Energy & climate
The built environment accounts for approximately 40% of all energy consumption. About 1% of this is consumed during construction, 84% accounted for during the lifetime use and 15% is embedded in construction materials. Skanska sees its ability to provide enhanced energy efficiency as an important business opportunity.
We are developing a number of plans to take this forward with like-minded clients through product adaptation strategies. For example, energy consumption in Skanska Commercial Development’s newly developed offices is 30- 40% less than in existing facilities. In addition, within Skanska we have embarked on a series of mitigation measures focused on our vehicles, heavy equipment and office facilities. These adaptation and mitigation measures are embedded more specifically in our 2008-2010 Business Plan.
Skanska's approach to addressing Energy & Climate opportunities and challenges is to focus on the things we can directly control and the things we can directly influence. During the next 3-year Business plan we will focus on mitigating our own impacts and adapting our products and services to make them more climate benign. Specifically we will focus on 1) Our People, 2) Our Assets and 3) Like-minded Clients including our four Development Business Units - Skanska RDN, CDN, CDE and ID.
Our People
Skanska directly employs 56,000 people in its Home Markets. We will build awareness of the practical opportunities to improve energy efficiency in the workplace, at home and while travelling. We will also grow the professional capabilities of our workforce in areas such as eco-design.
Our Assets
Our assets fall into three broad categories: road vehicles, heavy equipment and offices that we occupy. We have implemented the following:
Road Vehicles
Our Green Car Policy applies to all cars owned or leased by any part of Skanska. With effect from 1 January 2008 all new cars must emit less than 260 grams of CO2 per kilometer and our preference is for new cars to produce less than 65 grams/kilometer (Skanska Class 1) or 66-130 gram/kilometer (Skanska Class 2). Recognizing that it is not yet commercially viable to limit selection in all our Home Markets to less than 130 grams/kilometer, we will accept Skanska Class 3 (131-260 grams/kilometer) where Skanska Class 1 and 2 are not yet available and/or bio-fuels are in limited supply.
Heavy Equipment
Skanska owns over US$500m of heavy equipment. With effect from 1 January 2008 all equipment in ten priority categories will operate using Energy Efficiency Best Practice Guidelines that address maintenance, repair and replacement. These guidelines and the priority categories were developed for Skanska by one of the world's leading industrial energy efficiency agencies.
Offices
With effect from 1 January 2008 all offices in which Skanska employees work will be subject to new Energy Efficiency Best Practice Guidelines. These guidelines will be the responsibility of our Facility Managers.
Like-minded Clients
Starting with our four internal clients (Skanska RDN, CDN, CDE and ID) we will drive forward a programme of work to adapt our core products and services so that we can offer higher energy efficiency and more climate-benign solutions to our clients. This work will be carried out under the direction of our Green Construction Initiative.
As part of our commitment to reducing the Climate Change impact of the built environment, since 2006 Skanska has sponsored the UNEP Sustainable Building & Construction Initiative (SBCI) and provided expert input to the WBCSD Energy Efficiency in Buildings Initiative (EEBI).