Our ISO 14001-certified Environmental Management System provides our clients with the assurance that we deliver best practice environmental management on all our projects.
We inspire our project teams and supply chain partners to ‘think green’ and, guided by our Sustainability Manager, to consider the environmental consequences of everything they do in their daily activities.
Our Key Sustainability Initiatives, detailed in our Sustainability Strategy 2021-2026, sit alongside our responsibility to protect and enhance the environment. Our strategy reflects the expectations of our clients, customers and communities and aligns with the UK Environment Bill 2020 and United Nations sustainability goals.
We commit to:
Our goal is to reduce our GHG emissions by 60% by 2030 and to net zero by 2035 as stated in our Carbon Reduction Plan
Ninety-five per cent of our carbon emissions comes from transporting our people, plant and materials to our sites. Our focus on fuel efficiency yields the greatest carbon emission reductions, with measures including:
We are collaborating with Transport for London to deliver low carbon contracts by rationalising the design, specifying lowest embodied carbon materials and using electric plant and vehicles, and solar powered welfare units.
We are also in continuous dialogue with our supply chain partners to identify low carbon options, in particular, alternative concrete mixes, depending on the specification and strength required.
We aim to divert 100% of construction and demolition waste from landfill and consistently send less than 0.2% of waste to landfill. We work with waste management contractors with facilities for segregation, recycling, and energy recovery.
The waste hierarchy is embedded in our works planning process and we seek to reduce the waste generated by our works through pre-construction design reviews and material optimisation.
We are committed to responsible procurement and, wherever practicable, source materials with high recycled content. We make site-won reusable material choices early on each project to reduce the requirement for new or primary materials.
We employ the Best Practical Means to minimise noise produced by our operations and draw on our Sustainability Manager to advise on noise abatement measures.
We identify those activities requiring detailed noise assessment and monitoring, and especially those undertaken close to sensitive receptors. We select plant and equipment appropriate to the operation with the aim of minimising impact noise and vibration. Wherever possible, we use electrically driven, silenced equipment and battery-powered hand tools.
Where noise and vibration are expected to be significant, we engage with local authorities to investigate existing planning conditions and, where appropriate, apply for Control of Pollution Act Section 61 consents.
We always achieve our target of < 0.10 frequency rate of noise complaints per 100,000 hours worked.
As we take on each project, we gain a greater understanding of how our operations impact biodiversity, and of those measures that we can implement to reduce and mitigate their effects. We recognise the importance of all plant and animal species and not just those that are endangered and protected, and we are always looking to adopt more responsible and sustainable practices when planning our works.
As part of Cleshar’s commitment to the London Biodiversity Action Plan, and in partnership with Transport for London and Greenspace Information for Greater London (GiGL), we have taken the first steps towards quantifying biodiversity and mapping the findings of our ecological surveys.
Actions to protect trackside flora and fauna include wildflower planting, installing bat and bird boxes and maintaining log stacks and brush piles for small mammals and invertebrates to live and breed successfully.
We continue to use available databases and quantifying tools to monitor the impact of our initiatives to enhance biodiversity on current and future projects. We benefit from the intelligence generated through Transport for London’s Biodiversity Toolkit and Natural England’s Biodiversity Metric 3.1 on qualifying Network Rail projects.
