We believe
that the design phase is the starting point for decision making
in the construction process and is pivotal for the delivery
of many aspects of sustainability.
Sustainable design is the specification
of buildings and building materials that minimise the impacts
on the environment and the community, while taking adequate
consideration of project costs.
Environmental impacts of a building
are closely linked to the design of the building. For example,
if a building is designed to use resources, such as energy,
efficiently then the impacts associated with the use of the
resources will be minimised, for example less carbon dioxide
will be generated. This requires innovative and smart thinking
about how we design, build and maintain buildings for our
customers.
In recognition of this we are
in the process of developing a Sustainable Design Taskforce.
The taskforce will operate throughout 2002 and will identify
areas where we can positively influence the built environment
and help to develop a Carillion–wide approach to sustainable
design.
Our businesses are currently
applying the principles of sustainability design in differing
ways. For example, during the design elements of the proposal
for the University of Hertfordshire Campus, designers developed
a procedure that monitors energy
performance from the earliest phases of building
inception. The purpose of the design procedure is to optimise
energy performance, and as a minimum provide a procedure for
ensuring energy considerations are included in the design
process. Indeed the sustainability elements of our proposal
were recognised by the client when making their final decision.
"The University has high
expectations in the context of sustainability. We were pleased
to find that Carillion's proposals matched those expectations
and this was an important factor in Carillion's selection
as the private sector partner in the de Havilland Campus developments."
Professor Ann
Smith, Coordinator of the University's Environmental Strategy
During 2001 a target was set
which aimed to improve our implementation of sustainable design.
The target was to investigate use of sustainability criteria
within Life Cycle Analysis for all new major Carillion PFI
projects and any other relevant projects. This was fully achieved
by 4 businesses and partially achieved by 2 businesses resulting
in the overall achievement of 95%. The majority of businesses
utilised a research document, which was undertaken by a senior
member of the IMS team, to develop procedures to allow the
design teams to assess the sustainability impacts of projects
and materials at the earliest stages in design concept through
to final disposal.
In order for the industry
to be able to demonstrate levels of achievement of sustainable
design several tools have been created. One such tool is
BREEAM
. BREEAM allows the designers, owners and users of
buildings to assess and improved their environmental performance.
The tool is dependent on independent assessment of the design,
construction and operation stages. During 2001 Schal became
a registered assessors for BREEAM. Therefore, we are able
to assess designs undertaken by Carillion and clients to determine
whether the buildings meet best practice.
We are also involved in the development
of, and providing trial projects for the CEEQUAL (Civil Engineering
Environmental Quality and Assessment) scheme. This will be
a model applicable to Civil Engineering to measure environmental
quality (similar to BREEAM).
Carillion have been involved
in the development of, and will be providing trial projects
for the CEEQUAL (Civil Engineering Environmental Quality and
Assessment) scheme. This will be a model applicable to Civil
Engineering to measure their environmental quality (similar
to BREEAM).
Please refer to the following case studies
that highlight some of the projects where we are applying
the principles of sustainable design;
