Drive towards non-diesel

21 July 2021

There’s fresh impetus in the drive towards the sourcing of green construction equipment from hire companies in the future. 

The Construction Leadership Council has published a strategy to reduce carbon in the industry and to ultimately achieve net zero.

The CLC works to address significant issues facing the industry and its Construct Zero Performance Framework sets out targets in various areas. It also outlines measures to gauge progress made.

Main commitments include the removal of 78% of diesel plant from construction sites by 2035, with an annual increase in non-diesel equipment sourced from hire companies. 

The Framework says that construction firms and client businesses with more than 250 staff will trial one zero-diesel site by the end of 2023 and that there will be annual increases in the number of electric vans in vehicle fleets. 

Construction Leadership Council co-chair Andy Mitchell said: “We are seeing huge demand from across the sector to push forward towards Net Zero, and this has been reflected in the level of consultation feedback we received when we tested these metrics with industry. We can have confidence that these measures will help guide us towards a lower carbon future, and I look forward to seeing progress”. 

Details of each measure are available on the Construction Leadership Council’s Construct Zero web hub.  Data will be gathered on a quarterly basis and published as an industry carbon ‘dashboard’. The first update is due to take place this autumn. 

Photo: Network Rail/Absolute Photography Ltd