SPECIFY FOR A SUSTAINABLE SECTOR

For 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. Here, Jon Chamberlain, Managing Director at Marshall-Tufflex, discusses the environmental impact of the construction industry and how responsible selection of cable management systems can help to make a difference.

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, which is estimated to account for 40% of the UK’s total carbon footprint, the focus is often on reducing operational carbon – the ongoing emissions associated with the day-to-day use of the building. 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.

Industry impact – waste

In addition to carbon, 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 virgin 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.