At Beard we are committed to minimising our environmental impact throughout all of our operations. Over a number of years we have successfully embedded our environmental policies into our processes and we continue to be pro-active in bringing further improvements to our performance to ensure we play our part in meeting national environmental goals.

Leadership, management and innovation

As a Chartered Environmentalist, Mark Beard, Managing Director, is focussed on improving our operations, examining each business process and investigating ways in which we can minimise harm to the environment.  In addition, each office has an ‘Environmental Champion’ who contributes ideas and leads new initiatives with the support of senior management.

In 2007 we achieved ISO 14001 accreditation for our Environmental Management System.  All staff and subcontractors understand our environmental commitments through staff inductions, site Environmental Awareness courses and ‘tool-box’ talks.

A number of our employees are participants of various best practice bodies in order to learn about new products and systems.

Design

Design has the biggest single impact on a project’s environmental performance.  In our experience by involving us at the earliest possible stage, we have found projects achieve far better environmental performance.  We also advocate schemes such as BREEAM and our Design Co-ordinators have extensive experience of working to these standards.

Material usage

Our wide experience and knowledge of using sustainable materials frequently enables us to propose alternative solutions which are more environmentally friendly and often cheaper.

In 2008 we began working with WRAP to help develop a ‘Materials Logistics Plan’.  This provides a tool for other contractors to use when planning and purchasing materials, with the objective of minimising waste.  WRAP selected Beard as a partner due to our in-depth expertise in managing difficult projects.

As a company we are focussed on minimising waste with a five point strategy based on Prevention, Minimisation, Re-use, Recycle and Disposal.

Energy and pollution

We have implemented a plan to reduce our carbon footprint, which includes the monitoring of energy on all our sites in order to calculate our carbon emissions.  We also monitor water consumption and have introduced the appropriate methodology and risk assessments for the management of dust, noise, light and water pollution.

All of our large projects sign up to the Considerate Constructors Scheme to reinforce Beard’s dedication to these issues.

Impact on bio-diversity

Wherever possible we enhance the bio-diversity of the environments where we work, seeking  professional advice wherever there is any doubt about the impact of our operations on local ecosystems and implement the measures recommended within this guidance.

Performance measurement

As a leading regional contractor we are very serious about our environmental intentions.  Amongst other things we now report on all waste taken from site, with breakdowns for recycled materials and waste sent to landfill.

Our aim is to produce more accurate reporting on our environmental performance in order to set serious targets for year-on-year improvements.