About
Colas is a world leader in transport infrastructure, operating across 50 countries with more than 54,000 staff.
Its principal business activities include the construction and maintenance of roads, highways, airport runways, reserved-lane public transport (tramways, bus rapid transit), environmental development, civil engineering and traffic management.
Colas also designs, engineers, constructs and maintains large, complex railway projects, as well as manufacturing, distributing and recycling a range of construction materials.
For more information on Colas:
+44 (0) 1342 711 000
[email protected]
www.colas.co.uk
SmartWaste is the leading environmental social and governance (ESG) platform for the built environment. It supports net zero carbon, circularity or social value objectives and captures biodiversity, energy, materials, transport, waste and water data.
Find out how Smartwaste can help automate your workflow.
Background
Colas takes its corporate social responsibility seriously, embedding this into business activity. Over recent years the company has undergone major transformation becoming a global leader in sustainability and environmental best practice.
Challenges
Colas adopted low carbon techniques and solutions to pursue its global carbon emission target of 30% by 2030, and Colas LTD’s target of 46% by 2030 against 2019 levels. Colas is one of the world’s top five recyclers through the principles of circular economy like recycling and reusing materials from deconstruction.
Colas didn’t want to stop there. The company has also signed up to the science based targets initiative, committing to a net-zero target in line with limiting global warming to a 1.5°C future.
This ambition goal posed several key challenges:
- Speed – The data Colas reported on was collated internally using spreadsheets which created a time lag in understanding actual performance.
- Consistent and accurate performance reporting
– Colas recognised that comparative analysis would help confirm effectiveness of innovation and implementation of best practice. - Effective measurement – The demonstration of global environmental and sustainability leadership performance data across activities was needed to meet their targets.
The SmartWaste team worked with us to deliver on data capture and reporting requirements. They took our ideas and manged them through to a successful outcome, co-ordinating third parties and taking on responsibility for delivery.
Emma Murray, CSR and Environmental Manager, Colas Ltd.
Solutions
Major successes
Colas chose SmartWaste because it can effectively manage and report on key performance data and support positive change. Emma Murray, the CSR and Environmental Manager at Colas, had used SmartWaste in the past and found it a simple system to use, a cost-effective solution that catered for the environmental and sustainability topics that Colas is passionate about.
Colas enjoyed working with the SmartWaste team: Diva Shah, Amanda Holt, Chris Abraham and Antonio Hernandez. They were able to bring their ideas about energy and vehicle usage data input to the table, confident that the team would own the challenge and make it happen. SmartWaste also managed the third parties and the project to success so Colas did not need to worry about the technical aspects.
Benefits
The implementation of SmartWaste has helped the Colas team to measure how successful it has been in achieving its transformation strategy. SmartWaste has enabled the fast, consistent and disciplined collection of key performance data including:
• Distance travelled (of materials, waste and staff)
• Water usage
• Energy usage
• Fuel consumption for staff transport
• Scope 1, 2 and 3 CO2e carbon emissions
Staff are now empowered to understand the implications of their actions and affect positive change.
Next steps
Colas chose SmartWaste because it can effectively manage and report on key performance data and support positive change. Emma Murray, the CSR and Environmental Manager at Colas, had used SmartWaste in the past and found it a simple system to use, a cost-effective solution that catered for the environmental and sustainability topics that Colas is passionate about.
Colas enjoyed working with the SmartWaste team: Diva Shah, Amanda Holt, Chris Abraham and Antonio Hernandez. They were able to bring their ideas about energy and vehicle usage data input to the table, confident that the team would own the challenge and make it happen. SmartWaste also managed the third parties and the project to success so Colas did not need to worry about the technical aspects.
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