11 February 2014

Costain has signed up to the Government’s Infrastructure Carbon Review which aims to reduce carbon in infrastructure and help the UK economy save as much as 24 million tonnes of carbon and £1.46 billion a year by 2050.

Costain’s Chief Executive, Andrew Wyllie, signed the endorsement joining Costain with a host of agencies and construction/engineering and utilities companies in backing the initiative.

The Infrastructure Carbon Review, published in November 2013, makes the business case for reducing infrastructure emissions as a means of reducing costs, driving innovation and resource efficiency, and providing competitive advantages.

The review, which was developed jointly by Government and industry through the Infrastructure Cost Review and the Green Construction Board, aims to drive efficiency savings of 15% across public infrastructure projects by 2015.

The review said carbon reduction commitments by the industry must be driven by effective leadership within an organisation and it urged businesses to set carbon reduction as a "core organisational value" backed by transparent, visible reporting against public targets.

As part of the endorsement, Costain has agreed to six key pledges covering leadership, innovation and procurement.

Costain has made great strides over the last three years in significantly reducing its emissions intensity by 30% and the Company aims to see a 55% reduction in Emission Intensity by 2020, against a 2009 baseline, by actively engaging with its employees, customers and supply chain.

Costain is also working with its customers to provide them with low cost low carbon solutions to help reduce their carbon emissions.

“We are very proud to be associated with the Infrastructure Carbon Review and the long-term benefits it will deliver to the UK. We engage with our key suppliers and clients in order to ensure emissions are being accurately quantified and reduced wherever possible,” said Damien Canning, Costain’s Carbon Manager.

On the same day Costain signed up to the Infrastructure Carbon Review, the Company was also included in CDP’s Supplier Climate Performance Leadership Index.

The index is based on supply chain program data from 2,868 suppliers that disclose climate change data at the request of their customers, namely CDP's 64 supply chain members.  Costain was one of only 79 suppliers to make it into the international leadership index, which means the Company was in the top 3% of all the companies who participated.

 

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