REAL ESTATE: LAND SECURITIES
“It’s through industry
groups such as this, the
Health in Construction
Leadership Group that we
can share good practice
and reach a collective
agreement on the best
ways to help Britain
work and be well.”
“I went away after listening to Dr Rushtin and thought
about it. At the next meeting, I said, “we’ve got to do
something for health and I think we should take the same
approach as John Prescott did with safety.” Health risks
haven’t received enough attention and I think it’s easy not
to recognise occupational exposures as major hazards
because they’re latent risks. Let’s now get everybody
together and create a unified enthusiasm to raise the
profile of health in construction.
“I had initial meeting with two other people around
12 months ago, and in January this year, the inaugural
Construction Health Summit was held.”
Construction Health Summit
As the new Chairman of the Construction Clients’ Group
(CCG), Clive Johnson also chairs the recently established
Health in Construction Leadership Group. The group’s
mission is “to unite the construction industry in eradicating
ill health and disease caused by exposure to health hazards,
with a view to ensuring construction is the leading industry
for occupational health and disease prevention.”
The first Construction Health Summit, organised by the
Health in Construction Leadership Group, was held on 21
January 2016 to address the shocking statistic that deaths
caused by occupational disease are 100 times more likely
than deaths by accidents.
Johnson explained:
“In January, over 150 top CEOs, business leaders and
client companies in the construction industry vowed to
improve occupational health at the first Construction
Health Summit in London. The Summit sought to replicate
the cultural shift seen in our industry that led to dramatic
reduction in construction injuries and fatalities. We wanted
to highlight the importance in treating health the same as
safety.”
Several guest speakers were at the event including Chair
of the Health & Safety Executive, Dame Judith Hackitt CBE,
who said:
“Britain has a proud record on health and safety – it’s
one of the best in the world. Our challenge is how we
make it even better. Ill-health caused by work activity
is one the biggest challenges we face, with 1.2 million
people suffering from a work-related illness in 2014/15.
It’s through industry groups such as this, the Health in
Construction Leadership Group that we can share good
practice and reach a collective agreement on the best ways
to help Britain work and be well.”
During the Summit, attendees pledged their
commitment to eradicating the thousands of cases of
ill health and disease caused each year as a result of
exposure to health hazards during construction work by
signing the back of a Pledge Card. The card also included
space for a nominee; the person in each company who can
make it happen.
Johnson continued:
“We lef t the summit with the commitment that we’re
going to do something different on the health front, like
we did on safety. Fortunately, there was no arm twisting to
persuade the heads of the UK’s contractors and clients to
attend. I thought we’d have to lobby hard to get them but
I’ve never had so many emails about an event in my life.
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“The biggest problem we’ve had that is people didn’t
know the different between occupational health, hygiene
and wellbeing. Our first bit of work was to define each
of these so people could go away with an understanding,
to focus on the right approach for every aspect of
occupational health.”
Following the success of the Construction Health Summit
in January, the Health in Construction Leadership Group
hosted its second meeting titled ‘Committing Construction
to a Healthier Future – from commitment into action’ on 21
April. The meeting welcomed operational and health and
safety leaders from committed companies and industry
bodies, and the group discussed turning their commitment
(made in January) into a tactical action plan.
“Personally, over the last 12 months, I’ve done a lot in
terms of raising the health profile across the construction
industry and will continue to do so - I’m very proud of that”,
Johnson added.
“We left the summit
with the commitment
that we’re going to do
something different on
the health front, like
we did on safety.”
SUSTAINABILITY
Commercial property is responsible for approximately
18% of the UK’s current carbon emissions. Increasingly,
general expectation requires shareholder value to be
earned as a result of actions that are positive for all
stakeholders. As a leader in this energy-intensive industry,
Land Securities has a responsibility to reduce its impact
and understands this can only be achieved by recognising
a broader responsibility to employees, customers,
communities, the government and wider society.
Having achieved their 2020 target by the end of last year,
Land Securities has rebaselined using 2014 for its new 2020
targets. Against this revised baseline, there are reductions
in both like-for-like energy and water consumption across
the portfolio, by 8% and 2% respectively. For energy,
there has been a reduction in consumption of 10% in the
Retail Portfolio and 8% in the London Portfolio. Water
consumption has remained static in the Retail Portfolio and
decreased by 4% in the London Portfolio.
The company applies the latest technology to ensure its
developments are as environmentally sound and energy
efficient as possible. Work in this area covers everything
from using innovative new sources of energy in new sites,
to promoting reuse and recycling in office buildings.
“With our current construction activity, 100% of
construction waste is being diverted from landfill. 100% of
our operations are ISO14001 certified and we’ve achieved
zero environmental incidents.” Johnson commented
In addition to assessing the carbon footprint of all
developments and major refurbishments, Land Securities
has an in-house environmental / sustainability team who
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