COP26 and a climate of change throughout the built environment

Our sustainability team shares thoughts on the importance of COP26 and how it impacts the sector.

After being postponed for a year, COP26 commenced on 31 October. The global summit is regarded as one of the most critical climate events since the Paris Agreement.

Held at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow, COP26 will be the largest summit the UK has ever hosted with more than 30,000 attendees, including 196 signatories and leading political parties.

Its significance cannot be understated, with delegates, politicians, key figures and activists all in attendance to discuss the time-sensitive issues of reducing greenhouse emissions, with the aim of committing to measurable initiatives to cut emissions by 2030.

COP26 and construction

A key date for the construction industry is 11 November, when The Cities, Regions and Built Environment Day takes place. According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), buildings cause 40% of global carbon emissions and are responsible for 50% of all extracted materials. While these sobering figures are warnings to industry leaders worldwide, they have also galvanised Tilbury Douglas to adopt innovative solutions and behavioural changes to reduce built environment emissions where possible.

How COP26 impacts Tilbury Douglas

Committing to actionable change and embedding sustainability throughout all elements of the business are core focusses at Tilbury Douglas.

We can trace our robust heritage of environmental support to the 1800s, when we maintained the waterways of the Thames as the London and Tilbury Lighterage Company. This spirit of awareness and respect has grown with the business. It has driven our environmental collaboration across frameworks and it has fuelled our sustainability engagements with our vetted supply chain and local authority clients throughout the UK.

The spectre of climate change and the urgings of COP26 remind us that our sustainable and environmental responsibilities must have permanent and far-reaching impacts.

Sustainability as a standard

Our new sustainability strategy is not only a measurement tool, but a comprehensive and integrative solution that delivers sustainability to our customers, project teams, suppliers and the environments we operate in. One of its key aims is to reduce our carbon intensity and achieve net zero emissions in our own operations by the end of 2023, along with a wider target of achieving net zero emissions by 2040.

Our Carbon Reduction Plan also represents our commitment to achieving net zero and provides a baseline emissions footprint to measure our progress against. Additionally, we track our carbon footprint through the Achilles Carbon Reduce programme, a globally recognised standard. Through it, we were Carbon Reduce Certified for 2020. We will continue to monitor our performance and work towards certification for 2021, with a view to expand our scope of emissions, verified through this scheme.

Furthermore, we continue to collaborate with our supply chain partners by incorporating a sustainability-focus throughout our interactions, business and projects. We are strengthening our Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) initiatives and are swiftly moving more towards technological innovation and digital operations to reduce waste, material use and pollution around sites. Thus, we look to modular solutions and MMC as significant ways to feature sustainability as a key metric in our business strategy.

Teaching and teamwork

Working with our customers is also integral to upholding our sustainability strategy. We aim to help them understand the environmental potential of their projects through our deep portfolio of experience, adherence to governing regulations and implementation of leading industry standards. Our collaborative efforts enable us to share our environmental knowledge and success regarding:

• BREEAM
• Passivhaus
• Net Zero Carbon
• Carbon offsetting
• Environmental enhancements

We will keenly follow COP26 as part of our continued learning. By doing so, we can ensure we are doing our part in controlling emissions and reining in climate change.  Pursuing sustainability as a standard rather than an aspiration is something we are passionate about and we look forward to working with the communities we operate it and our customers in forging a greener and cleaner future.