Skanska : Global recognition for climate change leadership

Article10/26/2016 11:20 AM CET

Skanska is for the first time included in the global 'Climate A List' compiled by the international not-for-profit organization CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project. Skanska is in the top 9 percent of the more than 2,000 companies around the world in the ranking.

Deep Green™ projects - like Virginia's Brock Environmental Center - have near-zero environmental impacts during construction and operation.

The Climate A List is the top ranking in the scoring, which highlights the important role of companies in achieving society's climate goals. CDP produced this list on behalf of 827 institutional investors, having assets of about USD 100 trillion, that want insight into how well companies are prepared for climate change. The list is based on corporate performance in four areas: disclosure, awareness, management and leadership.

'We are extremely proud of this recognition, which validates our progress on measuring and starting to reduce carbon emissions as part of our Care for Life value,' says Anna Åkesson, Skanska AB senior environmental manager. 'This is an important milestone on our journey to be the leading green project developer and contractor, and to become a low-carbon organization.'

Journey to low carbon

Reducing carbon has been a Skanska goal since 2009, when we launched the Skanska Color Palette ™. This is a tool to measure and strategically guide our green activities toward what we call Deep Green™: projects with near-zero environmental impacts both during construction and then in the operation of the building or infrastructure.

Buildings and infrastructure and how they are constructed are major producers of carbon emissions, which accelerate climate change. For instance, research shows that buildings use approximately 40 percent of energy globally, and generate around one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. This provides Skanska with a significant opportunity to use our green expertise to help society.

Key climate efforts

Key Skanska efforts and projects related to reducing carbon emissions include:

• Becoming carbon neutral: In Sweden, Skanska has committed to becoming carbon neutral - zero carbon emissions - by 2050. This is an ambitious target as it focuses on actual carbon reductions within Skanska Sweden and throughout our supply chain. This will require adjusting working methods. For example, Skanska and Volvo Construction Equipment are part of a consortium that will be testing loaders and other construction equipment powered by electricity to reduce carbon emissions.
  
  Skanska Sweden and our partners will be testing heavy construction equipment powered by electricity for lower carbon emissions. (Image courtesy Volvo Construction Equipment).
• Developing and building Deep Green™ projects: Deep Green examples include Sweden's Solallén zero-energy neighborhood and Väla Gård office building, both of which generate more energy than they consume each year.
• Using green tools: Skanska uses carbon footprinting tools, lifecycle assessments and BIM as project-level support tools. Through these, we are better able to make project choices that optimize carbon, energy, cost and other factors throughout the entire life of the building or infrastructure.
• Sharing green solutions: Our green focus leads to solutions that can benefit other projects. For example, our patented Deep Green cooling solution, which uses ground boreholes as a highly efficient way of cooling buildings, was trialed on Skanska projects in Sweden; we have since rolled it to other markets.
• Greening our supply chain: We work with our suppliers to improve their green performance, which helps us reduce the carbon emissions of the materials and services we purchase. For example, we co-founded the UK's Supply Chain Sustainability School, which is a collaboration across the construction industry that provides suppliers with practical and free support. Also, we have developed our own carbon app in the U.S. that helps our project partners report their carbon emissions.
  
  We co-founded the UK's Supply Chain Sustainability School, which is a collaboration across the construction industry that provides suppliers with practical and free support.