Connecting with Local Sub-contractors to Help Meet our Sustainability Goals

When embarking on new developments for our clients, we are always keen to partner with local sub-contractors and suppliers who share the same social value and sustainability values as Bouygues UK’s.

Recently, we’ve been particularly keen to connect with businesses from around south and west Wales looking to collaborate on our project in Llanelli, Pentre Awel. Being delivered by Carmarthenshire County Council, Pentre Awel is the largest regeneration scheme in south west Wales. It will bring together life science and business innovation, community healthcare and modern leisure facilities at the 83-acre Delta Lakes site on the Llanelli coastline.

As an innovative, multi-million-pound development, there are a number of opportunities for sub-contractors in the area. With sustainability and community at the heart of the scheme, we knew how important it would be to choose the right partners to make sure everyone involved would be adding value and help all our stakeholders reach their CSR targets.

We are proud to have already started working with many local sub-contractors at the Pentre Awel site, as part of our commitment to provide employment, training and skills opportunities to local people and underrepresented groups. Companies so far working with us on Pentre Awel include: Green4Wales, Redsix Partnership, Gavin Griffiths Group, Dyfed Steels, Dyfed Recycling Services, Owen Haulage and Shufflebottom – and Bouygues UK is keen to increase that number further.

All these companies are supporting Bouygues UK with our sustainability initiatives on site, of which there are many. Green4Wales is providing Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) fuel to the site and the project’s supply chain, reducing the amount of fossil fuel being used and helping Bouygues UK reduce its carbon emissions. Redsix Partnership is undertaking the site’s One Click Life Cycle Assessment report, to help track the project’s environmental impact and embodied carbon.

Gavin Griffiths Group is recycling the project’s concrete pile cap and repurposing the material for use in other areas of the build. Dyfed Recycling is taking waste from the project, 99% of which is being recycled, while Owens Haulage is storing office furniture from Bouygues UK’s other projects so it can be reused at Pentre Awel rather than being sent to landfill.

Sustainability is also high on the agenda of the companies working on the physical structure of the building. Dyfed Steels is providing the reinforcement bar for the project’s foundations which has 98% recycled content, and Shufflebottom is providing the structural steel for the building, which also has 80% recycled content.

Peter Sharpe, Bouygues UK’s Pentre Awel Project Director, said:

As a west Wales boy, it’s great to be working with so many local companies, and we are keen to collaborate with even more…It is a key objective for Bouygues UK to deliver employment and training for local people and companies, to ensure that we leave a legacy long after the building work on Pentre Awel is finished…The more companies we meet, the more opportunities we will have to work with them and create local jobs when we start work later in the year.

Cllr. Gareth John, Carmarthenshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Leisure, Culture and Tourism said:

As a County Council we have been working with Bouygues UK in promoting the opportunities for local sub-contractors, suppliers, and businesses within the construction industry…There are real opportunities for local businesses across a wide range of trades to work on the project. This can either be directly to Bouygues UK as the principal contractor or via the many sub-contractor packages and appointments linked to such a large construction project.

Bouygues UK has opportunities for numerous trades over the next few years of the project, from those in external works to companies who specialise in internal fixings, and we look forward to continuing our strong collaboration with those local to the project. Only through such close partnerships can we ensure that Pentre Awel will be a renowned success both during its construction phase and for decades to come once in operation.