Land & Water Group, a leading provider of wet civil engineering services, has saved 75% of the construction carbon (and 72% whole life carbon) working with the Environment Agency at Calstock, in South East Cornwall. This is part of Land & Water’s ongoing environmental commitment and the Environment Agency’s carbon reduction agenda to add value to the areas in which it works.
The project, which has been carried out on behalf of the Environment Agency, reduces the risk of flooding in the area through the construction of new flood defence embankments on a set-back alignment.
This will enable the reconnection of an area of floodplain to create reed-beds, increasing biodiversity and offsetting some of the losses in habitat that are occurring due to rising sea levels.
Land & Water, working in partnership with the EA and design consultant Tony Gee, has significantly reduced its carbon footprint on this project by 7,350 tonnes through redesigning the geotechnical embankments to negate the need for using cement to stabilise soils. This has also prevented the need for dry cement tanker deliveries through Cornish villages, therefore decreasing the impact on the local community and reducing carbon emissions even further.
Fiona Moore, Divisional Business Manager at Land & Water, says: “We are extremely proud of the solutions we have implemented in order to reduce our carbon footprint at Calstock.
“As a company, we are always looking to develop innovative ways to safeguard our world for future generations and this project is proof of that.
“The project team faced a few challenges, including having to work around the technicalities of using the excavated material from the intertidal habitat to form the flood embankments. However, they were prepared to take an informed view of risks, with detailed and pre-planned mitigation strategies, and have performed consistently well throughout the project.”
Dan Boswell, Projects Manager at the Environment Agency, says: “Reducing carbon is fundamental to reducing our impact on the environment. Working as a team we have been able to do this whilst still protecting people and property from flooding and creating habitat to support biodiversity.”
As Land & Water looks to be at the forefront of the wet civil engineering and construction industries through safeguarding the planet, it is not surprising to learn that they are also demonstrating a greener way to work through implementing Crown Oil’s HVO fuel in its plant and developing habitat creation schemes on its projects.
