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Thu March 28 2024

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Contractors declare their commitment to net-zero carbon

30 Jun 20 A coalition of eight major construction contractors have agreed to cooperate in a bid to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The creation of UK Contractors Declare is part of the wider global Construction Declares movement and follows similar initiatives by architects and engineers – Architects Declare and Engineers Declare – with whom the contractors are also working.

UK Contractors Declare is coordinated by Multiplex sustainability director Eva Gkenakou. Other founding signatories are BAM Construct UK, BAM Nuttall, Canary Wharf Contractors, Morgan Sindall, Multiplex, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and Willmott Dixon.

Others are invited to join via contractorsdeclare.co.uk.

"We hope that every UK contractor organisation will join us in making this commitment," they said.

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The aim is to give the supply chain, designers and ultimately clients “clarity on the contractors’ ambition to achieve net zero”.

The founding signatories of Contractors Declare said: “We are hoping that strong support for the Contractors Declare statement will energise our sector to work with our clients, designers and supply chains to take action.

“As founding signatories, we have committed to:

  • Raise awareness of the climate and biodiversity emergencies and the urgent need for mitigation and adaptation action amongst our employees, clients, peers, collaborators and supply chains.
  • Advocate for faster change in our industry towards regenerative practices and higher Governmental investment to support a just transition, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Establish climate mitigation and adaptation principles, as well as maximise biodiversity and air quality enhancement. This will be demonstrated through commitments, actions and achievements. Seek for us and our key supply chains to set targets for our own emissions and for the assets we design and build using recognised standards aligned to the 1.5-degree scenario.
  • Share knowledge and research on an open source basis, to address the climate and biodiversity emergencies.
  • Evaluate all new projects against the aim to contribute positively to mitigating climate and biodiversity breakdown, to adapt to climate change using nature-based solutions and encourage our clients to adopt this approach.
  • Support the upgrade of existing assets for extended use as a more carbon efficient alternative to demolition and new build whenever there is a viable choice.
  • Support and promote the use of life cycle costing, whole life carbon modelling and post occupancy evaluation/performance measurement. We will do that as part of our standard scope of work to reduce both embodied and operational resource use for the assets we design and build.
  • Adopt and support more regenerative principles, with the aim of achieving net zero in line with recognised standards. For buildings this should be in line with the UKGBC’s industry created definition of net-zero carbon.
  • Work together with engineers, designers, clients, collaborators and supply chain to further reduce construction waste and transition to a circular economy. 
  • Accelerate the shift to low embodied carbon materials in all our work and promote meaningful actions that will lead to reducing embodied carbon by at least 40% by 2030, based on the World Green Building Council call to action.
  • Work with clients, designers and supply chains to design out waste in the assets we design and build, and further reduce waste during their construction, operation and deconstruction by transitioning to a circular economy.”

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MPU

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