CLC launch Five Client Carbon Commitments
The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has launched the Five Client Carbon Commitments - 5 practical steps organisations can take to show how they are reducing their carbon emissions and by when.
The Five Client Carbon Commitments are:
- Procure for low carbon construction and provide incentives in contracts.
- Set phase out dates for fossil fuel use.
- Eliminate the most carbon intensive concrete products.
- Eliminate the most carbon intensive steel products.
- Sign up to PAS 2080, allowing a common standard in carbon management and reporting.
Six organisations have made this commitment: Anglian Water; Heathrow; the Lower Thames Crossing; National Highways; Northumbrian Water; and Sellafield Ltd.
By signing up to these five pledges, organisations are demonstrating their commitment to significantly cut their construction carbon emissions and setting out their own roadmaps to achieve those commitments, the CLC says.
The pledges cover the largest emitting areas in infrastructure delivery, including ending the use of diesel on construction sites (by transitioning to alternative energy sources such as diesel replacements, green hydrogen, and electric powered plant) and shifting to the lowest carbon sources of concrete and steel available.
The CLC is also asking client organisations to commit to using PAS 2080, creating a common carbon management standard across the industry, and to put carbon reduction at the heart of their procurement process. These pledges are a move that has been pioneered by the Lower Thames Crossing, building on their own internal work to reduce emissions.
The organisations which have already signed up are expected to invest tens of billions into UK infrastructure over the next decade and, through their buying power, can collectively give certainty to the supply chain on the increased demand for innovative low carbon products and solutions.
Industry Minister and Co-Chair of the Construction Leadership Council Alan Mak said:
From investing in green skills and tech to boosting investment and innovation, there are huge opportunities in decarbonising for the UK construction sector.
Through the Construct Zero framework, we could see thousands of new green jobs and billions in private sector investment being added to the UK economy. It's fantastic to see these five Client Carbon Commitments signed today, which will go a long way towards achieving these ambitions.
Mark Reynolds, Group Chairman and Chief Executive of Mace and Co-Chair of the Construction Leadership Council said:
We are now at an inflection point where wholesale changes, brought about through cross-industry collaboration, are the only way to meet the speed and scale that Net Zero 2050 demands. Our launch of COâ‚‚nstructZero in 2020 and the success we've seen so far has shown the value of collective frameworks. By creating these commitments for infrastructure delivery will allow clients in our industry to pursue more sustainable outcomes in a coordinated way – helping us all work together across the sector to drive towards decarbonisation.”