HalcrowSustainability2010_lowres[1]

A responsible businessSustainability report, 2010

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halcrow.com

Sustainability report, 2010 1

Contents Introduction

•to reflect on progress since our 2009 report

•to show that our work has benefited from a focus on sustainability and to assess the implications of this increasingly important factor in delivering projects

•to look at our expectations for the future, where we see that the quality of our work, our workplace environment, our business success and the contributions we make to society will all benefit from making sustainability an increasingly fundamental part of the way we work

Introduction 1

Chief executive’s statement 2

Sustainability in Halcrow 4

Key themes 8

Sustainability in the regions 14

Business group overview 24

Leading by example 28

Tomorrow’s Company commentary 34

Performance management 36

In our communities 38

Conclusions and the future 42

Designed and edited by Halcrow’s corporate communications team.This document can be recycled. Printed by Rumbold Holland Ltd. The cover is printed on 300gsm Edixion Offset board. The content is printed on 150gsm Edixion Offset paper. Edixion Offset is a wood-free, uncoated stock. It is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified and produced at a mill certified to the ISO 14001 environmental management standard.

Halcrow is extremely well placed to contribute to improving sustainability, from project and local levels to a global scale. Our aim in this, our 2010 sustainability report, is threefold:

2 Sustainability report, 2010 3

Key to our continuing success is our commitment to the welfare of our employees. I noted earlier that it has been a challenging year. A consequence of this is that we have had to make redundancies. This is not something that we choose to do lightly, especially when we value our people so highly. We offer our very best wishes to all those who have left the company as a result of this process. Despite these very difficult decisions, I am pleased to say that our latest staff survey confirms a continuing high level of employee satisfaction. This is one of our most important measures of progress as a responsible business.

I believe that our continuing journey towards sustainability will make Halcrow more successful and an even more rewarding company to work for. It is a critical part of our ambitions as a progressive company, as set out in our Strategy 2018. I am confident that we will realise this ambition.

Chief executive’s statement

We believe our commitment to sustainability – in our projects, research programmes, support for communities and as a successful and progressive company – is a direct reflection and expression of our corporate purpose, values and conduct. We support and promote innovative ideas in all aspects of infrastructure development that not only protect and enhance the environment, but which also protect the welfare of communities and individuals.

In last year’s report, we highlighted the work of our five business groups.

This year, we highlight our regions, to show that sustainability is becoming increasingly important and prominent in the way we operate and the things we do, wherever in the world we are.

We illustrate this with a detailed look at our North American region, where drivers for sustainability have

Halcrow is a responsible business. As a global provider of design and engineering solutions in over 70 countries, we are in the privileged position of being able to help shape the future for millions of people around the world.

While different regions have sought to address different things and have advanced at a pace appropriate to their circumstances, they have all made progress. These actions may seem small individually but together they are creating a real momentum within the company.

We are developing a strong internal sustainability programme and are measuring our progress by public benchmarking.

In the UK, this led to us gaining a Bronze Award in the 2009 Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index. I was delighted to see that our efforts over the last year resulted in a significant improvement in our rating: indeed, we were one of the biggest improvers on the index.

A steady stream of awards have also provided welcome acknowledgement of our performance in diversity, health and safety, and project excellence.

We have also consolidated our own performance reporting in the UK. Where we are addressing sustainability issues particularly well, we are developing a better understanding of our clients, markets and communities. So, we are now finding that we are winning work because clients see that we are embedding the principles of sustainability in our business.

Through the Halcrow Foundation – which receives 1 per cent of our profits each year – we have worked with many needy people and vulnerable communities all around the world. The number of people the foundation has been able to help is remarkable, and I applaud all those employees who have helped it to be so successful.

emerged or strengthened significantly over the last year.

This year has been characterised by difficult operating conditions in many of our markets. Despite this, I am proud to be able to report that we have maintained our commitment to embedding sustainability within our business. This has not been done in a ‘one size fits all’ manner. One of the things we have recognised in developing our sustainability programme is the benefit we receive through our diversity and cultural richness across the company. As our international dialogues on sustainability improve, this gives us fresh perspectives on issues we had begun to take for granted when we looked at them from a narrower, local basis.

We hope that we capture this richness of approach in this report and properly celebrate the contributions made by all our people wherever they live and work.

Peter Gammie, chief executive

Peter Gammie, chief executive


Increasingly our clients are asking us to address sustainability, in both the way we operate and in the sorts of projects we are being asked to undertake. We are also being challenged by both current and potential employees to give them opportunities, both professionally in the course of their work and also in terms of their personal interests, which will let them undertake work which has real benefit in environmental, community, biodiversity and social aspects.

We see three global issues that will increasingly shape the way we live. These are:

climate change

sustainable communities

water scarcity

We have incorporated these as three themes on which we can draw a picture of our sustainability programme. We believe that every single employee in the company, wherever they work, will see that at least one of these themes is related directly to what they do. The need to adapt to, and mitigate, the consequences of climate change, which is intrinsically linked with water scarcity, as well as the need to manage the way we exploit our global environments to meet the needs of a world population that is both growing and becoming more demanding in material terms, are issues that cannot be avoided.

At Halcrow, we believe it is essential that we manage the way we develop our sustainability programme and take these issues into account to support our clients. In the next section of the report we talk about the way we are doing this in more detail.

Sustainability in Halcrow

WhatsustainabilitymeanstousSustainability within Halcrow has two core elements:

Halcrow is a multi-disciplinary consultancy that specialises in planning, design and management services for infrastructure and building development worldwide. Our teams of consultants, engineers and asset managers encourage clients to address the challenges of sustainability in the projects on which they work.

Neil Holt

Les Buck

•Howwedothings, which is primarilyled by Neil Holt, who champions corporate responsibility at board level. This covers our business principles, policies and processes, ranging across employee wellbeing, ethics, occupational health and safety, community engagement, training and development, quality management and business improvement.

•Whatwedo, which is primarily led byLes Buck, who similarly champions sustainable development at board level. This applies both in terms of embedding sustainability within the work we do for clients, but also our own performance management, as well as risk. Increasingly this also applies to research and development collaborations and partnerships with academic institutions and our strategic partners in sustainability.

International trade education

programme, Los Angeles

Wroclaw floodway system, Poland

Low-carbon concrete, Australia

North American sustainability forum, New YorkZofnass Program

St Wilfred’s SchoolWest of England Carbon Challenge

India health and safety reviewDholera City, India, sustainability planning


We are recognised for our innovative approaches to flood risk management that work with natural processes and for designing major public transport schemes based on visioning and backcasting techniques.

This enables us to propose solutions that work actively towards the efficient delivery of future demanding targets, as well as meeting current needs. We also create credible and practical designs for renewable energy schemes and exchange knowledge globally to meet flood and coastal management and defence needs. This work involves advising clients not only on how they deliver more sustainable operations but also how they assure their performance and report effectively.

We have been doing this for decades, even before sustainability became a common term for this type of work.

For example, our renewable energy team was formed in 1979 and is now 30 strong with expertise in a spectrum of clean technologies. We are nevertheless responsive to changing needs, so this team is now the core of our sustainable energy network. This looks at an even wider range of ways to create solutions across our business groups that meet current and future energy, heat and power needs.

