Turning the lights green Skanska

TURNING THE LIGHTS GREEN

Skanska is a global construction and project development group based in Sweden. It leads the world in the construction of environmentally friendly buildings and infrastructure. Philip Yorke reports.

Skanska was founded in Sweden in1887 and has grown to become one of the world’s largest and most respected construction groups. 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 re-group 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 highly complex global projects.

Currently the largest business opportunity for the company is in the field of sustainable development. Skanska says it wants to help build a ‘Deep Green’ society, which is a place where all projects have near-zero environmental impact. In keeping with its care-for-life value, Skanska promotes green solutions and seeks to conduct operations utilising green practices. The group aspires to go beyond compliance and to push toward future-proof projects. The company’s key geographic markets are the Nordic region, Europe and the USA. In 2017 Skanska recorded sales of more than SEK161 billion. Futuristic leD technologies

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

A current example of how Skanska is transforming traditional energy concepts and technologies is a futuristic ‘green lighting’ project, which involves upgrading ageing city lights in Gloucestershire, UK with its latest LED technology, thus enabling it to cut carbon emissions

by an estimated 7000 tonnes a year. The upgrade is also expected to save over £17 million in energy costs over the next 12 years.

In Gloucestershire, almost 55,000 street lights are being replaced with Skanska’s energy-efficient LEDs. Compared to traditional lamps, LED street lights are much more cost- and energy-efficient, as well as being more reliable and easier to maintain. The initial installation will take place over four years and this will be followed by a maintenance period that together provides the group with a contract worth a total of around £40 million.

Revolutionising site efficiency

Skanska, in partnership with Volvo, is currently testing the viability of its ‘electric-site’ concept at Skanska’s Vikan Kross quarry, near Gothenburg, Sweden. The system, which incorporates both electric and autonomous machines, will run in a real production environment for 10 weeks, delivering an anticipated 95 per cent reduction in carbon emissions and up to 25 per cent reduction in total cost of operations. This futuristic new system will revolutionise site efficiency wherever it is employed.

Skanska’s unique Site Assist system has three main functions. Firstly, it controls the overall operation at the Electric Site. This involves, for example, choosing which automated machines should be active and what work different machines should undertake. Secondly, Site Assist provides insight in top production KPIs, such as how much material is being produced. Finally the system acts as the integration point of data between all the various units and systems being used on-site. Together, these functions enable Site Assist to coordinate all operations simultaneously.

In addition, thanks to Site Assist, the autonomous machines can share information with one another, for example, where they want others to be and work together as a close-knit fleet. This enables continuous extraction of gravel from the quarry pit, which results in more efficient equipment flow, improved cost efficiency and significant time savings on site.

New Green Strategy

Recently, Skanska set itself a new Green Strategy. It focuses on zero/ low-carbon solutions, which support the carbon reduction ambitions of many customers and of our society. Another part of the new strategy is significantly reducing the group’s carbon emissions footprint by 2030, in line with the Paris International Climate Agreement.

Beyond providing benefits to customers, the environment and our society, Skanska’s ambition to minimise carbon emissions also drives improved efficiencies in the group’s overall operations. This reduces usage or emissions of energy, carbon materials and water, lowering costs and requiring smarter and more collaborative ways of working.

To further this strategy, Skanska conducts regular carbon analyses and works on developing carbon roadmaps and action plans. The company also uses Green Strategic Indicators to measure green performance. These cover three areas: increasing the level of green business; management support and the training of employees on green subjects; and supporting teams to deliver projects with improved green profiles. n

For further details of Skanska’s global projects and environmental management systems visit: www.skanska.com