health & safety and environment

Health & Safety

Health and safety is at the top of our agenda and it is our aim to achieve a working environment which is free of work related accidents and ill-health in any occupied work area. To this end we pursue continuing improvements from year to year.

We employ skilled staff who possess all relevant Health & Safety qualifications and all our staff receive a comprehensive induction on Health & Safety procedures. We have a culture of continuing professional development ensuring that employees receive ongoing training so that they have all the necessary skills, understanding and qualifications to carry out their health and safety duties.

All our sub-contractors are approved, having been vetted on Health & Safety and Quality and they are required to use our Quality and Health & Safety systems and procedures.

Our robust programme of risk assessments and site audits ensures that we implement safe systems of works on site.

Environment

Sustainability and environmental awareness has risen to become paramount to successful operation of the construction industry and we believe that maintaining the momentum in this area is critical to our continuous improvement philosophy.

We review our environmental performance on a continual basis as part of our Environmental Management System. We also conduct audits of site operations on an ongoing basis in order to measure compliance and best practice with regular 'toolbox' talks and spot checks taking place to ensure that waste reduction/recycling is at the forefront of everyone's mind.

We have specific targets to improve performance against our most significant environmental aspects, including:

- Waste Management and recycling
- Site energy use
- Deliveries and staff travel

A substantial amount of projects that we deal with receive planning consent subject to their BREEAM rating. It is standard practice for our designers and our engineers to find innovative solutions that minimise environmental impact, reduce running costs and improve working and living environments in line with BREEAM recommendations.

Examples of innovative products and processes we utilise are:

- Natural ventilation
- Rain water harvesting
- Closed loop energy pile ground source heat pump system
- Wind turbines
- Photo-voltaics
- Natural Ventilation
- Rain water harvesting
- Solar Hot water
- Biomass boiler heat source
- Under-floor heating
- Packaged plant rooms
- Off-site fabrication
- Sensor controlled lighting
- Improved BMS controls
- Improved preventative maintenance programmes
- Improved 'Carbon Credit' awareness
- Modular construction
- Modular wiring
- 'Just in time' delivery
- Heat reclaim
- Modern methods of Construction (prefabricated plant rooms/risers)
- Utilisation of tektite heat free joints
- GSHP Open Loop systems
- GSHO Closed Loop systems

We are CHAS and SAFEContractor accredited and are currently working towards ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 with an anticipated formal qualification date of January 2011.