Sustainability in Halcrow

Our expertise in sustainability is not only a reflection of our organisational culture, but is also driven by our people. The way we work is reflected in HalSTAR, our sustainability

appraisal and management framework. This is the result of a major programme of applied research into how to identify and apply sustainability factors in projects and programmes. It was created by a team of research engineers working at Bristol University.

It uses a ‘five capitals’ model which represents sustainable development as a balance between natural capital, manufactured capital, human capital, social capital and financial capital. At its heart is a detailed framework based on a rigorous review of over 450 common sustainability tools, regulations, ratings systems, policies, methodologies and strategies. An easy-to-understand concept like this makes sustainability accessible to non-technical stakeholders and broadens participation in the sustainability process.

HalSTAR is, we believe, the most complete and robust tool on the market to assess sustainable development in projects and programmes. It puts Halcrow at the leading edge of sustainable practice.

The software version of HalSTAR was launched in May 2010 and is now being included in a wide range of business proposals to clients. The research focus is now moving from the issues generation aspects of the system to the options generation and selection elements which will assist clients in making more sustainable decisions within their projects and programmes.

HalSTAR uses a ‘five capitals’ model to create sustainable solutions

CASE STUDY: Halcrow’s sustainability appraisal and management framework – HalSTAR


Key themes

Current international climate change negotiations are still built on the aim of restricting the increase in average global temperatures to 2oC from pre-industrial levels, but we are already experiencing temperatures 0.8oC higher.Some commentators now believe there is a real possibility of an increase in average temperatures exceeding 4oC by the end of the century and perhaps as early as 2070.

Climate change

It is now effectively beyond scientific dispute that climate change, principally manifested through warmer average global temperatures, is happening and that anthropogenic factors are causing a rapid increase in atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

We have advised clients in several regions around the world on adaptation and mitigation strategies to manage the consequences of climate change, notably regarding low-lying cities and coastal regions in North America and the UK. We have also provided technical advice on a guide to low-carbon business, produced by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills in the UK.

CASE STUDY: North Carolina sea level rise risk management study 2009 – 2011

Due to its landform and unique habitat, North Carolina has been defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as one of three US states with significant vulnerability to sea level rise. In recognition of this, the sea level rise risk management study was commissioned by the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management Office of Geospatial and Technology Management, under a £3.3 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The study is examining the potential impacts of sea level rise and increased storm activity in coastal North Carolina to 2100, including social, environmental and economic risks. It will appraise state and federal level policy and administrative adaptation strategies to manage these risks.

Other core components include the definition of uncertainties and assumptions associated with the hazard, risk and adaptation strategy analysis. The study also identifies the next steps for policy makers in order to progress sea level rise risk management.


Providing more liveable communities is dependent on working at a variety of levels, from individual buildings through local communities to whole urban areas and their hinterlands. Using sustainable construction techniques can lead to radical reductions in a building’s life-long carbon footprint. We provide advisory services to clients in the form of the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) environmental assessment methods for buildings.

Sustainable communities

In 2008, the United Nations declared that, for the first time in human history, 50 per cent of the global population – 3.3 billion people – was now living in cities. This number will increase to 5 billion by 2030. Over 1 billion of these people are living in slums and shanty towns, and this number is likely to increase.

Key themes

These were developed in the UK and USA respectively, but are increasingly being adopted either directly or in some local variation in most of our other regions of operation.

We have deployed visioning and backcasting for transport in cities on three continents to enable the development of effective policy and technological and behavioural solutions to reduce urban carbon emissions. This will meet stringent reduction targets while enhancing quality of life and sustainability measures.

CASE STUDY: Dholera master plan

Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation is implementing an ambitious project to build a brand new industrial city at Dholera, Gujarat, spreading across an area of about 900 km². It is planned to support a population of 2 million inhabitants. Through a compact, polycentric form, the plan aims to create an urban environment that will provide housing for all income groups, as well as public amenities and commercial facilities that will encourage the growth of a socially integrated, attractive, sustainable and affordable city.

Halcrow has been asked to advise on key sustainability elements, including:

•adapting to climate change and planning for the risk of flooding

•minimising the use of scarce resources, including energy and land

•planning for a land use access strategy that encourages walking, cycling and using public transport

•waste minimisation and recycling

•conserving water

•protect and enhance bio-diversity and the natural environment

•sustainable techniques

CASE STUDY: St Wilfrid’s School, Horsham

We provided building, consulting and BREEAM services guidance for the new £20 million St Wilfrid’s Catholic School in Horsham, West Sussex, UK. A 51 per cent reduction in carbon emissions was achieved by a number of initiatives which, for example, maximised natural ventilation and daylight.

Our contribution helped St Wilfrid’s to become the first completed secondary school in the UK to achieve a BREEAM ‘excellent’ rating.


Water scarcity and security are factors of changing weather patterns which arise from climate change. They are manifested in land use changes which affect the ability of catchment areas to absorb and retain water. In turn these are intensified by pressures from increasing populations, urbanisation and intensity of water use in agriculture, industry and domestic settings.

Although it is commonly associated with poorer regions, water scarcity is a problem that is increasingly affecting regions all around the world. Water scarcity can be an issue even where rainfall is plentiful. The World Health Organisation estimates that almost one in three people are affected by water scarcity and that one fifth of all people live in areas where water is physically scarce.

Halcrow has developed Cloud to Coast, a new approach to water management and investment planning to help address these challenges.

Water scarcity

A global survey of sustainability professionals in early 2010 revealed a greater urgency over the need to tackle the immediate consequences of water scarcity than climate change. Water pollution was also high among the professionals’ concerns.

Key themes

Halcrow’s Cloud to Coast takes an integrated approach to water infrastructure development and maintenance over short and long-term planning timescales in order to assess the impact of climate change on water resources in droughts and floods, and to evaluate possible mitigation and adaptation strategies. It also looks at investment decision pathways, ensuring that solutions are robust, flexible and cost effective.

Michael Norton, the managing director of our water and power business, has co-ordinated technical support over the last year through the World Economic Forum’s Water Initiative and the 2030 Water Resources Group of largely private sector organisations which produced the report ‘Charting our Water Future’. This study focuses on how competing demands for scarce water resources can be met and sustained by 2030.

CASE STUDY: Sanitation and clean water supply for slum residents

Up to 3,000 residents of Mirpir, an urban slum district, now have access to a secure water supply and sanitation facilities thanks to a £75,000 project which also included essential hygiene education.

The project is part of a larger programme led by Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), of which Halcrow is a founder member. Halcrow employees in Bangladesh played a key role in the project’s development in partnership with other WSUP

members and provided technical, detailed planning and project management expertise.

The Halcrow Foundation and the Erach and Roshan Sadri Foundation also played a major part in getting the scheme off the ground. We particularly value these collaborative projects as good models for delivering effective results in communities by combining the strengths of each partner organisation.

Halcrow is proactive in supporting leading thinking on water scarcity. We continue to contribute to finding practical solutions to current challenges.

