manager or environment manager, but the survey suggests this is changing, with 52% employing someone in this role – one in five of these actually sit on the selection panel to appoint the principal contractor – with a further 26% sharing the role or taking on the additional responsibility.

With 85% of those involved in the survey claiming that environmental awareness has seen a significant increase at their own companies over the past two years, environment and sustainability are clearly high on the agenda.

Overbury managing director Chris Booth believes contractors must be prepared to listen to clients and adapt to their changing needs. "Those needs currently seem to be focused around environmental issues, as the results of this survey highlight," he added.

More than 150 respondents – a mixture of end-user clients, architects, project managers, quantity surveyors, suppliers and government bodies – were questioned at a series of seminars hosted by Overbury.

The aim of the seminars was both to raise awareness of environmental issues and to suggest practical ways in which contractors could tackle them. Riccardo Rizzi, Overbury’s environment manager, said: "We’ve certainly noticed from the research that companies are becoming more environmentally aware and are looking at ways to do their bit, whether it’s by making their own operations carbon neutral, as we have, or by applying those standards to their fit-out.

"I get the impression that companies would like to do more but think it requires huge financial investment on their part, which isn’t the case, especially when you take into account whole life-cycle costs. CHP [combined heat and power] units are much more efficient in terms of energy usage and cost and there are other benefits to be had from BREEAM-rated buildings or fit-outs, many of which were outlined in the Green Value report by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors."

An even split

The Overbury survey showed the three key environmental issues on a project were fairly evenly spread between procurement and the use of more sustainable products and services (31%), climate change and carbon dioxide emissions (27%) and recycling and waste management (20%).

This indicates that the market is educated enough to be looking at long-term improvement rather than quick-fix goals. While offsetting unavoidable emissions is important, sourcing local materials, avoiding unnecessary packaging, incorporating energy saving initiatives, investigating new technologies and disposing of waste responsibly are equally so, as the speakers at the half-day SCORe (Sustainable Commercial Office Refurbishment) seminars pointed out.

These included the deputy mayor of London, Nicky Gavron; professor John Murlis, chief scientific advisor at the Carbon Neutral Company; the director of corporate responsibility at British Land, Claudine Blamey; and RBS’s group environmental and sustainability manager, David Graham.

Blamey, speaking about how British Land has introduced sustainable processes into development projects and how it plans to do the same for refurbishment, defined sustainability as "seeing the business not just from an economic aspect, but also from environmental and social perspectives". She emphasised that sustainability was about "minimising the risks and maximising the opportunities".

Graham agreed: "Risk management lies at the heart of most business processes," he said. "Sustainability, and/or, corporate responsibility, is just one of many business risks that should be considered alongside other risks as an integral, not an optional, part of the process."