Land Impacts

Our staffs are often in contact with contaminated land, either through working to remediate it or in preventing to cause pollution. In addition, due to the nature of our construction works we often 'take land' which has many impacts on the environment from loss of biodiversity and potential archaeological finds to increased traffic emissions depending on the location and use of the land taken.

Our contaminated land policy is implemented throughout our businesses and we are continuing to investigate our property portfolio to determine the levels of existing pollution.

We currently own only 2 properties, namely;

A full and detailed assessment of the facility in Broxburn confirmed that the site is contaminated to varying degrees. The findings of the assessment are being reviewed by our Facilities Management staff to identify the most appropriate actions.

An initial survey of our office facility in Gorseinon indicates that there is little potential of the site being contaminated, however, a full historical survey has yet to be undertaken.

We permanently occupy a further 15 sites which will be reviewed during 2003 to establish whether they are contaminated. In addition, due to the acquisition of GTRM we gained approximately 150 occupied properties. We are currently seeking to establish the condition of the permanently occupied sites. Once the baseline has been established we shall seek to discuss possible improvements with the owner.

We did not receive any prosecutions relating to contaminated land or land pollution.

Through our centrally collated complaints procedure we received 5 complaints relating to oil and fuel storage. This is an increase from 2 in 2001. Therefore, during 2003 we shall continue to communicate to staff the most effective ways of storing fuel and oil.

Our management systems and on-site procedures help to ensure that our staffs are not responsible for causing land pollution. Indeed many of our projects have exceeded the requirements of the Control of Pollution (Oil Storage) (England) Regulations 2001. One such project is the Norton Bridge Alliance where enhanced bunding has been installed for its oil storage tanks.

The enhanced bunding has several positive environmental impacts;

We also seek to encourage our clients to prevent land pollution. For example, while working with the Metropolitan Police Service, Carillion Services undertook audits of bulk fuel storage sites. The results from the audits identified that in some cases there was no wet stock management in place i.e. a facility to monitor the deliveries of liquids to determine if there are any leakages. Once this was highlighted a programme to rectify the situation was developed. This includes;

We are also seeking new and innovative solutions to the need for and storage of polluting materials. For example, Carillion Rail has replace traditionally polluting oils and greases with Shell Malleus, a biodegradable alternative. This greatly reduces the environmental impacts of any spillage or leakage that may occur.

Through our construction activities we are involved in 'land take’, which can have a negative effect on many environmental issues e.g., biodiversity. Unfortunately, as we do not own the land that we work on we can only seek to influence our clients on their choice of location and design. Our sustainable design guidance helps to guide our designers in influencing our clients. The guide highlights the benefits of building on brownfield land and of ensuring that the design of the landscaping that we specify is sensitive to the local environment and permits for pockets of biodiversity to replace the land taken.

Please refer to the biodiversity and design sections of this report for examples where we have positively influenced our land take impacts.

The following case records are examples of our control of land impacts;

2002

Managing Archaeology

2001

Prevention of Land Pollution