The Road to Decarbonisation

25th May 2023

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The Road to Decarbonisation

With the 5th generation of SCF Construct now live and our 20 contractors on board, it’s time to get down to work and a key focus for us in the coming months is moving forward our decarbonisation initiatives.

For this latest generation of the framework, SCF has contractors that can demonstrate exemplary carbon benchmarking assessment for all builds and we’ve also prioritised carbon retrofit capabilities in line with our industry leading Carbon and Social Value targets.

Remarkably, there is still no consistent ruling across the industry for carbon measurement, so we developed our own SCF baseline assessment in line with the industry, which gives us, our contractors and clients a solid benchmark. This is now being rolled out by the National Association of Construction Frameworks (NACF) for other public sector frameworks to adopt and we are proud to be paving the way and setting ambitious but also importantly a realistic and achievable baseline, which we hope to see used widely.

Being in the business of public sector construction means that we must stay close to the pressures and drivers for local authorities. As a public sector organisation for the public sector we know that there isn’t infinite resource. Buildings not only need to be built efficiently, but also must be affordable to operate moving forwards. We know that operational expenses are under even tighter controls, whilst there is also community obligation and a need to support environmental practice.

We pride ourselves on having a culture of collaboration and in practice that means that as a collective of 20 construction businesses, we have an abundance of skills and enthusiasm, the accumulation of which can be put to very good use in creating best practice.

Tools we have already developed alongside our contractors are our carbon and social value tools, which set out guidelines and best practice against industry targets and gives clients a resource that reflects public sector demands and nuances.

More recently, we have also launched a Biodiversity Net Gain Guidance tool, which has been designed to give estate managers, public sector consultants, contractors and supply chain partners everything they need to know in one place to help them to prepare for the new BNG planning regulations due to be enforced in November 2023.

Local Authorities face many obligations from funding and procurement requirements to align with legislation and our tools are designed to demystify some of the complexities and technical detail that can often complicate putting plans in place.

Another new initiative for us currently under development is a simple tool for estate managers to look at their existing buildings and carbon measures, giving a holistic approach to estate management plans. The tool will support them in assessing the option of retrofit or new build and how that will impact the carbon used both in construction and operation. It will also look at embodied carbon and should give a very quick picture on the carbon efficiencies that can be achieved by applying certain strategies to their existing building stock. We already have a handful of contractors committed to its development and look forward to announcing more on this soon.

Ultimately, this is all about capabilities and our contractors have been qualified through our rigorous tender process to be awarded a place on the framework. For clients, this means that they have the assurance that whichever contractor they choose for their build, they will have the quality assurance of the qualifications to deliver innovative and practical carbon builds.