Our ongoing involvement with Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) is a key example of how we use Halcrow’s professional expertise to solve immediate problems. To date, the programme has provided 83,000 people with improved access to safe, affordable water and 20,000 people are now using improved sanitation facilities.


Sustainability in the regions

We described how we were doing this in our 2009 sustainability report, which is available to download from www.halcrow.com/who-we-are/sustainability

We did this to understand how best to capture, analyse and report data and information and to develop key internal relationships – via the business groups and the sustainability task force – and external relationships. We also focused on creating and distributing appropriate communications and extending and developing relationships with academic institutions. Developing effective cross-business group networks was a key part of this approach.

We are now working increasingly with colleagues in the regions outside the UK to exchange information and understanding, and to develop similar performance management frameworks. We are aiming to extend our academic networks and to build on our ethos of a consistent programme which operates within the distinct regional characteristics we meet in our markets.

This section reports on a selection of the sustainability activities that have been underway in our regions. It includes an extended look at how we are developing the sustainability program in the North American (NOAM) region in order to illustrate how this cross-regional approach is being applied.

Initial actions addressed consumer demand, with companies voluntarily adopting more sustainable processes and offering sustainable goods or services. Companies within the financial services, manufacturing and retail sectors have been particularly active in advancing demand-led green initiatives and driving action through supply chains.

Sustainability legislation is increasing, most often at state/provincial levels. California’s landmark Energy Act AB 32 aims to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. This includes a cap and trade proposal to cut transport sector emissions 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050. New York City’s PlaNYC, adopted in 2007, is among the most progressive and comprehensive planning initiatives, with the Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability housed within the Mayor’s Office. In British Columbia, Canada, municipalities are developing energy plans to meet emissions reduction

During 2009, we concentrated on how we were developing and implementing our sustainability programme in the UK, which comprises about half of our business by numbers of employees and sources of revenue.

targets in compliance with Provincial rules. The Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland and of New York and New Jersey have initiated clean truck programmes.

In October 2009, Executive Order 13514 – Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance – came into effect.

In January 2010, it was announced that the federal government will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 28 per cent from 2008 levels by 2020 and submit strategic sustainability performance plans accordingly.

We formed the NOAM sustainability forum (page 17) in late 2009 in part to respond to this growing momentum at corporate, state and, now, federal levels, as well as bring together the increasing range of internal and external initiatives we are engaged on. We have agreed this will meet quarterly from June 2010.

North America (NOAM)

Within North America, awareness of the need to act on climate change and wider sustainability issues has grown significantly in recent years.

HowweoperateOur strong growth as a business in the first decade of this century was driven by a matrix of regional teams and business groups. The regional teams developed the Halcrow presence within their geographic areas, with projects being delivered by business groups, individually and together. We have been working with both the regions and the business groups to develop our sustainability programme.

CASE STUDY: Zofnass Program

In 2010, we formally committed to the Zofnass Program for sustainable infrastructure at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

This programme brings academics and industry representatives together to try and develop a quantitative rating system for construction projects applicable to all sectors of industry, including transportation, ports and logistics.

The aim is to provide a common framework for agencies and developers to evaluate project alternatives from planning through to operations, maintenance and ultimately decommissioning. Teams from our New York and Boston offices have been contributing to the transportation working group’s development of criteria and metrics for the port and freight sectors.


Our purpose of ‘sustaining and improving the quality of people’s lives’ and our values of bringing imagination to all we do, delivering on our commitments, advancing our skills and experiences and enjoying what we do, set us apart, more so now than ever.

We are finding increasing opportunities to share knowledge with progressive clients to find sustainable solutions to their greatest challenges. These cover a wide range, from energy through greenhouse gas management, climate change adaptation planning, green building design and sustainable transit solutions to water resource management.

We have seen a number of exciting developments. Among these are that Mark Gabriel, a recognized sustainable energy thinker and published author, has joined our power team.

We sponsor the Zofnass Program (page 15). As a member of its advisory board we are collaborating with industry peers and academic experts to develop a sustainability rating system for infrastructure.

It has representation from all five business groups and our human resources team, with members located in Canada and east and west coasts of the USA. Its activities are driven from within the region.

Our group sustainability director chairs the forum to develop and maintain close communication and knowledge exchange between regional and corporate activities.

I have taken on the role of co-ordinator for the forum. My immediate aims are to:

•work across business groups to refine, develop and promote our market capabilities and profile within the sustainability and climate change markets

•raise awareness of our sustainability position and capabilities with our employees, act as a go-to resource and support efforts to embed regional corporate sustainability reporting and operational activities

Our building specialists in Halcrow Yolles actively contribute to the Canadian and US Green Building Councils. They are working on an increasing range of LEED-certified buildings for clients. Our ability to support this important area is increasing as we expand our sustainable building services capability. For example, we are working on the EcoSMART concrete project, a partnership between the Canadian federal government and industry to develop more sustainable forms of concrete.

Our regional management team has endorsed a formal commitment to our increasingly proactive approach to embedding sustainability within our operations and client services. Core to this is the NOAM sustainability forum comprised of experts from across the region. This forum focuses our initiatives to improve internal performance, build our market position as a leader in sustainable infrastructure, and strengthen the knowledge exchange between business units, skills groups and regions. We will continue to improve our ability to serve clients by anticipating sustainability challenges and providing effective solutions.

The forum now convenes on a quarterly basis. It is ramping up to implement a wide-ranging action plan. Key near-term targets include:

•undertaking a baseline assessment for NOAM sustainability key performance indicators, agreeing specific improvement targets, and beginning roll out of our performance management and reporting system within the region

•adapting our group sustainability policies to the region and developing a regional management team statement of commitment

•analysing our skills and assessing market opportunities and areas for growth. Included in this are efforts to develop comprehensive marketing materials and integrated business plans

•developing information exchange and knowledge management strategies to ensure all employees within the region know the who, what, where, why and how of our sustainability activities


A view from Halcrow in North America

Halcrow’s approach to sustainability is an intrinsic part of the offering we provide in North America (NOAM).

The NOAM sustainability forum

The NOAM sustainability forum builds on the belief that sustainability is about interdisciplinary collaboration, communication and outreach.

Michael Della Rocca Group board member and regional

managing director

Erin Hyland Coordinator, NOAM sustainability initiatives



North America case studies South Asia

The importance of sustainable development in the region is beginning to be widely recognised and there are key challenges that need to be addressed.

In India, these include water scarcity and quality, changes in food consumption patterns, shortage of power generation capacity and the extent to which power is currently generated from fossil fuels. Other key challenges include power and water transmission, distribution efficiencies, inadequate transport infrastructure, inadequate modes of transportation and affordable housing.

Whilst some challenges are being addressed more effectively than others, there is considerable ground to make up if India is to address the water-power-food nexus in particular. There remains much to do as India develops its own models for sustainable development.

The rapid urbanisation in India is second only to China and government authorities at all levels have been tackling it with mixed results.

There has been progress in pockets and one of the biggest government initiatives has been the floating of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).

Under this initiative, new and sustainable industrial and residential townships will be developed largely under public-private partnerships to improve the standard of living of the residents. There have also been several private-sector sustainable development initiatives, including the construction of the new city of Lavasa, in Maharashtra.

