SPECIAL FEATURE
CABLING & CABLE MANAGEMENT
SPECIFYING SUSTAINABLE CABLE MANAGEMENT Sustainability in all areas of a building’s design and construction is now a priority. Here, Jon Chamberlain, Managing Director (Designate) at Marshall-Tufflex, discusses why responsible selection of plastic products, such as cable management systems, is essential, the current lack of attention on the issue and how the cable management industry has the potential to make a positive impact with buy-in from contractors.
F
or many businesses within construction, including electrical contractors, sustainability is an important part of their work, a core element of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy and an essential component of the tender process. This is increasingly true as a growing number of tenders require contractors to demonstrate sustainable practices for pre-qualification. However, one area where many otherwise environmentally conscious businesses are still lagging behind is on the use of responsibly sourced plastic products, especially cable management systems. There are two key and related environmental issues – carbon emissions and waste.
Carbon emissions It is now clear that action has to be taken to reduce – and even reverse – the impact of human activity on the environment in order to limit the potentially disastrous effects of climate change. For the built environment, the focus is often on reducing operational carbon, the ongoing emissions associated with the day to day use of the building. However, until recently, the embodied carbon has largely been overlooked.
Embodied carbon is the CO2 emitted in producing the materials and products, from the extraction of raw materials to manufacturing to installation in the building. This is one of the biggest issues for the built environment sector and the primary consideration for products such as cable management systems, which do not impact operational carbon emissions.
Waste
Marshall-Tufflex is aiming to increase the average recycled content in its products to reach 80% by the end of the year
In addition to the carbon impact, there is also the issue of waste. More than a third of the UK’s annual waste comes from the construction sector alone, of which an estimated 25 million tonnes is sent to landfill. In terms of plastic waste specifically, over one million tonnes of PVC-U is removed from buildings each year across Europe, yet currently only 30% of this is recycled. The issue of waste is closely linked to carbon emissions as recycling plastic requires far less energy than primary
plastic production. For example, in a study undertaken by the University of Manchester, it was found that a PVC-U window made from virgin material has 20 times more embodied carbon compared to one manufactured with recycled content.
Finding a solution This combination of factors demonstrates why the careful choice of products for both new build and refurbishment projects is so vitally important. The cable management products within a given building can represent a significant part of the interior fit-out, especially for larger buildings. Routing power, data, internet and other communication connections to all areas of the building is a requirement on a wide range of projects from offices and public buildings to healthcare and educational facilities. This also means there is a real opportunity to have an impact on the embodied carbon of the project and prevent waste by working with clients to
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30 | April 2022
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