Sustainability Week at Bouygues UK

This week we are hosting our Sustainability Week; a week-long event dedicated to boosting awareness and encouraging positive action for the planet.

2021 was a big year for Bouygues Construction in the UK in terms of sustainability advances. After launching our internal, employee-led Green Network this time last year, a host of initiatives were rolled out over the course of the year. From successfully trialling Giki‘s Carbon Footprint Tool to running a number of Environmental Awareness Training sessions in partnership with Bioregional and their One Planet Living framework and the Supply Chain Sustainability School, making our business as sustainable as possible has been and continues to be a top priority for us.

More concretely, our UK entities have managed to reduce the carbon emissions produced by electricity on construction sites, fuel from site machines, energy consumption at head offices and local offices, and vehicle fleets by approximately 18% since 2019. We are also proud to be able to say that the electricity at our head office, Becket House and 100% of Bouygues UK’s sites, when not client fed, is certified 100% renewable and REGO backed, making our electricity consumptions virtually zero carbon.

We are working with One Click LCA to reduce our upstream scope 3 emissions (N.B. Scope 3A (upstream): purchase of products and construction materials, freight, fixed assets, IT equipment) by systematically performing carbon Life Cycle Assessments. This will allow us to identify and tackle our main carbon contributors, particularly working focusing on concrete, steel and partition systems, as well as maximising recycled materials and resource efficiency.

Our sites have also made significant environmental advances, with some switching to HVO powered Plants, and others working with Community Wood Recycling, saving 200 tonnes of carbon by recycling wood waste on sites. Across our Bouygues UK sites we have diverted roughly 98% of non-hazardous waste from Landfill.

Bouygues UK has high ambitions for 2022, focusing on moving further away from fossil fuels towards electric and hydrogen plant, increasing awareness and understanding, whilst continuing to supporting clients and the wider industry in our environmental transition. We are also increasing our efforts to enhance biodiversity on our sites through the development of partnerships following on from the successful and award winning BeeOdiversity implementation.

We are committed to reducing waste and improving resource efficiency across all our sites, throughout the duration of our projects’ lifetimes. Putting our net-zero journey first is a priority for Bouygues UK not just during our sustainability week but during every week of the year.