Halcrow is contributing to a wide range of sustainable initiatives in India. Our role as master planner for the Dholera project in the State of Gujarat, one of the industrial nodes on the DMIC is of particular note in this respect.

CASE STUDY: Adopt-A-Shore

CASE STUDY: ACE Mentor Program

Halcrow’s Tampa office recently adopted a one-mile section of shore on Sunset Beach in the city of Treasure Island, Florida.

Halcrow signed on to a two-year commitment to clean up the adopted shore at least four times each year for a period of at least two years. We held our first clean-up on 5 June 2010 followed by a picnic. Our Long Beach and Carlsbad offices worked with the California Coastal Cleanup Day, which has similar aims.

It has previously been recognised in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest event of its kind in the world.

The ACE Mentor Program’s mission is to engage, excite and enlighten high-school students to pursue careers in the integrated construction industry through mentoring and to support their continued advancement in the industry through scholarships and grants. ACE is a unique interdisciplinary partnership among architects, interior designers, landscape architects, mechanical, structural, electrical, environmental and civil engineers, construction managers, college and university representatives and other professionals from related corporations and professional organisations. Professionals volunteer to mentor high school students in experiencing these professions and encourage them to pursue studies and careers in these fields.

In New York, Halcrow employees from our consulting, maritime and property business groups have been working with two student teams, with mentors committing two to four hours every week between October and May. The student teams work on a comprehensive development project including planning, architectural, structural and green design.



Middle East

Halcrow is a founding member of the Emirates Green Building Council. We have been involved in developing regionally specific building design guidelines that provide designers throughout the Middle East with a specific tool for sustainable urban development. We regularly present papers and speak at sustainability-focused events and conferences throughout the Middle East.

In 2010, we delivered a community lecture hosted by the Emirates Environmental Group on the topic of sustainable urban development that was open to the general public.

Europe and Central Asia

Halcrow is playing a key role in Europe’s largest flood-risk management project which aims to modernise the Wroclaw floodway system in Poland. In 1997 flooding caused extensive damage and loss of life. This was the catalyst for the flood alleviation scheme which has been funded in part by the World Bank, European Union grants and local investment.

The project is running for six years and concludes in May 2015. Halcrow has been contracted to design, procure and supervise the construction of the flood relief channels to the City of Wroclaw with a capital value of £147 million.

United Kingdom and Ireland

In 2010, Halcrow invested in a new fleet of Skoda Octavias which, coupled with more efficient working practices, will halve the carbon emissions of its performance audit group working for Transport Scotland. This initiative will create a total carbon saving of 21 tonnes a year.

Scottish Business in the Community (SBC) held its annual UK awards for excellence and company of the year awards on 2 June 2010, as part of The Sustainable Scotland Summit at Holyrood Palace. The awards, presented by HRH Prince Charles Duke of Rothesay and attended by First Minister Alex Salmond, celebrate businesses that have shown innovation, creativity and a sustained commitment to responsible and sustainable business practice.

The UK awards for excellence highlight practical examples of programmes undertaken by SBC members that make a real difference to the community, marketplace, workplace and environment. Halcrow’s Scottish offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness won the sustainable travel award – highly commended.

Sustainable offices study

Halcrow is providing lead consultant, project management and technical direction to this research project for the South West Regional Development Agency.

The project used three case study office designs to explore enhanced specifications and cost implications which are designed to achieve up to BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ and ‘true zero carbon’ performance.

The research we co-ordinated used the financial inputs from two cost consultants. We are providing BREEAM technical input, mechanical and electrical and energy technical expertise to deliver the lowest cost practical solutions to achieving exemplary design and construction standards. The study will demonstrate the additional capital investment necessary to raise the energy and BREEAM performance of commercial buildings, and it is expected that the conclusions will be widely published given the high level of interest.



Australasia East Asia

Concrete production is one of the most carbon intensive activities in the construction industry.

Halcrow in Australia is at the cutting edge of research to develop a new form of geopolymer cement-based concrete with a significantly reduced carbon footprint.

The cement is bound with plastic fibres instead of steel strengtheners and – because it does not involve the high temperature calcination of calcium carbonate required by Portland cement – the process slashes fuel use.

Trials of the new geopolymer/fibre concrete began in April 2010 and will continue for two years. If the project is successful, it will produce a new generation of cheaper precast concrete products that will cut the financial and environmental cost of infrastructure projects.

The research is being supported by the Victoria government’s Science Agenda Investment Fund and we are working with a number of partners including the University of Melbourne.

The eco-city concept is set to play a pivotal part in the next generation of China’s urban development. Halcrow has been recruited through an initiative led by UK Trade and Investment to support this fast-developing programme.

We have been invited to provide training to strengthen the capacity of local government to establish sustainable environmental planning and management strategies to three medium-sized cities across China.

We are also supporting Beijing’s Tsinghua University on its eco-city construction plan for the rapidly-expanding Dalian Municipality. This contains large-scale heavy industry together with new clean high-tech campuses in a sensitive coastal location that is also popular with tourists. In order to develop and undertake more sustainable planning and development, the municipality is seeking to secure eco-city status by 2015.

This project builds on the experience we gained from earlier work. Back in 2007, our planners, urban designers and landscape architects visited three medium-sized cities selected by the World Bank and the China Ministry of Finance: Baotou in Inner Mongolia, Wuyishan in Fujian and Wanzhou in Chongqing Municipality. In each location, we used best-practice examples to provide training for local planners and government officials on environmental planning and management which they could incorporate into their plans.

New Halcrow headquarters building in London

In September 2010 Halcrow’s global headquarters is scheduled to move next door to Elms House, 43 Brook Green, London.

Sustainability considerations have been to the forefront in the development of the building. Largely a refurbishment project, the 1930s building has been brought up to date in terms of its systems and facilities, with new heating, lighting and cooling systems, to help make the building energy efficient. Recycling has been important from the start.

In the strip-out phase, for example, we recycled:

78 per cent of general waste (plasterboard, timber, rubble): 72.08 tonnes in 154 skips

93 per cent of non-ferrous metal: 20.34 tonnes

98 per cent of ferrous metal: 224.46 tonnes

100 per cent of glass: 3.14 tonnes

The building is designed to meet the BREEAM ‘very good’ rating and features dedicated recycling points on every floor to maximise recycling with minimum mess.

Elms House will build on many of the successful initiatives which have been introduced at our former site, Vineyard House, over the last 12 months. One of the major changes in the last few months has included a campaign of ‘bin the bin’. Waste bins throughout the office have been reduced to one bin per bay, while recycling facilities have been increased.

To enable employees to clearly understand what waste should go where, signage has been simplified, environmental floor champions have been appointed and the office environmental manager has been giving presentations and talks to staff in addition to email updates. The floor champions have also been encouraging employees to turn off monitors at night and unplug unnecessary chargers and electrical equipment.

There has been a noticeable increase in the quantities of recycling produced since the office environmental manager and champions were appointed. Although stray non-recyclable items can still be found in the recycling bins, the increase in the attempt to recycle highlights the change in employees’ attitudes.


