An inability to accurately measure the sustainability of a construction project is costing British firms in new contracts, it is claimed.
The criteria for many tenders now states that to win a contract, construction sites need to be able to prove sustainability, by employing at least 10 per cent of the workforce locally.
On many sites, from those with upwards of 100 employees present at any time, measuring the origin of everybody who enters and leaves a site can be at least, hard; at worst, impossible. Knowing who is on or off a construction site is critical to site management, for health and safety reasons, and for evidence of the sustainable credentials of the project, such as monitoring the carbon emissions of all who travel to and from the site. Paul Whiting, Director of Eco Security, speaks of work with construction firms to help them provide accurate information and transparency in these areas.
He says: “The Balfour Beatty test site at Holden Lane in Stoke on Trent is a trial run using the Infobric software in order to collect information such as co2 emissions. We are also running bespoke reports on the fire alarm system in line with this, to demonstrate that it is possible to monitor and collect such information. This approach will run for 18 months, allowing Balfour Beatty to access reports remotely for due diligence purposes at any time”
Eco Security is described as a service for construction firms; not only with CCTV and intruder detection for sites, but also a solution to the issues of quantifying the volume of employees on a site, tracking their origin and any other specific criteria required in the contract. Eco has rights to the use of Swedish firm Infobric’s software and Ievo fingerprint recognition. Installed at construction site turnstiles, it displays real-time data about where the worker has travelled from, monitors the C02 emissions on site and quantifies the numbers on site at any time.
