Building a greener future Skanska

BUILDING A GREENER FUTURE

Skanska is a global project development group based in Sweden that leads the world in the construction of environmentally friendly buildings and infrastructure. Philip Yorke reports on a company that continues to set the standards for the construction industry with its innovative and sustainable building processes.

Skanska was founded in Sweden in1887 and has grown to be one of the world’s biggest and most respected construction companies. Skanska is a complex and highly decentralised company. Being a global project-based group, the organisation is constantly changing shape as its teams of employees and subcontractors disband and regroup over the lifetime of a project. Today Skanska operates four distinct business divisions: construction, residential development, commercial property development and infrastructure.

Construction is the group’s largest business stream both in terms of revenue and the number of employees. Close collaboration with its other business units and the company’s collective financial resources, make it possible for Skanska to undertake very large and complex global projects.

For example, the Skanska won the prestige contract for building the distribution centre for the renewal of the New York Trade Centre. In such vast projects, few can match Skanska’s expertise and breadth of know-how. However, today the largest business opportunity for the company is in the field of sustainable development. Skanska wants to help build a ‘Deep Green’ society, which is a place where all projects have near-zero environmental impact.

Putting the environment first

Today Skanska’s environmental agenda embraces energy, carbon, materials, water and other local environmental considerations. The implementation of change and its environmental agenda is the responsibility of the company’s line managers, who are supported by corporate professionals and individuals with the appropriate competences for each business unit.

In pioneering sustainable initiatives, Skanska is also a pro-active participant in a number of international sustainability initiatives, which include many significant global organisations. Skanska also supports green building initiatives and green councils throughout Europe, the USA and Scandinavia. Deep Green Projects

Global ‘Deep Green’ projects, such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Brock Environmental Centre in Virginia, USA, have achieved near-zero environmental impacts during construction and operation. Today Skanska is ranked high in the ‘Climate A List’, which is an international organisation that highlights the important role of companies in achieving the society’s goals for protection of the environment. The coveted ‘A List’ is based on corporate performance in four key areas: disclosure, awareness, management and leadership.

“We are extremely proud of this recognition, which validates our progress in measuring and starting our reduction programme to reduce carbon emissions as part of our ‘Care for Life’ values,” says Anna Akes-

son, Skanska AB’s senior environmental manager. “This is an important milestone on our journey to be the leading green project developer and contractor, and to become a leading low-carbon organisation.”

Reducing carbon has been a Skanska goal since 2009, when the company launched the ‘Skanska Colour Palette’™. This is a tool to measure and strategically guide its green activities towards what the company calls, its Deep Green™ operations. These are projects with near-zero environmental impacts both during construction and in the day-to-day operation of the building or infrastructure.

Buildings and infrastructure are major producers of carbon emissions. The severity of the carbon levels depends upon how they are constructed. For example, research shows that buildings currently use approximately 40 per cent of all energy globally, and they generate around one third of global greenhouse gas emissions. This provides Skanska with a significant opportunity to use its green expertise and technology to help society worldwide by dramatically reducing carbon emission levels.

Setting new world standards

Throughout the world Skanska is working to protect the environment and nowhere more so than in the USA, which is the world’s number one contributor to greenhouse gases. In the USA it is common to have buildings certified to a green ratings system such as LEED. But with civil infrastructure like highways, transit lines and power plants, there has not

been a widely used green infrastructure rating system like CEEQUAL from the UK, and today Skanska is playing a leading role with ‘Envision’ in filling that gap and guiding the system’s development.

An example of this new system in action is the Los Angeles’

Expo-Line, a light rail extension where a Skanska-led joint venture has designed and built the first transit project to be certified under ‘Envision’ – a green infrastructure rating system, which is fast gaining in popularity in the US. The ten-kilometre rail extension was certified at Envision’s Platinum level, which is the highest rating possible.

“We believe that co-certification helps drive innovation and efficiency, which is positive for everyone involved, including our customers, local communities and the environment, as well as our business,” says Greg Chant-Hall, head of sustainability for Skanska Infrastructure Development.

Administered by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI), Envision consists of a broad range of criteria that address a project’s impact on the surrounding community and the environment. In many key ways, Envision aligns closely with how Skanska defines sustainability. Today Skanska sees significant potential for improving green infrastructure projects in the US as well as in other countries worldwide. n For further details of Skanska’s global projects and environmental management systems visit: www.skanska.com