Business group overview

We have made progress on all the commitments set out in last year’s report and update on these as part of the reporting in this section. The business group representatives on the sustainability task force and a number of their committed colleagues have provided support to cross-cutting groups such as the carbon collective and other working groups focused on asset management, sustainable energy and sustainable communities. These have made significant contributions to improving shared understanding across our business groups and skills areas. We describe the work of the carbon collective on page 32 of this report.

Over the last year, we have had the opportunity to brief the management teams of all our business groups and to agree on ways to work with them which reflect both the opportunities that they see and the needs of clients.

Our consulting team helps organisations to develop their responses to climate change.

Innovation and knowledge development are key drivers for us and, over the past 12 months, we have been developing tools to support our clients in this area. We are currently developing a risk assessment tool to enable our clients to manage risks associated with water scarcity.

The consulting team is working with the other business groups on reviewing the challenges and opportunities which organisations face when addressing carbon in infrastructure design and development.

This includes the effect of carbon in investment planning, infrastructure design, construction maintenance and asset management. The findings and guidance from this Halcrow study should be available at the end of 2010.

Detailed technical advice was supplied by the group for ‘Running a Successful Business in a Low-Carbon Economy,’ a publication by our sustainability partner, Tomorrow’s Company, published in March 2010.

Much of the work we do supports the long-term sustainability of coastal communities. In the UK, we are at the forefront of promoting and developing adaptive and sustainable solutions recognising the implications of and uncertainties associated with climate change. Under the heading ‘Practise of Sustainable Shorelines’, we promote ourselves in the US market, highlighting the new and different approaches that Halcrow is able to provide.

The maritime team strategy is to support the internal delivery of Halcrow’s group-wide sustainability strategy so that sustainable practices can be truly embedded in the maritime business. Importantly, we are now able to apply some of our in-depth sustainability knowledge to other areas of business support, as Tim Wells has joined the group risk sub-committee, where his understanding of sustainability in an applied context will be invaluable.

The next five years will see the implementation of a programme of activities to drive a sustainability culture within our business.

Supported by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, the guide was flagged up in the July 2009 government white paper on the low carbon industrial strategy.

Consulting Maritime


Business group overview

Property Transportation Water and power

Our property team is a leader in providing focused sustainability advisory services to clients in the form of BREEAM and LEED services.

One of our key developments this year has been the appointment of Mitch Gascoyne as the sustainability champion in Toronto, our largest property office. Mitch has also joined the regional sustainability forum and is developing a local network of sustainability collaborators to co-ordinate the development of specific sustainability ideas within this office. This will form the basis of a key node in the network of sustainability expertise within the property team.

Our transportation team draws on a wealth of expertise, from transport systems to geotechnics and tunnelling, and is developing an international network of sustainability expertise. This is now active in our three main regions and is linking in with both the sustainability task force as well as the NOAM sustainability forum.

The transportation team is supporting thought leadership within key sectors, such as sustainability strategy development within the rail industry.

It is also providing practical research and development on the Forum for the Future’s Engineers of the 21st Century collaboration to develop a sustainability assessment tool for assessing construction materials.

Our transportation team is working with the Halcrow sustainability team to develop ways to embed sustainability ideas more effectively within bids and framework contracts. These new ideas are now beginning to be applied and their effectiveness will be carefully assessed.

Water issues will be the biggest immediate challenge arising from climate change. Our water and power strategy is built around helping clients to manage water scarcity.

A great part of the technical knowledge and expertise that resides within this business group has been consolidated within the Cloud to Coast (C2C) toolkit initiative that we launched this year.

C2C encourages users to consider the whole of the water cycle. We are aiming to develop a holistic approach to looking at whole value chains in considering the best advice we are able to offer to clients in projects. The C2C project is being developed with Cardiff University.

We also support the World Economic Forum Water Initiative and the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate. Water and power gave detailed technical support to the 2030 water resources group report, ‘Charting our Water Future’, which looks at how water scarcity and security may be alleviated by 2030.


Leading by example

Our diverse global client base consistently tells us that this is one of the key reasons they like working with us.

We insist on honesty, integrity and fairness in the way we conduct our business and we expect the same from others.

Halcrow is a founding and active participant in the World Economic Forum’s anti-corruption activities that spawned the global Partnering Against Corruption Initiative.

We are also a founder member of the UK Anti-Corruption Forum and are a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, which tackles corruption as one of its key principles.

Ethical practices

As an ethical company, we believe in practising what we preach. Halcrow is recognised as an industry leader at the forefront of promoting ethical standards across the world.

We believe that by showing strong leadership in the way we practise our own business ethics, we can positively influence the social, environmental and commercial outcome of the projects on which we work, and also encourage our partners to apply our business principles on their own projects.

Halcrow is increasingly recognised by our peers, our clients and government agencies as a leader in promoting ethical business practices, and we continue to be actively engaged in public and private debate in order to secure continuous improvement in ethical behaviour in the markets in which we work.

Embedding these principles among our employees, including new joiners, is an ongoing challenge for managers throughout the company. Nevertheless, we need to be confident that all of our employees understand and support our business principles.

Our induction and annual self-assessment procedures are core to this, but we have decided that all of our people need a raised awareness of the circumstances that could lead to ethically compromising situations. We are therefore developing an on-line training programme that will be rolled out across the company. That is in addition to the focused training and development of employees facing specific challenges related to the markets within which they work.

We maintain that a wholly ethical business is a reflection of the commitment and engagement of its employees. Our intent is to ensure we don’t lose sight of that, not only with our employees, but also with our wider business partners.

Leading by example

We have worked hard to ensure that our business principles have not only become an embedded feature of the way we work, but also what we represent. Our ethical standards have become a benchmark by which not only Halcrow is measured, but also our business partners.

Neil Holt, group board director

Neil Holt, group board director

CASE STUDY: Ethical standards in practice

We have had two recent examples from India of the strength of our policies in action. On the first occasion, one of our people was offered a gift in recognition of the quality of the work he had provided. He declined on the basis that he had simply done what was covered under the contractual framework and gave reassurances that this quality of work would continue in the future.

This response was sufficiently unusual for the client to offer his appreciation.

On the other occasion, a client asked about additional fees that needed to be paid over and above the amounts invoiced. The client was advised that our billing processes were transparent; that nothing more would be sought or should be paid, and that the quality of work and services provided would still be of the highest standard.


Leading by example

Diversity and employee welfare

Halcrow’s diversity is one of our key strengths. Valuing different talents, abilities and cultures has made us flexible and adaptable.

There is no ‘typical’ Halcrow employee: within the UK one third of our employees are women and at least 18 per cent of our UK workforce have ethnic origins outside the country.

We work with organisations like Access to Work to find ways to make our offices as accessible as possible to people with different abilities.

Halcrow is also committed to broadening female participation in the engineering environment which has traditionally been seen as a male environment. Our involvement with the Joint Interventions Scheme (JIVE) plays a key role in furthering women’s participation in the construction industry.

CASE STUDY: Gender equality award

Our commitment to promoting female participation in engineering was rewarded with a gender equality award from the UK resource centre (UKRC) for women in science, engineering and technology (SET).

