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East-Midlands Construction Resource Efficiency Club
What is Resource Efficiency?
Resource efficiency is optimising the environmental and financial benefits from using a material or product that requires the least energy and materials over its life cycle.
Why?
Environmental issues are currently the hottest topic of debate and within the construction industry clients and developers are progressively increasing their demands on the construction industry to provide environmental friendly designs and sites.
The East Midlands Construction Resource Efficiency Club is funded by Envirowise and provides advice and support to its members on resource efficiency through workshops, presentation, audits and reporting. Improving resource efficiency in construction will provide; financial savings and increased profits and environmental benefits through lower; carbon emission, waste generation and energy consumption.
The construction sector;
- is still the largest single source of waste arising in England,
- the largest waste stream from construction sites is inert waste which is suitable for reprocessing into aggregates,
- the real price of waste is 5-20 times the cost of disposal
However, there is some good news and re-use and recycling of construction waste has increased, but rates of land filling construction waste do still remain high. To stimulate diversion from landfill, the Government is proposing a possible new target of halving the amount of CD&E waste going to landfill by 2012 as a result of waste reduction, re-use and recycling. The Government will be discussing this further with construction stakeholders, including the industry, and presenting any construction waste targets in the Sustainable Construction Strategy.
An emerging issue in the field and one which is frequently overlooked is the carbon savings that can be experienced if waste is diverted away from landfill. In short reduce the amount of waste you send to landfill and it will reduce your organizations carbon footprint. Once again the construction industry has been identified as a key priority sector in this arena in the 2007 Waste Strategy.
What does the club offer?
The East Midlands Construction Resource Efficiency Club provides access to a range of services to help you improve your resource efficiency.
Membership provides members with a number of services:
- Regular workshops
- Membership to the East-Midlands Resource Efficiency Forum.
- On-site resource efficiency planning meeting
- Tailored one-to-one support specific to your business needs, including waste audits, site waste management plan workshops, tool-box talks or any other workshop which your businesses would benefit.
REC Update
Listed below are some of the examples of the clubs current activities:
· Undertaking Waste Audits to new club members, focusing on Waste Streams and Legal Compliance.
· Converting ‘Potential savings’ to ‘Actual savings’. At present 20% converted with further savings due by the end of 2007.
· High profile ‘Designing out Waste’ workshop scheduled for the end of January 2008
How much does the Club cost?
The 2007 membership to the Resource Efficiency Club will cost £500 per organisation. Businesses will need to nominate a core representative who will be expected to attend workshops and work along side the club in implementing resource efficiency best practice on their elected best practice site. In addition it will be necessary to nominate a deputy to ensure that maximum benefit is obtained from the club membership by maintaining continuity during annual leave and absences etc and other work commitments.
2007Club Members
Here are just a few of the region’s construction companies who are currently involved in this club;
- Robert Woodhead Construction Ltd
- Marriott Construction
- Willmott Dixon Ltd
- Herbert Baggaley Construction Ltd
- North Midland Construction
- Dukeries Building and Co Ltd
Interested?
To become a member of the East Midlands Construction Resource Efficiency Club or to find out more information contact Joanne Beverley on 0845 056 8336 Email: joanne@responsible-solutions.co.uk
What are the benefits?
Find out what people have to say about membership and the benefits by downloading the case study information below:
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case study woodheads (PDF 125.3 KB) 
