South Wales-based builders’ merchant Robert Price has become a ‘Zero Carbon Business Champion’ as part of the Construct Zero programme (also known as CO2nstruct Zero).
After the UK government set out a path to Net Zero by 2050 – aka reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 100% from 1990 levels – the sector launched Construct Zero via the Construction Leadership Council, a programme designed to encourage collaborative working to help meet, or even exceed, Net Zero targets.
To become a Construct Zero Business Champion, businesses must demonstrate active efforts and initiatives towards achieving Net Zero by reducing carbon emissions, sharing successful strategies within the sector, and utilising a set of metrics to measure progress – just as Robert Price has.
The South Wales builders’ merchant has been implementing several sustainable strategies that have helped achieve its successful application to become a Business Champion. As well as transforming its vehicle fleet, streamlining its transport and improving its uptake of paperless billing, it also opened its Sustainable Energy Centre (SEC) in 2022.
Created to showcase, inform and educate customers on a wide range of sustainable building materials and construction solutions, the SEC includes “cutting-edge and sustainable heating systems, internal and external wall insulation, electric vehicle charging points and more.”
To advance its efforts to meet the Net Zero target, Robert Price also runs a training academy in the SEC, the purpose of which is to train clients and contractors on sustainable products, renewable technologies and how to install them. With over 1500 hours of product awareness training and over 7000 hours of training hosted already, the merchant says it has become a successful hub for renewable technology education and a vital resource to help meet the Net Zero target.
Molly Pike, the merchant’s Marketing Director, said: “We are thrilled to be a Zero Carbon Business Champion and to have received such an accreditation! Not only are we dedicated to helping reach Net Zero in the industry, but we are also committed to providing the best solutions to our customers while meeting their individual needs. Having our application accepted and to be a part of the Construct Zero programme is to be recognised for our continuous effort towards Net Zero.”
In addition to Robert Price, three other BMF members are amongst the latest cohort of companies to become Zero Carbon Business Champions within the Construction Leadership Council’s CO2nstruct Zero programme. Cemex, Harlow Timber Group and Saint Gobain Interior Solutions, plus Robert Price as outlined in the main story above, join 27 other BMF members as Business Champions – part of a total group of over 90 construction industry companies now working within the CLC programme.
CO2nstructZero facilitates collaboration between construction companies that are demonstrating initiative in relation to carbon reduction, sharing their good practice with others from across the sector, and providing a set of metrics that enables the industry, quarterly, to collectively measure its progress to net zero.