The SET Fair award is divided into three divisions: committed, achieving and outstanding – and Halcrow is the first large company to be recognised at the ‘achieving’ level.

The award recognises and celebrates progress towards achieving gender equality in the workplace. UKRC said that Halcrow had been

‘working hard to recruit and train more women into professional

and technician roles…with very encouraging figures in front

line management’.

The organisation also praised Halcrow’s wide range of flexible working practices and ‘fairness and transparency of decision-making in the field.’

CASE STUDY: Health and safety

Halcrow undertook a health and safety review in March 2010 which comprised a staff survey, risk workshops and office audits. The risk workshops helped to reinforce the survey’s findings and acted as a forum for staff to discuss their issues in greater detail. The review enabled the business in India to put together a realistic action plan that addressed health and safety requirements in a region where it is not generally considered a high priority. The aim is to raise awareness of this issue with our business partners.


Leading by example

Our supply chains

We mentioned last year that we had joined the Green Procurement Code supported by the Mayor of London. We have continued to engage in opportunities such as these where clients and others are asking us to support their efforts, often in the form of providing information. For example, even though we have no specific requirement to do so, we have reported to the Carbon Disclosure Project at the request of some of our clients because we believe that full reporting is essential if we are to achieve the improvements we need and encourage others to do the same.

Halcrow has completed an extremely detailed supplier questionnaire prepared on behalf of one of our major clients in the UK. This asked us questions which even public indices such as the Corporate Responsibility Index did not cover in such detail.

Halcrow has also begun to share sustainable procurement knowledge across its regions. In North America (NOAM), we have set up an arrangement with our supplier Staples which will give us feedback on the environmental aspects of some of our procurement decisions. Our NOAM and UK procurement teams are exploring the lessons we have learned from this and will seek to set up similar arrangements in the future.

CASE STUDY: Health and safety awards

CASE STUDY: Our commitment to carbon reduction

In 2010, Halcrow received two awards – a gold medal at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents Awards (RoSPA) Occupational Health and Safety Awards and the British Safety Council International Safety award. These awards schemes focus on reducing the number of accidents and cases of ill health at work and encourage organisations to develop robust health and safety management systems.

The safety and wellbeing of Halcrow’s employees – and of those affected by our work – is of core importance to our business. Halcrow is committed to maintaining an effective global health and safety system.

In October 2008, an internal carbon workshop seminar in Swindon played host to over 30 Halcrow experts all working in carbon related fields. It aimed to boost networking, knowledge sharing and to explore the best way forward for both our clients as well as ourselves as a business. The workshop established a momentum which continued and led to the formation of what is now the present-day Halcrow carbon collective (HCC).

The collective is a cross-business, multi-disciplinary working group consisting of a selection of individuals from all sectors and business groups within Halcrow, with members ranging from graduate right through to group board level. It has met on a roughly monthly basis since it was established.

The HCC researches and delivers best practice in areas ranging from carbon advisory, strategic carbon management, carbon accounting and auditing, to carbon project appraisal such as low-carbon optioneering, designing out carbon and energy

increasing efficiency as well as advice on the ever changing carbon reduction commitment (CRC).

The HCC, while based in the UK, draws in interest and expertise from across Halcrow, with particularly active dialogues with Australian and North American colleagues. This extended network is essential in order for us to provide not just the right technical advice and support, but also to understand how best to apply this in a local context. The regulatory, political, business and cultural environments around the world dictate that our deployment of best practice has to be on a knowledge exchange basis rather than a top-down approach from a central source.


Tomorrow’s CompanyAn independent commentary

This statement by Archimedes is over 2,200 years old – but it is hugely relevant as we assess Halcrow’s sustainability impact as a global provider of design and engineering solutions.

In the many examples of new practices and processes drawn from across the world, this report gives exciting witness to the birth of a new economic era. My ‘top three’ are the research into cement bound with plastic polymers in Australia; helping the first secondary school to achieve a BREEAM ‘excellent’ rating in the UK; and the £4,000 Halcrow Foundation grant to the medical centre in Delhi, treating 1,000 patients a month.

We argue that the Age of Sustainability has begun, a new ‘long wave’ of economic development, which recognises that the two main assumptions on which post-war prosperity have rested must now be turned on their head: natural resources are scarce, not abundant; and talent, in this era of globalisation, is abundant, not scarce.

Businesses will succeed in this new era by creating long-term value rooted in social and environmental drivers as well as economic

imperatives: we call this ‘the triple context’ and it is striking how much it has in common with the HalSTAR sustainability rating system.

Critically, we argue that sustainability cannot be defined in terms of one part of the system, such as the environment in isolation, but needs to be seen in the context of the system as a whole. Companies which see themselves as part of this wider system can not only be a force for good – they are far more likely to survive, be respected, create sustainable value, and to succeed.

In practically demonstrating that sustainability for Halcrow is about ‘how we do things’ and ‘what we do’, there is a recognition that sustainability is perhaps far more embedded than may be recognised within the business: systems thinking is after all surely one of Halcrow’s core competencies.

If it is indeed ‘the way we do things around here’, the importance of this report – and the broader conversation of which it is part – is that it may help to build awareness of, and confidence in, recognising that sustainability is indeed Halcrow’s business. But also that sustainability is not simply ‘good’ to do, or evidence of being a responsible business, welcome though this is – but that it is integral to Halcrow’s future commercial success, something which this report could more fully and explicitly acknowledge.

Last year, my colleague Mark Goyder welcomed Halcrow’s first sustainability report “as a platform on which an effective cycle of future reports may be built… Halcrow has stepped onto the escalator of transparency”. The progress against UK targets is to be welcomed, and in future years will perhaps be stretched further, and matched by similar targets globally.

The current report is, at this stage of reporting, necessarily a patchwork quilt of activities, of varying scale and impacts – but they are linked as parts of the impressive lever that Halcrow is building, if not to move, then certainly, to sustain the world.

In the year to come we look forward to supporting dialogues across Halcrow to help reinforce this realisation, so that Halcrow even more fully leverages the commercial benefits of the business of sustainability.

Creating sustainable value today

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world”.

Tony Manwaring Chief executive Tomorrow’s Company –

a not-for-profit research organisation which works with businesses to

generate and share ideas.

The natural environment

The social and political

system

The global economy

Forceforgood

Tony Manwaring, chief executive Tomorrow’s Company


In addition to reducing the environmental impact of our clients’ projects, it is essential that we continually improve our operational environmental performance, particularly in terms of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, decreasing our use of material resources and minimising the risk of releasing harmful substances into the environment.

For this reason, we have established targets around carbon, water, paper, office consumables, waste and recycling, and operate an environmental management system (EMS) compliant with ISO 14001. Where appropriate, our targets and objectives are underpinned by external commitments and participation in industry initiatives such as the West of England Carbon Challenge and Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) ‘Halving construction waste to landfill’ campaign.

Measurement has been our first priority and our 2009 focus has been on putting a sustainability performance management system in place, and building the associated data collection and internal reporting capacity. The information that is emerging enables us to determine where we need to improve and by how much, and is already being used by individual offices to drive improvements. It has also enabled us to respond effectively to stakeholder requests to report our performance, for example through the Carbon Disclosure Project, in which we participated for the first time in 2009.

