Building for the future is a top priority for us at Bouygues UK.
As part of a family business and a global Group, the responsibility of building for the future and leaving a positive legacy for the next generation is profoundly clear.
We know that, as a crucial component to our economy, the construction industry is key to building back better and delivering net zero. Not only will the industry have to adapt to design, build and operate new, ultra-low carbon infrastructure, but it will also have to decarbonise and make its operations much more sustainable – significantly reducing its environmental footprint.
Every project is an opportunity to build the future and at Bouygues UK, we are committed to ensuring this is the reality. We recognise that through working closely with our clients, supply chain partners and employees, we can help reduce our impact on the environment and bring sustainable benefits to the communities we work in.
Living in such a rapidly changing world means as a business, our commitment must be to ensure we make a positive contribution to the societal challenges we are all facing. To do this, we have to come together and be bold in our approach to how we operate. Our buildings must be resilient to the impacts of our changing climate whilst conserving natural resources, using responsible, low-carbon solutions, minimising the costs and improving people’s health and wellbeing.
We have set out our commitments to embedding climate and environmental mitigation and enhancements into our projects and developments under five major interconnected pillars.
Bouygues UK is committed to the care and protection of our planet and as such, we recognise our potential to harm the environment through our use of energy, both in terms of the depletion of reserves and resources, as well as the production of greenhouse gases associated with energy generation and use throughout our value chain.
It is our obligation and ambition to develop lasting systems capable of reducing this potential to cause damage to the world around us to an absolute minimum whilst continuing to meet our clients’ varying needs.
With the adoption of our climate strategy, we strive to reinvent the way we work and build, both to reduce our own carbon emissions and to optimise the environmental performance of our projects.
Designed to be deliberately adaptable, our Climate & Environment Strategy fundamentally translates as a contribution to the applicable key goals set out by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. To help focus our endeavours within our five major interconnected pillars, we have highlighted a number of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) relating to each of these pillars. We strive to monitor and improve on these KPIs to the highest extent possible, wherever we can.
How far have we come?
Over the last few years, we have made significant progress towards implementing the measures set out in our strategy to reduce our carbon footprint, better manage our waste output, and promote sustainable construction practices and initiatives throughout the business.
In our annual report, we have reviewed what was achieved last year against the KPIs set out in our strategy and, while we have made commendable advances thanks to total dedication from our colleagues across the business, we recognise that there is still much work to be done.
We plan to continually work to improve our performance in the years to come, and with strong support from our business, we are confident that our future annual reports will demonstrate how our commitment to the climate and environment is having a positive impact on the communities within which we work.
Our full annual report for 2023 can be found below but first, let’s take a look at how we performed last year against the 8 key KPIs outlined in our strategy.
Going forward, we have developed dedicated actions we will put in place to tackle the KPIs we have not yet been able to improve on. In many areas, our report shows improvements, sometimes significant ones, and we have high ambitions to maintain and further reinforce our efforts. We are particularly proud of the KPIs that report good results, demonstrating our high levels of engagement, like our commitment to carbon and waste diversion which are very closely monitored.
Carbon
As a responsible & committed company, Bouygues UK has long been innovating and developing sustainable solutions.
Adapting to the changing world around us means adapting our approach to ensure what we do create is truly as sustainable as possible. As a result, carbon is a key priority for us and our Climate & Environment goals.
Energy & WAter
Being a leader in the construction industry means Bouygues UK must ensure the efficient and safe use of energy and water to promote their conservation in the long-term.
Our corporate energy use has consequences on our ecosystems which is why limiting our consumption of energy, particularly if non-renewable, is at the heart of our Climate & Environment strategy. With the issues of water pollution and scarcity, land erosion and permafrost growing evermore pertinent, is it more crucial than ever for us to adapt our use of energy and water to protect and conserve.
Click below to learn more.
Biodiversity & Ecosystems
At Bouygues UK, we recognise our potential to cause harm to our surroundings and so our responsible approach to how we perceive and interact with the biodiversity and ecosystems around our sites is fundamental.
We are committed to improving our construction methods to reduce our impact on ecosystems, preventing environmental incidents on our sites and adding and restoring biodiversity wherever possible.
Waste & Materials
Our day-to-day activities mean we are at risk of producing waste materials when it could be avoided, knowing how damaging this would be for our planet.
To minimise this, Bouygues UK aims to employ a circular economy model wherever possible and implement smart design approaches to eliminate material wastage. We focus on raising awareness and exploring how this can be done without lessening productivity, innovation and competitivity. Our key strategy resides in building better with sustainable materials all whilst producing zero waste.
Higher Standards by Collaboration and Upskilling
Change comes through education first. Upskilling our workers’ knowledge on environmental challenges and arming them with the solutions to spark positive results is fundamental in our ability to make a difference as an organisation.
Guaranteeing change also comes through responsible partnerships, so we choose our supply chain partners carefully and collaborate to deliver high quality projects for our clients whilst ensuring that building sustainably is an absolute non-negotiable.
Our partners
Collaborating with other organisations putting climate and environment at the centre allows us to amplify resources, expertise, and innovation, fostering synergies that drive efficiency and shared success.
Get in touch
Reach out to find out more about our climate and environment ambitions and activities.
Romain Richli
Head of Climate & Environment
Join us
At Bouygues UK, we are dedicated to supporting, inspiring and challenging our teams to be the best they can be.
We know that attracting the best talent onto our next generation programmes is the most sustainable way to develop our future business leaders. We need people who share our passion to help communities to live, work and grow stronger through the projects we deliver.
