UK Construction Businesses Commit To Carbon Reduction at COP21

COP21’s Buildings Day has seen many major UK contractors and developers pledge to reduce their carbon emissions.

The 2^nd December event, held during the global climate summit in Paris, was firmly aimed at getting the buildings and construction sectors to take action to combat emissions from built environments.

UK-based sector leaders, such as Sir Robert McAlpine, Carillion, Lendlease and Skanska made commitments to reduce their current carbon footprint and improve energy efficiency.

Notable UK commitments include Lendlease’s pledge to deliver two major carbon net positive developments by 2020; including its £3bn Elephant Park scheme in London.

This pledge means that the developments will help to reduce overall carbon emissions by producing more low-carbon energy than they consume.

Lendlease have also committed to building all of its projects to the top sustainability certifications, BREEAM in the UK and LEED in the USA, in markets where Lendlease is a contractor.

These pledges will be controlled by the World Green Building Council, and 20 national Green Building councils (GBC) have committed to renovate or certify over 1.24 million m2 of green building space, as well as train over 120,000 qualified green building professionals by 2020.

Furthermore, all 74 GBCs have committed to achieving net zero carbon on new buildings, and energy efficient refurbishment of existing building stock by 2050.

At Syntegra we strongly believe that the implementation of sustainable construction is key in the fight against climate change.

So it is reassuringly positive to see the UK’s major contractors demonstrate their commitment to sustainable design and certification during the COP21 talks. We commend these early commitments and encourage other UK-based contractors to follow suit to create a meaningful aggregate target for the UK construction sector as a whole.