Energy efficiency

ISO 50001 achieved

We became the first company in the construction materials sector to achieve the international energy efficiency standard ISO 50001 across all business lines achieving compliance with the government’s Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) legislation by the required date. 

The standard covers measuring, recording and reducing energy use, along with training and procurement.  Many of its requirements were already part of our integrated management system, but achieving the standard provides a greater focus on energy and in particular recording the improvements we are implementing.

There was a two per cent fall in energy use per tonne of product, although the 2020 target remains challenging. A move to wet batch concrete plants, which improves the quality of the material and reduces the cement content, has increased energy use. The addition of recycled asphalt planings into new asphalt mixes, which requires higher mixing temperatures, has also had a negative effect, although we are developing low temperature asphalts with recycled content.We introduced a new metric this year for ISO 50001 reporting which looks at each business line against relative production in 2012 to ensure we have like-for-like comparisons for energy use.

We continue to invest in new technology and to embed energy awareness into the business. We encourage employees to generate energy saving ideas for entry into our opportunities database or share best practice through the sustainability matters working groups.

Energy consumption

Energy consumption
	2010 (baseline)	2013	2014	2015	% change since 2010	% change since 2014
Energy consumption – kilowatt hours per tonne	75.84	81.00	86.15	84.40	11.3%	-2.0%
Energy consumption – total megawatt hours	2,964,572	3,186,804	3,539,726	3,552,520	19.8%	0.4%

 

Click here for data by business line