5 May 2016

Costain has been recognised as a ‘sustainability exemplar’ by Cynnal Cymru-Sustain Wales in the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Development Charter Report for 2015/2016.

Costain became a member of the Charter in early 2014, joining nearly 400 signatories in promoting sustainability across Wales. The Sustainable Development Charter is Wales’ highest profile commitment to sustainable development and is a voluntary commitment to improve the economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales.

Cynnal Cymru gives an organisation ‘exemplar’ status for either implementing a strategy with sustainability at its core, or for submitting a relevant report. In either case, organisations earn their status by demonstrating a coherent understanding of the integrated, whole-system nature of sustainability.

This year, existing signatories were asked to provide additional specific evidence on what they are doing to deliver action relevant to the National Well-being Goals.

Costain’s submission included job creation, apprenticeships and training, work experience, support for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects, charity fundraising, research and development and resource efficiency.

For example, in 2015 Costain created more than 130 new full time jobs, including 26 apprenticeships. Costain is also planning for the future with another 85 full time jobs, 10 apprenticeships and all employees being offered training to gain a minimum NVQ Level 2 Qualification.

At a more grassroots level, to help attract the next generation of engineers, Costain delivered 51 weeks of work experience across the project.

In terms of the environment, around 90% of the waste from the A465 Heads of the Valleys project was diverted from landfill in 2015, with the project targeting more than 95% by completion. On top of that, the team is also reprocessing rock from the project to save nearly 400,000 tonnes of virgin aggregates and reduce their carbon footprint.

In being recognised as an exemplar, Costain sits alongside nine other organisations from across the private, public and third sectors in Wales, including Marks and Spencer, British Polythene Industries, two local authorities and the Keep Wales Tidy campaign.

Simon Ellison, Highways Sector Director, said: ‘Our submission to the Charter included input from across our projects in Wales and is in recognition of the big collaborative effort of our teams to develop sustainable solutions that meet our customer’s needs and drive improvements across our business.”

For more information about the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Development Charter and Cynnal Cymru-Sustain Wales, please click on the links below:

Sustainable Development Charter

Sustainable Development Charter: Annual Report 2015/16

Cynnal Cymru

 

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