Big Tick Winner

Alfred McAlpine Project Services - Greening the supply chain

EDF Energy Environmental Impact Award 2006 in association with the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment

Alfred McAlpine’s Board recognises that to achieve its vision of being the ‘contractor of choice’, its environmental performance must be second to none.

Processes

Alfred McAlpine Project Services (AMPS) is the construction services and development-led business stream of Alfred McAlpine. It provides building and civil engineering services to the public and private sectors.

In 2004, AMPS made the improvement of environmental knowledge and performance of key subcontractors part of its Quality, Environmental, Safety and Health management strategy (QUENSH) for the coming year. Progress on reaching this objective through the SETS was reported monthly and reviewed by the Board every six months, and has continued to be part of QUENSH objectives in both 2005 and 2006.

AMPS liaised with Project Managers, procurement and operational personnel to identify subcontractors with the greatest potential for environmental impact and in most need of environmental awareness training. The selected subcontractors were then invited to a free SETS seminar presented by AMPS Environmental Managers and external trainers to assist them in improving their environmental knowledge and practices.

AMPS has an established environmental awareness programme which is part of the QUENSH Management System. This programme includes dedicated environmental awareness training sessions, daily briefs given by foreman to discuss and describe environmental risks, and weekly Toolbox Talks on relevant environmental subjects. SETS builds on this established programme and was introduced alongside site Safety, Health and Environmental (SHE) awareness days for employees and contractors and SHE Awards.

Impact

  • Of the 36 contractors that attended the SETS seminars, 20 submitted Business Action Plans for improving their own Environmental Management Systems (EMS) Of that 20, 1 obtained ISO14001 certification and 4 made general improvements to their EMS
  • The SETS programme has strengthened AMPS's relationship with its supply chain, enabling better communication and understanding on both sides
  • The SETS programme is part of an overall AMPS objective to introduce a SHE supply chain grading scheme which grades subcontractors in terms of their SHE performance and management systems. This has been ongoing since 2005

See also