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Our environment

Environmental management is an essential part of our approach to good business management, particularly as our construction related activities have direct environmental impacts. Costs of waste disposal, energy and construction materials are expected to continue to increase over the long term, so managing our environmental inputs and outputs is also integral to reducing site operational costs and increasing efficiency.

Group environmental programme

Over the past two years, we have developed a common framework for the management of both risks and opportunities that are generated by the increased focus on the environment. It is important that such a framework reflects the different drivers – economic and socio-political – that determine where on the spectrum of environmental best practice the different regions in which we operate are positioned. Whilst, as with safety, our ultimate goal is to raise the overall standard to that of the best performing businesses, we know that this will take time.

Our Environmental Policy reflects the credentials of our most environmentally progressive businesses. We expect all of our businesses to aspire to these credentials and to ensure that they become embedded in their business processes as soon as is reasonably practicable. The policy can be found on our website (www.keller.co.uk).

Two years ago, we identified five initial environmental objectives, some of which we anticipated would be met by the end of 2010,whilst others were expected to take up to three years to achieve. The progress made to date is summarised in the table below:

Objective Progress made
Develop an energy reduction plan

Measurement and reporting of energy used in principal office and workshop buildings, motor vehicle fleet and operational plant and equipment was established in 2010. Some coverage and data quality issues remain to be resolved and accordingly, specific reduction targets will not be set until later this year, when we have more confidence in the robustness of the data. In the meantime, various energy-saving initiatives are underway around the Group, some of which are summarised on the next page.

Although we are not yet in a position to publish information on the carbon footprint of the whole Group, we have calculated the carbon footprint based on Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions only for Keller UK, using emissions factors published by the UK’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in September 2009 – see the box on page 21. Over time, we will extend the scope of this reporting to include other Group operations.
Provide environmental awareness training Just under 40% of employees have now received environmental awareness training.
Appoint environmental champions Environmental champions appointed in all divisions.
Communicate how we meet our customers’ environmental needs Our businesses in the UK, Australia and parts of CEMEA have made substantial progress in communicating through brochures and websites how they can help their customers with their environmental agendas. One example is ‘Sustainability and Keller Ltd’ – a booklet published last year, which sets out what sustainability means for our UK business.
Implement an environmental compliance programme All of our businesses have well developed environmental management systems and, outside of the US, all have rolling programmes of environmental inspections of sites and workshops.

Energy saving initiatives around the Group

  • Electronic monitoring devices, to record fuel efficiency of individual items of plant, are fitted to all of our new vibro equipment and are being gradually retrofitted to older equipment in Germany.
  • CEMEA division is conducting post-project reviews of fuel consumption on large jobs to identify energy efficiency opportunities.
  • Several of our businesses have introduced auto shut-off to eliminate engine idling across our heavy equipment; others regularly run ‘switch it off’ campaigns.
  • We have a policy of ‘right sizing’ equipment, such that no more than the required level of power is used.
  • Suncoast has installed on a proportion of its motor fleet an on-board monitoring device designed to reduce fuel consumption.
  • Most businesses have reduced their average motor fleet age and introduced more efficient and cleaner engine technology.
  • By replacing personal company cars with a car and fuel allowance, Hayward Baker believes that it has reduced both its direct and indirect vehicle fuel consumption.

Keller UK: Carbon footprint – Scope 1 and 2 emissions

We have estimated the Scope 1 and 2 absolute tonnes equivalent CO2 for our UK operations as shown below.

We are not subject to the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme in the UK, as our energy usage falls well below the scheme’s threshold.
CO2e (tonnes) kWh
2010 2009 2010 2009
Scope 1 – direct emissions
Fossil fuel use on-site 65 63 351,069 342,919
Owned road vehicles 1,357 1,527 5,367,267 6,035,643
Scope 2 – indirect emissions ‘electricity and imports’
Electricity 432 401 793,934 737,033
Total 1,854 1,991 6,512,270 7,115,595
Absolute tonnes equivalent CO2 per £m of revenue 37 35

2011 Environmental objectives

Individual objectives have been set by division and some examples of these are shown in the box below.

Examples of divisional environmental objectives for 2011

  • CEMEA – improved quarterly environmental reporting.
  • CEMEA and Australia – energy reduction programmes to be agreed for individual businesses.
  • Australia – four businesses to achieve ISO 14000 – Environmental Management Systems (Waterway already has this accreditation).
  • UK – achieve a 10% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 as measured at our fixed installations.
  • UK – reduce use of potable water by 10% by 2012 at our depots and offices; encourage the use of grey water on site.
  • UK – reduce dust and noise through improvements in site methods and machinery.
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