Key Issues under consideration by the Sustainability Forum
Resource Efficiency and Waste.

The key issue being addressed by the Sustainability Forum continues to be the regulation of waste and the bureaucratic hindrance to useful materials being re-used and recycled easily in other sites or locations.

A prime example of this is the fact that the EHS consider uncontaminated topsoil as ‘waste’.

The Federation is calling for the government to make waste regulation more workable for the construction industry. It is good practice to re-use and recycle as much as possible to reduce the total tonnage that construction sends to landfill. In the UK the industry sends about £100 million tonnes to landfill every year.

CEF is of the opinion that materials that are by-products where there is no intention to discard them should not be considered as ‘waste’. There is case law to support this argument. The CEF lawyers have also confirmed this to be true.

Climate Change

Another important issue is to ensure that our members are aware of the importance of reducing the carbon footprint of buildings and the increasing regulation in connection with Climate Change. The CEF has held a series of events to raise awareness of the implications of the threat of Climate Change on the Construction Industry.


Environmental Management Systems

The members of the Forum have agreed to encourage and support their supply chain in achieving environmental Standards. The CEF runs a programme called Easy Access which assists firms to develop an environmental management system in six easy phases. Firms can work towards the international standard ISO14001.