Sustainability

Bowmer & Kirkland has been appointed on a £54m glass-research centre in Merseyside. The firm was selected through the North West Construction Hub to build the facility, for which developer Network Space has just submitted a planning application. The 160,000 square foot Centre of Excellence in St Helens will be…

Horizon Nuclear Power has officially withdrawn its application to build the proposed Wyfla Newydd nuclear facility, dashing hopes a new investor might take over on the scheme. In December, the company, a subsidiary of Hitachi, was granted a delay to the scheme’s development consent order after it said it was…

Laing O’Rourke will install charging points at some employees’ homes as part of a plan to move all its company cars to hybrids or electric vehicles by 2025. The contractor said it estimates it will save up to 1,000 tonnes of carbon by switching from diesel and petrol company cars.…

Policy changes to “radically improve” the energy performance of new homes will be fully introduced by 2025, the government has said. Its Future Homes Standard will be launched in stages through updates to the energy and ventilation sections of Building Regulations, with the first stage of enforcement beginning in June…

A petition calling for an immediate halt to construction on HS2, launched by environmental campaigner Chris Packham, has passed the 10,000-signatures mark required to trigger a government response. At the time of writing, the petition remained well short of the 100,000 signatures required for a parliamentary debate, but was the…

The Supreme Court has lifted a ban on the Heathrow Airport third runway scheme, meaning the project team could seek planning permission for the megaproject. The ban was issued by the Court of Appeal in February, when judges ruled that the plans had been unlawfully approved by government. They said…

Lendlease has announced plans to eliminate the use of diesel on its construction sites in Europe as part of its aim to become “absolute zero carbon” by 2040. The Australian contractor said it wants to ensure all the electricity the company procures is from clean, renewable sources. These goals were…

Balfour Beatty’s group sustainability director Kari Sprostanova has said the company needs the supply chain’s help to improve sustainability. The contractor launched a 20-year sustainability strategy called Build New Features, this week. It includes pledges from the firm to reduce waste generation by 40 per cent by 2030 and go…

A new vehicle aimed at speeding up large-scale developments that cross planning boundaries has been unveiled in the East Midlands. The East Midlands Development Corporation is being pushed by local authorities, universities and some businesses in the area, who say it will help deliver large developments, including a ‘Garden of…

The HS2 rail project is to form a new environmental sustainability group, reporting directly to HS2’s management board, charged with improving the project’s environmental strategy. The sustainability committee’s first task will be to review HS2’s existing environmental policies and objectives. It will also report on the project’s progress towards its…