Sustainability

BAM is a signatory of the World Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Building Commitment and we have agreed that by 2030 we will only occupy and develop net zero carbon buildings.

BAM is also reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill. Currently we divert 92% of our waste from landfill and by 2025 we are aiming to increase this figure to 100%. These climate and resource goals apply to our entire business and BAM FM has recently received the Gold Award at the Sustainable Facilities Management Index (SFMI) E-Awards, for the fourth year running.

King's Cross Sports Hall. The building has achieved net zero through the use of innovative and passive design measures and offsetting.

Positive icons plus Net Positive

Here are just some of the steps we are taking to become a net positive company:

BAM are working towards reducing our own carbon emissions and providing products and services to reduce the emissions of others, this includes:

Implementing digital tools to reduce waste and unnecessary travel.
Adopting electric and hydrogen vehicles in our fleet.
Working with the Supply Chain Sustainability School to help customers and suppliers reduce their emissions develop low/zero carbon products and services.
Obtaining as much power, fuel and heat as possible from renewable or non-polluting sources.

Climate Positive-Doing new things

We want to eliminate waste over the lifecycle of a building and use safe, healthy and natural materials. This involves:

Procuring materials from certified responsible sources
Maximising reuse and recycling
Driving the circular economy forward
Promoting the use of modern methods of construction, such as offsite manufacturing which reduces waste

Resource Positive-Doing new things

Our aim is to ensure that we have a positive impact on the lives of our own staff and those people who are touched by our projects. To achieve this we:

Support local charities, education and community groups
Are increasing our spend and support for social enterprises
Provide apprenticeships, local jobs, skills and training
Spend locally (where we are able) and work with SME’s
Create a diverse and equal workplace, which offers opportunities for everyone regardless of their background, gender or identity

People Positive-Doing better things

By 2022, BAM will also assess and measure the value we create through these activities, to ensure that they are delivering meaningful benefits for communities based on their needs.

Lincoln Medical School, University of Lincoln

Enabling our clients to achieve their sustainability related goals

Being a leading sustainable business is not just about our own behaviours and actions. It’s also about supporting our clients and partners to achieve their sustainability related goals.

In 2014, we achieved what was then the UK’s highest ever BREEAM score of 95.16% at One Angel Square, The Co-Operative group’s new headquarters in Manchester. Today we are enabling clients to meet the challenges of net zero and the circular economy, helping them to reduce carbon and waste across the whole life of their asset from concept through to divestment.

To achieve this, we adopt a collaborative approach, working closely with our clients and industry partners to identify new solutions, which deliver environmental, economic and social value. BAM is able to draw on the expertise of our design, construction and facilities management teams to allow us to identify how design interventions, digital tools, modern methods of construction, low carbon materials/products and renewable energy solutions can be used to help us to deliver the best outcomes for each scheme. Once a building is operational, we also undertake post occupancy evaluations and building performance monitoring to ensure buildings are delivering as expected.

One Angel Square, Manchester

Achieving net zero

The UK has set an ambitious target to reach net zero by 2050. As 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions are generated by the built environment, the onus is on the construction industry and building owners/operators to start reducing carbon emissions in both new and existing stock to meet the 2050 deadline.

BAM is a signatory of the World Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Building Commitment and we have agreed that by 2030 we will only occupy and develop net zero carbon buildings. We are also supporting our clients to achieve their own ambitions, enabling them to deliver net zero on new and existing schemes.

Our approach takes into consideration embodied carbon (the carbon footprint of a material through the supply chain, to its use on site and end of life) and operational carbon (carbon emissions generated during a building’s operations).

We also have expertise in delivering schemes using the Passivhaus approach, which uses low levels of energy to provide end users with high levels of comfort,

Delivering net zero carbon in new buildings

Achieving net zero carbon buildings requires a holistic approach, which spans an assets lifecycle. BAM works in close collaboration with the client, design team, end users and facilities managers to identify ways to reduce carbon at every phase, such as cutting embodied carbon, Passiv design, using renewable energy sources and installing low energy products. We also undertake post occupancy evaluations and building performance monitoring to ensure buildings are delivering as expected.

Designing and benchmarking to achieve net zero

BAM is undertaking a Pathfinder project, to explore how the Department of Education (DfE) can create net zero carbon schools. Measuring and reducing embodied carbon is a priority area for us, we chose to complete a whole life carbon assessment on the King Ina CoE Academy in Somerton, the first school to be delivered using our standard primary school design for Somerset County Council procured on Southern Construction Framework. This has enabled us to benchmark this schools as-built upfront embodied carbon (A1-A5) to inform future designs and construction, and enabled us to monitor designed compared to building in-use operational carbon performance, together will influence changes to the next version of this BAM model primary school designed to achieve the PassivHaus standard.

RHS Bridgewater, Welcome Building

EQ the first new build office in Bristol to be net zero in operation

We are constructing EQ, the first new build office in Bristol to commit to being Net Zero Carbon in Operation. The building supports Bristol City Council’s goal for the city to become carbon neutral by 2030 and will use 100% green electric including photovoltaics on the roof. A more efficient façade will reduce the amount of energy the building needs and SMART technologies will give the end user optimum control over operational performance.

EQ the first new build office in Bristol to be net zero in operation

Reducing carbon in existing buildings

80% of the buildings that will exist in 2050 have already been constructed and BAM is already assisting our clients to help them understand the measures they will need to implement to make these assets zero carbon. BAM, CIBSE and the Department for Education worked together on an initiative to examine how predicted changes to our global climate will impact existing schools and the carbon emissions they produce.

Circular

BAM is embracing a circular approach to the way we design, construct and operate buildings, ensuring that waste and pollution are kept to a minimum across the lifecycle of an asset and that materials can be reused on other schemes.

In 2017, BAM completed the Circl pavilion for ABN Ambro in Zuidas Amsterdam. Built to demonstrate the principles of circularity, almost all the materials it contains have been used previously and can be disassembled and reused in the future. This includes 16,000 pairs of old jeans, where were incorporated into the ceiling as insulation material. In the UK, we are helping clients to repurpose existing facilities turning a call centre into a UTC, an empty office building into a school and a Victorian coal drops into a new destination space.

BAM is supporting our supply chain to develop circular products for use in our buildings. BAM FM recently received a special recognition from SFMI for our work with supplier Whitecroft to develop a circular approach to lighting, which refurbishes instead of replacing old, inefficient lighting.

To help drive the circular economy within the built environment, BAM is partnering with UKGBC in their Circular Economy Forum, which explores how the industry can address challenges and identify solutions to promote the ethos of circularity. We are also one of 16 companies working on the 'Buildings as Material Banks', an EU Horizon 2020 project to develop industry tools, which hopes to catalyse a move to circular buildings.

Living hoarding at EQ, Bristol