Annual sustainability report says contractor has reduced UK business travel by 2,269 tonnes of CO2

Construction site

Interserve has reduced its carbon emissions from business travel in the UK by 2,269 tonnes of CO2, the firm’s annual sustainability report reveals.

The firm reported that it emitted 48,818 tonnes of CO2 from business travel in the year to 31 March 2014, down from 51,643 in the previous year.

However, emissions levels in the year to 31 March 2014 were only 1% lower than the emissions from business travel in the year to the end of March 2012.

The firm also reported that it had reduced water consumption by 9% to 38,403m3 in the year to 31 March 2014, down from 42,090m3 the previous year.

Interserve first launched its sustainability goals for 2020 in March 2013 and has spent the past year mostly gathering baseline data against which to measure its future performance.

Tim Hayward, group finance director and head of sustainability at Interserve, said that the firm’s sustainability credentials, particularly with regards to social sustainability, were “instrumental” in the firm’s appointment to build two new headquarters for West Yorkshire Police.

He added: “That [attitude] is probably more prevalent in the public sector but it is starting to resonate in the private sector and is helping us to have strategic conversations with clients.”

Hayward said the firm was well on the way to achieving its goals for the year to 31 March 2015 and that he was confident the firm would hit targets such as buying all its forest products from sustainable sources.