An inability to accurately measure the sustainability of a construction project is costing British firms millions of pounds worth of new contracts, says one group of industry experts.
The criteria for many tenders now states that in order to win a contract, construction sites need to be able to prove their dedication towards sustainability, by employing at least 10% of the workforce locally.
On many sites, from those with upwards of one hundred employees present at any point in time, measuring the origin of everybody who enters and leaves a site can be at least, exceptionally difficult and at worst, impossible.
Furthermore, knowing who is on or off a construction site is critical to site management , for health and safety reasons, but also for evidence of the sustainable credentials of the project, such as monitoring the carbon emissions of all who travel to and from the site.
However, this does not have to be the case, according to Paul Whiting, Director of Eco Security, a new initiative which is working with construction firms to help them provide accurate information and transparency in these areas.
"The Balfour Beatty test site at Holden Lane in Stoke on Trent is a trial run using the Infobric software in order to collect information such as co2 emissions. We are also running bespoke reports on the fire alarm system in line with this, to demonstrate that it is possible to monitor and collect such information. This approach will run for 18 months, allowing Balfour Beatty to access reports remotely for due diligence purposes at any time".
The Eco Security initiative has been established to assist construction firms not only with a full service security proposition for their sites, but also a solution to the issues of quantifying the volume of employees on a site, tracking their origin and any other specific criteria required as part of the contract.
In addition to offering traditional security services such as the installation and remote monitoring of video surveillance and intruder detection systems, it is the groups exclusive rights to the use of Swedish firm Infobric's software and Ievo fingerprint recognition which is regarded as the key to solving sustainability headaches.
Installed at construction site turnstiles, it displays accurate real-time data about where the worker has travelled from, monitors the C02 emissions on site and quantifies the total number of workforce on site at any time.
