Joseph Gallagher

JOSEPH GALLAGHER LTD GREEN ETHICS AT THE CORE OF ENGINEERING powered by Inside Sustainability

GREEN ETHICS

AT THE

OF ENGINEERING

Joseph Gallagher Ltd has vast experience in tunnelling and civil engineering projects in the UK and internationally. With an ethos of delivering ‘the right solution,’ Group Environmental and Sustainability Manager Ian Ford revealed the extent to which safety and sustainability are indelibly wrapped around JGL’s day-to-day operations. By Andy Probert.

The year 2021 proved a high watermark in Joseph Gallagher Ltd’s (JGL) work on sustainability, when it won three Green Apple Awards for Environmental Best Practice.

It was proof enough that sustainability has a strong symbiotic living presence in JGL, one of the UK’s leading civil engineering and tunnelling specialists.

The gold award in the Carbon Reduction category highlighted how JGL had invested in a new system that allows the business to track and monitor its energy use and carbon emissions – both emitted and embodied. The system will be employed to develop smart goals and reduce targets in line with science-based formulae.

It also received two bronze awards for environmental improvement practices and best practices in the community benefit category.

For Group Environmental and Sustainability Manager Ian Ford and his team, the awards were quiet vindication for all the work they have put in to make sustainability an over riding factor when it comes to delivering on JGL’s complex infrastructure projects in the UK and globally.

These include HS2, The Channel Tunnel Rail Link, London Underground, Hindhead Tunnel, Crossrail at Mile End and the Connaught Tunnel, as well as utility and private sector projects. The business is also working in Kuwait on a waste treat ment plant that will handle a daily capacity of 700,000 cbm of water, and a 460km outsea flow pipe.

With a turnover of over £100 million and employing 900 people, tunnelling remains the core business around which the rest of the Essex-headquartered group is built.

Sustainability in action

“Sustainability is a crucial part of JGL, and we have definitely reinvigorated and renewed our approach to it. Sustainability is as much about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations,” said Mr Ford.

“We are always looking at how we’ll operate in several years’ time. If we don’t change our practices as an industry, which is notoriously pollutant and wasteful, we

won’t keep going. Over the years, JGL’s changes have been astronomic.

The UK government-led vision of a carbonneutral world by 2050 has prompted the suppliers and contractors to consider their work in line with greener approaches. And JGL has not been slow in coming forward in wanting to meet its own targets.

In 2021, 40% of all JGL’s primary materials , such as concrete, aggregates, steel, and wood, came from verified and certified third-party certified responsible sources. In 2022, that figure had reached 50%, is due to be 65% by the end of the year, and with ambitions to be between 70% and 80% by the end of 2023.

“It shows how far industry has come and for a Tier 2 contractor like JGL,” remarked Mr Ford. “Things have changed dramati cally, and we know that in the next five to 10 years, a 50% required minimum of sustainable resourcing will be the norm for industry.

“We have to reduce any environmental harm and how we can achieve that, through design, or a lower carbon solution. We can only change the world in collaboration with our suppliers, contractors and clients.”

One practical element to becoming carbon neutral was JGL’s willingness to embrace new ways of thinking and harnessing its employees’ skillsets. They transformed an old, retired diesel concrete pump into an electric pump by replacing a 75hp 111B diesel engine with a 55KW electric motor.

The converted pump now offers a CO2e reduction of 80% and energy (kWh) use reduction of 77%. Along with other

Ian Ford Sustainability Manager

enhancements, such as making the pump quieter, the company has now converted two additional pumps to electric.

“Not only have we brought a new lease of life back into old pumps, but generated a green solution benefitting the business and the environment,” said Mr Ford.

F urther standouts for 2021 on the JGL’s sustainability front included achieving 195.5 tCO2e per £1 million turnover and 45.8MWh per £1 miilion turnover, while 98% of waste was diverted from a nonbeneficial landfill.

Around 15% of staff have qualifications in environmental and sustainable disci plines – a 7% increase on 2020. Also 7.1% of JGL’s heavy plant fuel came from green alternative fuels, saving 73.79 tonnes of CO2e emissions.

The company is also a Green World Ambassador: sustainable initiatives are chronicled and to act as a platform to

discuss issues within the industry and seek new solutions to minimise environ mental impact.

Carbon-neutral target

One of the spinoffs of the carbon-neutral 2050 position is that banks are positively identifying companies that pursue greener ideals, with a more favourable bank-tobusiness relationship.

Mr Ford said: “Banks offer more favourable interest rates on loans to companies, such as JGL, who are want to achieve a sustainable future.”

In 2022, JGL’s sustainable strategy, which is fully endorsed by senior man agement, took a significant step for ward. It achieved ISO 50001 energy management accreditation

Now 99.2% of its waste is diverted from non-beneficial landfill, more staff are being trained in environmental and

sustainable disciplines, and heavy plant fuel from green alternatives is on target to match 2021’s. JGL aims to be operating at a reduction of 2% in energy con sumption and carbon emissions over 2021’s targets.

Mr Ford said: “We have a lot of heavy plant on site, diesel is our number one emitter and for energy use. If we could remove diesel, we could reduce our emis sions by more than half; it would be astro nomically beneficial.”

So JGL is in a knowledge transfer part nership discussion with Manchester University. “They will recruit a doctorate engineer and they will help transition some of older engines to hydrogen, electric or hybrid versions.”

The company is also discussing with Bramble Energy the creation of a hydrogen housed generator for building sites in remote areas, and to trial it on a JGLassigned project. JGL has also bought a new set of low-emitting HSC 180t stage V lattice cranes, which are among the first in the UK.

As a result of winning Gold at the 2021 Green Apple Awards, JGL is now eyeing the World Green Awards in 2023.

Mr Ford concluded: “It demonstrates we have an ever growing focus on HSE, quality and sustainability. Holistically, they all support the work we’re achieving on the ground and with our partners. Overall, JGL’s ambition is to be carbon-neutral by at least 2040.”