Maintaining sustainability through contracts

As concerns over the environment grow, the concept of sustainability and its relevance to the construction industry becomes ever more important.  NBS Technical Author Roland Finch explains more.

Sustainability is a word which seems to be on everyone's lips. It's not a new idea; in fact, although 2009 will commemorate the 40th anniversary of man's landing on the moon, it was not long afterwards that the term "sustainable" was first used in the context of development and society.

Moreover, this year will represent almost fifteen years since the Kyoto protocol in 1995, nearly twenty since the Rio Summit in 1992 and over 25 since the creation of the Bruntland Commission (1983) whose subsequent report, Our common future (1987) defined Sustainable Development as:

"Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".

It appears that we are now that future generation. But are our needs any closer to being met?

Sustainable construction

The construction industry contributes massively to the UK's economy. It is a large employer and huge consumer of resources, so it is inevitable that it should be a target area for improvement.

Sustainability, we are told, is about striking a balance. Of course, that depends on which side of the fulcrum you sit; with so many designers, manufacturers, suppliers and builders all claiming that their product or service is the "greenest", but all offering different measures, it is often difficult to arrive at a consensus.

A recurring theme, therefore, is legislation. Maybe if the Government can set standards, then regardless of whether everyone agrees, at least the position will be clearer.

There have already been a number of attempts at this – most notably by the continued use of the building regulations to improve recycling rates, insulation, air tightness and thermal properties of buildings.

However, this does not tell the whole story. There has also been separate European legislation aimed at:

• Corporate responsibility and community investment
• Improvements in environmental and social reporting
• Pollution and waste management
• Preventing use of environmentally damaging substances
• Producer responsibility for end-of-life products (such as waste electrical and electronic equipment - WEEE)
• Reducing waste, energy and natural resource use (e.g. landfill tax, aggregates levy)
   

Contractual requirements

The next step has been to investigate whether it is possible to introduce contractual requirements to be "sustainable".

During 2008, the Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT), publisher of the majority of UK "standard" construction contracts, undertook a consultation to see if agreement could be reached on a way forward. It was established fairly quickly that the topic was one of great importance to stakeholders, but there was less consensus on the answer. This is probably because the construction process is divided into two discrete parts, design and construction, and the solution is different in each case.

JCT's research concluded that the first place to address the problem was through the design process, but that this would still need to be done on a case-by-case basis. They note that their respondents wanted more "general" guidance on sustainability, together with improved contract conditions to enforce the requirement. It was suggested that there is already evidence that the way the procurement process operates and the materials that are used is changing.

They do not agree that a sustainable approach necessarily favours one form of procurement over another – the correct level can be achieved in any method by accurate and concise specification, rather than over reliance on "standard" terms requiring compliance with universal, rather than project specific, performance indicators. Ideas suggested for further consideration include the establishment of targets for:

• Energy and water use
• Waste minimisation and recycling
• Use of materials that come from sustainable sources
• Health and safety of the workforce on site
• Training and appropriate skills levels
• Integrated supply chain methods
• Improved working conditions for staff both on and off site
• Transport, both for staff and materials to and from the site
• Project carbon footprint.

JCT acknowledges that targets like these have an important role but where included in contracts they should not be overly prescriptive, while the terms should be clearly defined and agreed between all parties.

JCT also identifies that Clients need to continue to take a lead in the process, although it recognises that in many cases they themselves will need to be made aware of the potential advantages of observance (and potential disadvantages of opposition) by a possibly more enlightened supply chain.

Guidance from NBS

NBS has been following this path for some years. While we recognise there is no "one size fits all", we endeavour to offer relevant guidance for particular products, together with general guidance on design. Our Specification products also contain enabling clauses covering things such as Site Waste Management Plans and Environmental Management Systems to BS EN ISO 14001.

We also produce Preliminaries sets for the majority of the commonly used JCT Contracts, and these will naturally be updated as and when the publisher amends their documents.

Related NBS information:

Articles:

• Site Waste Management Plans
• Environmental construction: methods of assessing buildings
• NBS WRAP

Selected links:

• Green building
• Sustainable development

February 2009

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