Sustainable construction

While we are delivering much needed new homes we recognise that the construction phase of development can have a significant impact on the surrounding community. We also recognise that we are using resources, and that construction activities form a significant part of our carbon footprint.

We aim to ensure that we manage our sites well, minimise any disruption to the local community and that we are increasingly efficient with the resources we use on site.

Being a Considerate Constructor

We endeavour to minimise disruption to local communities, and to keep them informed about our activities. In July 2008 Crest Nicholson made a commitment that all new operational construction sites would be registered under the Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS). CCS is a nationally recognised, accredited system which evaluates three main areas: the environment, the workforce and the general public. Independent professionals monitor performance and sites are scored out of 40, with a score of 24 representing compliance.

87% of all active sites (41 sites) were registered under the CCS in 2009 (FY08: 20).

We are proud to have maintained a very good average score of 31 with four of our sites scoring above 35. This demonstrates the commitment of our site teams to exceptionally high standards of site management, and these outstanding performers will go forward for the National Award. One example is our Port Marine development in Portishead, which has consistently performed to a high standard, and achieved 38 of the 40 available points in its April 2009 audit.

Considerate Constructors Scheme
	2009	2008	2007
Sites registered	41	20	4
Average Score	31	32	1
Sites scoring > 35	4	5	1

Showing local children how we build homes in Gloucester

At our Churchdown development in Gloucester we have been working with pupils from the local Parton Manor Junior School. Over 90 pupils visited the site to learn about environmental issues in building and how to stay safe on and around construction sites.

The children saw features which are often hidden in the build, such as the specially designed bricks that allow bats access to the roofs of the garages to roost and nest. The dangers of playing on building sites were also highlighted to the pupils through a health and safety talk.

A great year for 'Pride in the Job' Awards

'Pride in the Job' awards are a prestigious competition run by the National House Building Council. The award reflects the Site Manages commitment to delivering excellent standards on site, which ultimately ensures that our homes are built to the highest quality, whilst having a positive impact on the local community.

Once again Crest Nicholson has enjoyed success in the NHBC Pride in the Job Awards with thirteen of our regional site managers being recognised among the 400 Quality Award winners, chosen from over 18,000 site managers nationally. These awards are the ultimate accolade for site managers, recognising them as being at the pinnacle of their profession.

Resource efficiency on site

Following our ground-breaking work to begin charactering our complete carbon footprint in 2008, we acted to increase our understanding of resource use on site. We have considerably improved our understanding of waste generation during build, and now capture tonnages generated and recycled for 98.5% of our spend on waste. Our next step is to understand sources of waste throughout our entire operations. We have also for the first time captured our energy and water use during the build process.

Reducing waste

In November 2008 Crest Nicholson signed up to the WRAP Construction Commitment: Halving Waste to Landfill. We set a stretching target to halve our own waste to landfill by 2011 and we are on track, having reduced our waste to landfill per unit by 37% in the past two years. We have achieved this by challenging ourselves and working hard with our subcontractors and suppliers to identify opportunities for reducing waste.

Waste
	2009	2008	2007
Total build waste (tonnes)1,2	10,329	19,188	24,127
Build waste (tonnes/unit)1,2	5.6	6.4	7.3
Construction waste recycled (%)	82	80	77
Plasterboard waste recycled (tonnes)	687	1,162	1,300
Plasterboard waste recycled (tonnes/unit)	0.38	0.39	0.39
Construction waste total cost (£m)	0.59	1.3	1.5

¹ Figures re-stated to include plasterboard waste

² Represents approximately 98% of total waste by cost

Next steps for waste elimination

Waste arisings during build form only a part of our waste footprint, and over the next year we will expand our approach to include measurement and reduction of waste across the business process – including demolition, remediation, groundworks etc. We will also work with NISP (National Industrial Symbiosis Programme) to formalise working practices that:

• Reduce the potential for waste through better planning and design
• Retain and re-use demolition and construction arisings within our own developments
• Identify other industries that can use the other waste streams
• Work with our supply chain so they minimise waste generation.

Site energy and water use

For the first time we can report on the carbon emissions resulting from the energy and water we use on-site during construction. We are the first in our industry to report this data and currently no benchmarks exist. This was no easy task, and we are conscious that the data is far from robust – but it represents yet another step in resource management, cost reduction and the development of tools to reduce our carbon footprint.

	2009
Emissions from electricity use on site (tonnes CO2e)	1,649
Emissions from gas use on site (tonnes CO2e)	752
Emissions arising from water use (tonnes CO2e)	36

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