Temporary cabins are one of the top sources of carbon emissions and wasted energy on construction sites. They are often poorly insulated and lack the controls for heating, lighting and electricity use that are increasingly found in permanent buildings.

They've now been targeted by a major new campaign to green them up. It includes an ambitious target to cut the carbon footprint of sites by 15% within the next two years.

The plan was developed by the Strategic Forum for Construction in partnership with the Carbon Trust and with the involvement of many of the leading names in the UK construction industry. It outlines a package of measures designed to cut the industry’s carbon emissions in England by some 750,000 tonnes a year, saving firms £180m a year in energy costs.

The action plan focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from on-site construction (plant and equipment) and site accommodation; transport associated with the delivery of materials and removal of waste; business travel; and permanent (corporate) offices.

Cabins can be a big opportunities for contractors to cut their costs as well as their carbon emissions, says the Trust. The plan estimates that £45m and 200,000 tonnes of CO₂ could be saved each year by using modern ‘green’ site offices that can cut carbon emissions and energy use by 50%, or by retrofitting existing cabins to be more energy efficient.

Over their lifetime, energy efficient cabins alone could reduce emissions by five million tonnes, the equivalent of taking 1.5m cars off the road for a year.

The action plan sets out several other actions. These include:

More fuel efficient driving for freight, waste transport and business travel, and using more fuel-efficient fleet vehicles: predicted saving of £90m and 270,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year

Using construction plant efficiently. This includes educating site staff on the fuel efficient use of equipment, collecting and analysing energy data from on site equipment, and enabling all mobile plant to turn off automatically when not being used: predicted saving of £19m and 84,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year

Connecting construction sites to the national grid earlier to minimise the use of diesel powered generators: predicted saving of £7m and 45,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year

Improving energy efficiency in corporate offices: predicted saving of £4m and 28,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year.

Copies of the action plan can be downloaded from: www.strategicforum.org.uk/carbon.shtml

The Strategic Forum for Construction is the only construction forum that seeks to represent the whole of the construction community.  It comprises senior members of the constituent organisations.  The Forum’s activities are both proactive and reactive but at all times seek to work in partnership across the industry to achieve long term improvements.

The Strategic Forum has a number of Task Groups including the Sustainable Construction Task Group through whose auspices the work on the waste and carbon targets came about.