James Gooder, business unit manager at SFS, explains why the construction industry needs to move with the times to hit net zero targets, alongside how forward-thinking global businesses like SFS are meeting their own sustainability goals
According to the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation, there’s now a 50% chance that the average global temperature will reach 1.5C above pre-industrial baseline temperatures in the next five years. That’s an undeniable climate emergency for the planet.
It means that every industry needs to work harder than ever to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly – but this is particularly urgent for the construction sector. Why? According to current estimates, it represents nearly 40% of the overall carbon emissions produced globally, (28% from raw-material manufacturing) and the demands of an expanding population worldwide will only exacerbate the problem.
But the industry is responding to these immense challenges – and quickly. With the European Union pledging to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, companies are working to minimise landfill waste, cut water and materials consumption, and develop ‘green’ transportation fleets. This commitment to build more resilient infrastructure and durable, low-carbon assets is effectively driving green infrastructure construction and innovative whole-lifecycle frameworks with new policies and regulations.
The importance of net zero buildings was emphasised at last year’s COP26 with its first-ever Built Environment Day, where the World Green Building Council revealed that businesses had signed up to the whole-life carbon requirements of its Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment. The #BuildingToCOP26 Coalition has called for emissions from buildings globally to be halved by 2030, and to reach net zero lifecycle emissions for all buildings by no later than 2050.
The ’Go Green Initiative’ is helping SFS to reach sustainability goals
Here at SFS, our Go Green Initiative is an internal sustainability campaign. As a global business, we’re constantly looking at our operational activities in terms of sustainability and impact, especially our usage of essentially finite resources.
For example, our new efficient lighting systems have dramatically reduced our footprint in terms of energy usage. The new on-demand system operates lighting only where and when it is needed within the factory.
We also now have regular audits for air leakage. In the pneumatic system that runs various pieces of equipment, we’ve found 38 air leaks, costing the business £12,800 per annum, significant leaks that we’ve been able to fix and solve the impact on the business, which has a direct cost as well as energy usage costs.
Driving efficiency in all operational processes
We’re also currently looking at circuit-level monitoring of all our equipment so that we can really drive efficiency into all our operational processes to make sure that the business is only using what it needs.
In terms of material waste and engine waste, we are zero to landfill with all incoming waste streams limited, where we cannot limit them entirely. Those waste streams are then consolidated into their respective areas and processed accordingly.
The solar initiative is one of the SFS sustainability goals, and we’ve replaced all of our fork trucks with electric vehicles.
From a product point of view, we’ve already achieved our first EPD (an Environmental Product Declaration contains information related to the product’s environmental performance obtained using lifecycle assessment methodology) as an organisation for our Rainscreen product line and we are working on expanding this accomplishment to cover our other products.
SFS are using easily recoverable materials in their product lines
As well as monitoring the embodied carbon elements of our products, we’re also looking at the recyclability aspect at the end of product life. That’s why the decisions we’ve made in the development of the products within the Fall Protection product line involve using materials that can be easily recovered. With many SFS products made entirely of stainless steel, they don’t even need to be dismantled to recover the material from them.
Above all, we ensure that all our products give our customers a significant working life compared to alternative products. For example, one of the great things about utilising stainless steel is that a significant percentage of a fresh billet of steel is already comprised of recycled content. It would be much harder to recycle it without actually using scrap stainless steel in the beginning.
So our design intent at SFS is always about being mindful of our material choices to understand the impact of embodied carbon and then ultimately review and refine our products from that perspective.
In terms of our overall sustainability objectives here at SFS, we’ve been particularly proud to be part of the Wing at Silverstone, the iconic home of British motorsport. The Wing is the International Conference and Exhibition Centre situated in the F1 paddock, which is fully powered by renewable energy sources, including a total of 2,764 solar panels covering over 5,200m2.
Being such a prestigious site, it was critical for the customer that they maintained the performance of the roof and the system warranty. SFS was able to liaise with all the stakeholders to develop a unique mounting solution that was fully weathered to the roof system. The solution also leveraged SFS thermally broken fixings so as not to compromise the efficiency of the roof’s insulation layer.
Working collaboratively to meet the challenge ahead
With the entire construction industry going through a vast change in terms of its sustainability processes and targets, thousands of companies, such as SFS, can play their own important role both individually and collectively.
We can work more closely with each other to see how quickly the sector can potentially ensure that zero carbon emissions become the norm in construction projects. Nevertheless, many industry experts are already questioning whether the more modest two-thirds reduction can be reached within the tight timeline afforded by the UN’s projections.
Of course, the construction industry recognises the indisputable fact that carbon must be cut and the industry must reach net zero. Now, sharing the genuine understanding that these ambitious targets are realistically possible is the next most important step. None of this will be easy, but project by project, companies like ours at SFS, are showing that tangible changes can be achieved
SFS’s sustainability commitment in action
By partnering with BAM Construction UK and Leeds City Council, SFS has helped to reduce flood risk and provide better protection for 1,048 homes and 474 businesses along the River Aire corridor between Leeds City Station and Apperley Bridge.
Flooding within the area remains a threat to the local community but Leeds FAS2 (Flood Alleviation Scheme) aims to reduce the risk with traditional engineering and a range of nature-based flood alleviation solutions
*Please note: this is a commercial profile.
Vincent Matthews
Head of UK Marketing
SFS
Tel: +44 (0)330 0555 888