As a check on ourselves and to aid our progress, for the second year running, we entered Business in the Community corporate responsibility index, achieving an overall improved score of 76.8 (compared with 59.5 in 2008) and an environment index performance of 67.6.

The results, which include assessment of strategy, integration, management practice and assurance, as well social and environmental impacts, provided us with a degree of confidence that we are moving in the right direction. They also pointed to a number of areas in which we could do better, including in relation to waste and resource management, something we intend to address during the course of 2010.

As more of our key clients require us to measure and report sustainability performance, 2010 sees us shifting our focus from system implementation to investment, innovation and improvement, some current examples of which are described in the case studies and narrative throughout this report.

So the engineering profession has a huge contribution to make here and now, notwithstanding the difficult economic circumstances being experienced by many countries. We have an obligation to seek sustainable solutions wherever possible, to help solve these difficult problems in ways which maximise efficiency and value, and minimise waste and damage to the planet.

It has been a challenging year within the infrastructure consulting profession generally, as we have had to adapt to rapidly changing economic circumstances. Nevertheless, I have been struck by the willingness of our people to commit time, often when they are under additional pressure, to share their knowledge freely and learn more about the essential elements of sustainability, why it matters to us and why we should continue to impress upon clients how we can help them deliver more sustainable projects and programmes.

Meeting the challenge

Our world faces massive challenges relating to population movements, water scarcity, and food and energy security, not to mention the basic provisions of shelter, infrastructure and communications. The solutions to these problems are not just social, political and financial – they invariably need technology and engineering to help solve them.

We have made great progress over the last year because our people are committed. We know we can do a great deal more as we engage more of our global workforce. This report reflects the growing range of activities we find across all our regions, and also reflects the growing momentum we have generated within the business to be more sustainable.

I said in my comments in last year’s sustainability report that now is an exciting time to join our profession. The challenges have not lessened over the past year, so the opportunities to serve our communities are greater than ever.

Les Buck, group board director

Performance management

Les Buck, group board director


Halcrow and its employees are committed to using their skills and time to make a positive impact. We engage with communities around the world to deliver long-term, sustainable and responsible solutions.

California dreaming Thirst for life

A home of their own

Much of this work is made possible through the Halcrow Foundation, which was founded in 2005 following an overwhelming employee response to the Indian Ocean tsunami.

The Halcrow Foundation now receives 1 per cent of Halcrow’s annual profit. Since it was established it has donated approximately £1.1 million and provided valuable internal support.

Thousands of lives have been transformed around the world as a result of the foundation’s work. The foundation also acts as a spur to fundraising and community projects among our employees through matched-giving. Colleagues with long-standing involvement with charity and community projects have welcomed the opportunity to seek funding and the scheme has given others the encouragement to embark on fund-raising ventures.

As a company which is committed to sharing its expertise and knowledge, we also support mentoring programmes to encourage young people to enter engineering as a profession. Our engineering and hydrology expertise is also donated at no cost to projects and charities such as Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor.

Young people from some of Los Angeles’ most deprived communities are benefiting from a £10,000 grant to the International Trade Education Program’s (ITEP) internship scheme. ITEP boosts students skills and self-esteem through work experience placements, along with workshops and mentorships.

The young people leave ITEP with a new-found sense of self-confidence and team work and a solid work ethic and effective communication skills which help them to progress.

We are helping ITEP set up further placement opportunities with maritime trade, transportation and logistics companies in the area.

Thousands of people living in a low-income settlement in Kenya are to benefit from a purpose-built biocentre and community centre funded by the Halcrow Foundation.

Using a £20,000 foundation grant, the three-storey building in Kisumu will house a public toilet block divided into male and female sections with showers and water taps. Human waste will be converted to organic fertilisers with methane piped to a gas cooker in the first-floor kitchen and there will be a community centre on the second floor.

Around 500 local people will use the sanitation facilities on a daily basis. The kitchen and community facilities should also provide a focus for up to 3,000 in a settlement which has practically no infrastructure.

The foundation’s involvement with the project is led by Halcrow employee and WSUP programme co-ordinator Rob Clarke.

Vulnerable people in Scotland have taken an important step towards independent living through a grant from the Halcrow Foundation.

A £19,000 foundation grant is providing furniture and furnishings for 12 brand new flats built by the Southside Housing Association in Glasgow. The flats will give 12 people with complex disabilities a chance to live independantly in a secure environment with 24-hour support on site.

Because they are dependent on benefits, the new tenants would not normally be able to furnish their apartments. The grant will supply them with all they need to live comfortable everyday lives with everything from bedding and cutlery to bath towels and chairs.

In our communities


In our communities

Hope in Romania

Disabled orphans in Romania are given hope and training through the Foundation for the Relief of Disabled Orphans (FRODO), a UK-based charity which is supported by the Halcrow Foundation.

FRODO runs a programme designed to transform the lives of children and young people living in a state-run orphanage in Bucharest, Romania.

Sharing technical expertise

Fresh water and sanitation should be a right, not a privilege. Halcrow is committed to sharing its expertise in order to increase access to clean water. We are a founding member of Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), a partnership of public, private and charitable organisations that has pledged to help achieve the United Nation’s millennium development goal of halving the proportion of people living without clean drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.

Halcrow has played a key role in identifying and developing projects, as well as providing technical and institutional support to project teams in countries around the world.

WSUP works with local service providers to improve water and sanitation services to low-income urban communities of around 100,000 people. WSUP has a target of meeting the needs of 3.5 million people. Halcrow has contributed to a majority of the projects to date.

Helping the very poorest

Vital medical aid and supplies are supplied to people living in one of Delhi’s low-income settlements through the Halcrow Foundation and colleagues in the Delhi office.

A £4,000 foundation grant helped to pay the 2009 running costs of the medical centre, which is run by the Savera Association for people living in Basti Sriniwaspuri, Delhi.

The centre treats about 1,000 patients a month, providing them with free consultation, medicine and ambulance services. It also runs eye, dental, gynaecology, skin and ear, nose and throat surgeries.

Colleagues in the Delhi office lend further support by donating unused medicines and making extra financial contributions to the project’s work.

Many of these youngsters have severe learning difficulties and have had little prospect of receiving an education. FRODO has established a learning environment in the orphanage called the Apprentice Centre. The centre teaches skills that are needed in everyday life and which may lead to some form of work and independence in the future.

Sustainability report, 2010 4342

Conclusions and the future

To reduce total UK carbon emissions from 2008 levels by 10 per cent by 2012

We have reduced our emissions by about 3.3 per cent. This is due not only to the improvement measures we have put in place but is also a reflection of the slowdown arising from general economic conditions. Our challenge is to ‘bank’ this emissions reduction and to find ways to set ourselves new and stretching targets.

To complete our UK baseline for 2008 sustainability key performance indicators and agree specific improvement targets

We have set ourselves objectives for waste management in accordance with the ‘Halving Waste to Landfill initiative. We are measuring our water and paper use against public guidelines and will see how we may be able to set stretching targets beyond the recommended levels of use.

