Reducing carbon in infrastructure projects can help reduce costs but it needs to be considered at an early stage, according to Mike Putnam, President and CEO of Skanska UK.

Speaking in the latest episode of Construction Climate Talks, he said: “You can’t just tackle carbon when you’re part way through a project – because the die is already cast. What you need to do is start up-front when you’re almost got a blank sheet of paper, and say ‘What can we do to take carbon out?’.”

Mike Putnam is also chair of the Green Construction Board which developed the Infrastructure Carbon Review, which sets out a series of actions to achieve carbon reductions of 24 million metric tons per annum from the construction and operation of the UK’s infrastructure assets by 2050, yielding a potential net benefit of up to £1.46 billion per year.

He said: “What we have been able to demonstrate is that by going at the low carbon, trying to take carbon out of construction – whether it’s in the capital phase or the operational phase – it has the added benefit of reducing cost as well.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8W5FrdyYc0

According to Mr Putnam, it is also important to build a culture where everybody involved in the business and across the industry really understand what the green agenda is all about.

“It’s only collaborating across the industry that will bring the whole industry up to a much higher level,” he added.

The Construction Climate Talks series, produced by the Construction Climate Challenge initiative hosted by Volvo Construction Equipment, highlights some of the most important issues in climate sustainability today.

See all previous episodes here.