Sustainable Streetworks

Sustainability is at the heart of May Gurney’s operations – and the company, its customers and, ultimately, their customers, are beginning to reap the benefits.

Initiatives underway at May Gurney have ambitious objectives including zero waste to landfill by 2020 and a reduction in carbon emissions of 50% by 2012. A waste neutral roadwork project in Norfolk and a significant reduction in fleet fuel consumption have been some recent successes of May Gurney’s drive for a more sustainable way of working.

May Gurney broke new ground last year when it completed a waste neutral junction improvement scheme in Norfolk. By calculating the value of the construction materials wasted and balancing that with the value of re-used and recycled materials, the site in Heacham achieved a neutral waste figure in terms of value.

Riaan Kruger, May Gurney site agent, explains: "We carried out a weekly on-site calculation of types and quantities of materials that had been re-used or wasted. These figures were then put into our waste neutral monitor, which allowed us to see where our waste neutral figure stood. Results at Heacham were positive with the waste neutral figure firmly in the green.”

Promoted by Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the scheme aims to reduce costs and increase profits through greater efficiency in the use and re-use of materials. Mr Kruger is an advocate of the system having seen the benefits for May Gurney and its client Norfolk County Council, including a reduction in the construction time.

“It's a very simple, straight forward and user friendly way of gaining instant feedback on project efficiency. It enabled us to identify everything that has the potential for re-use,” he said.

Now May Gurney plans to replicate the success of the Norfolk project on its other Highways contracts across the UK. In the south east of the country, May Gurney has brought together local authority and utilities customers on a project to reduce carbon footprints and create sustainable working practices. The 3Rs project was set up last year to reduce, recycle and reuse (hence the acronym) materials and resources and to share best practice across the company’s contracts. Members include EDF Energy, Southern Gas Networks, Southern Water, and local authorities from East and West Sussex and Surrey.

Dr Tom Macagno, May Gurney’s head of sustainability explains: “The 3Rs project is about sharing knowledge and tackling problems together with our customers. We can talk to them about our experiences in other parts of the country which could work for them too, such as waste neutral highways maintenance.”

Roger Williams is head of transport operations at East Sussex County Council and has seen the benefits of the project. “May Gurney's experience in other parts of the country has been useful to know about in helping us in our operations here in East Sussex. Our use of sustainable materials in highways maintenance has certainly increased because we've been able to work more closely with utilities companies and share and exchange resources."

May Gurney is keen to encourage collaborative working between its customers and has been instrumental in establishing some interesting partnerships to tackle shared problems.

“We can help our customers to help each other,” he says, “For instance, we’ve introduced South West Water to West Sussex County Council to discuss issues relating to flooding as a result of climate change. These two May Gurney customers are very different from each other and we provide a very different service to each of them, but they have a shared problem and we’ve been able to help stop either of them re-inventing the wheel in developing workable solutions.”

The 3Rs project has an ambitious long term aim to achieve zero waste going to landfill by 2020 and is developing a co-ordinated approach to construction waste management. To help reach these goals, May Gurney has become a member of the government-funded National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP) which helps companies exchange used or under-used materials to reduce unnecessary waste. May Gurney is now working with 180 companies across the east of England to recycle aggregates and secondary aggregates from its Norfolk highways contract.

“At a basic practical level, the programme allows us to swap our waste materials with other companies who can make use of them. But longer term, our involvement helps promote a non-waste culture internally and with our suppliers and customers,” explained Dr Macagno.

Another practical initiative to reap benefits for May Gurney is a new on-line vehicle tracking system for the highways maintenance fleet which slashed fuel bills by ten percent in the first three months following its installation.

Martin Potter, operations director for May Gurney Highways Services, said: “We’re able to use the data produced by the Fleetstar-Online system to benefit our business from a cost, operations and customer service perspective.

“For example when an urgent call comes, we know immediately where our operatives are and who is in a position to deal with the incident most effectively. This system gives us live information so we get the right skills and the right resource to the right place.”

May Gurney has also reduced the size of its highways maintenance fleet by five percent as a result of being able to pinpoint the position of vehicles and to better allocate drivers to jobs.

“We use our fleet smarter now,’” explains Mr Potter, “We noticed one instance where one of our smaller vehicles was making trips backwards and forwards for most of the day when a larger vehicle could do the job in just one trip. The tracking system now helps us make far more effective use of our resources.”

The 3Rs project and the on-line tracking system have proved so successful that May Gurney intends to roll-out the initiatives across its other contracts in highways, rail and environmental services. But the push for sustainability is not restricted to the company’s big business divisions. It is not unusual to see employees hopping onto a May Gurney branded mountain bike at the Norwich headquarters or pulling away in the eco-friendly VW Blue Motion Polo.

“Everyone at May Gurney can make a difference and we’re keen to promote sustainability in every aspect of our business from highways maintenance operations to the tea room,” said Dr Macagno.