To improve our BitC corporate responsibility index (CRI) score in 2010

We were one of the largest improvers between 2009 and 2010 on the Corporate Responsibility Index. It is possible that we will decide not to report in 2011 so that we may focus on implementing a larger range of actions we have identified as a result of the CRI process in 2010. It would be our aim, should we not enter the 2011 CRI, to do so in 2012.

Begin to roll out our performance management and reporting system to other regions

We have begun to work with colleagues in North America and the Middle East to collect, collate and report on sustainability data and information. We are replacing our sustainability performance management software system with one which we believe will be more fit for purpose and this will be deployed at least in the NOAM region at the same time as in the UK.

Consolidate the initiatives that we have begun with our key sustainability partners: Business in the Community, Forum for the Future and Tomorrow’s Company

Our relationships with our sustainability partners have matured during the last year, as evidenced by the work we have done such as providing technical support to guidance publications; our participation in the CRI; our sponsorship of and involvement in research and development programmes; our participation in forums, workshops and other networking events; and the knowledge exchange that now regularly takes place between these organisations and growing sections of our wider business.

Integrate our sustainability programme with business needs, by supporting the increasing pressure from clients for more sustainable ways of working, developing new opportunities in sustainability services and finding new ways to differentiate Halcrow as a business

We have worked closely with the business groups and regions to integrate our sustainability programme with business needs. Among the ways we have done this are a range of activities built around bid support, client contacts and business development.

Progress against targets

In the 2009 sustainability report, we set ourselves three targets for the year ahead. Our progress against these is:

Progress against commitments

We are committed to consolidating and building on the progress we have made since our last report. In the next 12 months we aim to:



Pledges

We noted last year that we intend to set challenging commitments for ourselves each year. This year, our pledges are to:

Performance data

Our total UK carbon emissions reduced by approximately 3.3 per cent on 2008, well ahead of our target trajectory.

Key performance indicators

We collect data in relation to the following key performance indicators (KPIs). Quantitative data is reported in absolute and normalised terms (eg per employee), as appropriate.

Consolidate the North America sustainability forum and to get the process of establishing a regional forum in at least one other major region underway.

Define a clear programme for embedding sustainability within day-to-day business operations in response to specific client requests and observations, and to begin to implement this programme.

To develop much more dynamic and interactive communications on sustainability, building primarily on electronic means of communication via websites and discussion groups, but also through publications, workshops, forums and similar means.

This was aided by the economic downturn and associated office space rationalisation. Emissions per employee saw a similar proportional reduction. Total UK water consumption increased following additional joint venture contract work involving vehicle washing, but office water consumption per employee was similar to the previous year, slightly below the Defra good practice benchmark at 7.48m3 per employee.

Even though our UK office operations do not consume significant quantities of water, we believe it is important to reduce consumption to at least industry good-practice levels, something we will endeavour to achieve in 2010. Paper use declined both in absolute terms and per employee, though it remained approximately 400 sheets above the Envirowise good-practice benchmark of 3,500 sheets per person per annum. The introduction of PaperCut software in parts of the UK is likely to have made a significant contribution to this result, so we plan to roll it out to the rest of the country during 2010.

Finally, 2009 saw all UK offices evidencing their waste disposal duty of care obligations through our performance management software, with the six UK offices responsible for disposing of waste directly reporting the quantity of waste to landfill for the first time. Due to an expanded UK operational boundary (incorporating the Aone and Aone+ joint venture operations) which took effect in 2009, as well as small adjustments to energy conversion factors (as published by Defra), previous 2007 and 2008 data has been restated to put it on a comparable basis with the 2009 data set.

KPI Measure Units

Carbonemissions Carbon dioxide equivalent1 (CO2e) emitted Tonnes

Electricity Electricity consumed/CO2e emitted Megawatt hours (MWh)/tonnes

Oilandgas Oil and gas consumed/CO2e emitted MWh/tonnes

Travelandtransport CO2e emitted Tonnes

Renewableenergy MWh renewable electricity by type/CO2e avertedProportion of purchased electricity from renewable sources

MWh/tonnes per cent

Wateruse Water consumption Cubic metres (m3)

Materialresourcesconsumption

Sheets A4 equivalent paper consumedNumber of print cartridges used

Number

Wasteandrecycling Quantity of general waste to landfill from own premisesDisclosure of waste transfer and destination, and verification of licensing, for all officesRecycling statistics in line with stated individual offices targets

Tonnes and/or m3

Healthandsafety Accident frequency rate Rate against benchmark

Community Halcrow Foundation expenditure plus other community donations Financial value, benefits in kind and people benefited

Employeesatisfaction Based on existing Employee Survey data Rating score

Employeestatistics Employee numbers, turnover, diversity As specified

Clientsatisfaction Based on existing client survey data Rating score1 CO2e takes account of the CO2 equivalent impact of the six major greenhouse gases considered under the Kyoto Protocol (including methane (CH4), which is 25 times more potent than CO2, nitrous oxide (N2O), which is about 300 times more potent than CO2, and refrigerant gases, which are several thousand times more potent than CO2)



Carbon emissions (scope 1 and 2), UK operations

Carbon emissions/per employee (UK annual average nos.)

Water consumption, total and per employee, UK operations

Carbon emissions (scope 1 and 2) by type/region, vs target, UK operations

Year Scope1 Tonnes notes

2007 UK offices2 energy + company leased vehicles

3,934,337 Target: 10 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2012 on 2008 baseline3

2008 As above 4,205,764 Baseline year

2009 As above 4,066,294 3.3 per cent reduction on baseline

1 Greenhouse Gas Protocol, scope 1 and 22 Includes joint venture offices on basis of equity share 3 In accordance with the Carbon Challenge

Year Scope Tonnes/employee

Averagestaffnumbers

2007 UK offices energy + company leased vehicles

0.980 4,015

2008 As above 1.189 3,538

2009 As above 1.127 3,608

Year 2007 2008 2009

Water consumption UK (office use) m3

29,432.40 26,221.80 26,982.20

Water consumption UK (other uses) m3

- 6,191.00 10,397.00

Total water consumption m3 29,432.40 34,420.80 39,388.20

Water consumption (office use) m3/employee

7.45 7.37 7.48

Defra Good Practice Benchmark m3/employee

7.70 7.70 7.70

Resource efficiency: paper consumption, total and per employee, UK operations

Year 2007 2008 2009

Total sheets of paper UK 16,350,821 14,836,833 14,056,770

Total sheets of paper UK South

9,756,265 8,842,372 7,847,546

Total sheets of paper UK North

6,594,556 5,990,346 6,209,224

UK: sheets of paper per staff member

4,072 4,194 3,896

UK South: sheets of paper per employee

3,889 4,132 3,853

UK North: sheets of paper per employee

4,379 4,300 3,952

Envirowise Good Practice Benchmark

3,500 3,500 3,500

Water consumption (office use) m3/employee,by region, vs Defra Good Practice Benchmark, UK operations

Resource efficiency: paper consumption, sheets per employee, by region, UK operations


Notes

A responsible businessSustainability report, 2010

Vineyard House44 Brook GreenLondon W6 7BYUnited Kingdom

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