Environmental and Sustainability Award Shortlist
Driven by an unwavering passion and determination to reduce our carbon footprint, the Helix CMS purpose goes beyond bricks and mortar. With people and planet at the heart of the Helix DNA, we're proud to announce that our eco-social value commitment has been recognised at this year's Hull Daily Mail Business Awards.
We are healthcare construction specialists operating and delivering projects in an industry that produces waste. In fact, according to the BBC, it’s estimated construction produces a third of the world’s overall waste.
“The construction industry creates an estimated third of the world's overall waste and at least 40% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions.” - BBC Future, 2021.
But that isn’t the Helix CMS story. We are determined to leave a legacy of positive environmental impact. Our Eco-Social Strategy was launched in 2021 with the commitment to build sustainable projects by brilliant people to support our community and enable a better environment.
To support this ambition, we simultaneously created a climate positive workforce, empowering and educating our staff and supply chain. Agile and innovative, we’re showcasing what a conscious construction company looks like with locally and globally impactful initiatives.
We have created safe, sustainable, and state-of-the-art healthcare facilities, tackled obstacles, and used innovation to ensure Helix CMS leave a positive legacy on the community and the environment.
With our efforts further compounded by the need to deliver high functioning and safe spaces, we’re incredibly aware we’ll always leave a footprint. However, we’re driven by an unwavering passion and determination to make this impact as small and as green as possible.
Our eco social responsibility is part of our DNA and has been since day one. From recycling 99% of site waste to eliminating single use plastic on site through the introduction of Helix water bottles, every member of our team and all our partners is part of our journey to leave a greener, smaller footprint.
With a climate positive workforce, our staff are very much on the journey with us. We empower and educate so they understand how serious we take sustainability and how they play an important role in helping us minimise our impact on the world now and in the future.
Our Eco-Social strategy sets out ambitious sustainability targets and how we’ll deliver these to reduce our carbon footprint on all of our projects while The Green Footprint initiative enables our team to pledge their support to reducing the carbon footprint of their project and is used to make decisions at all levels.
Environmentally Responsible Recycling
From food and organic materials to stone and rubble, over 99% of site and construction waste on all our projects is diverted from landfill and recycled, reused, and managed within Yorkshire.
Our on-site recycling programme helps ensure office and personal waste is recycled, with boxes collected by a local company and all items being recycled locally.
Weekly data helps us understand our recycling activity and identifies opportunities for continuous improvement.
Eco-friendly and sustainable cleaning
Our local cleaning team is an eco-friendly company operating across all sites from weekly cleans to end of project deep cleans. We purchase and use sustainable cleaning products from a B-Corporation company with products made in Hull from ethically sourced ingredients.
Implementing sustainable materials
Manufactured from 100% recycled materials, we introduced floor and door protection products and we’re now part of the Beck Group Collect Back Scheme, ensuring all used products are removed from our sites and sustainably recycled.
In partnership with a Hull-based innovation company, we provide plastic waste from sites and turn it into a weatherproof and recyclable alternative to plywood, which can be used for fencing, hoarding and wall protection.
Journey to carbon neutral
We’re incredibly proud to have a climate positive workforce and are committed to further increasing our impact on sustainability.
Since March 2021 we’ve worked with Ecologi to ensure our workforce is climate positive. Our forest now has over 600 trees, helping reduce over 40 certified tonnes of CO2.
We are now working towards our accreditation to becoming a Carbon Neutral Business by the end of 2022 which will be a huge achievement for the Helix team.
For each new project, we offset the carbon generated through certified projects, working in partnership with environmental experts. This year, we planted a small woodland in North Yorkshire in partnership with Make it Wild at Hull Royal Infirmary as a gift to commemorate the opening of the Intensive Care Unit in December 2021. This supports the Trust’s Zero Thirty agenda and contributes towards the sustainability of the Unit. We also planted a thicket of 50 trees as part of a mangrove restoration project in Madagascar in partnership with Ecologi to support the sustainability of the Immunology Project at Castle Hill Hospital.
Caring for people and the planet - Zero30
Our motivation
Reaching beyond bricks and mortar, we believe in building a legacy of positive environmental and human impact.
What we build can make or break lives and it’s important we understand and address this impact, prioritising sustainability, and environmental initiatives to ensure our footprint is green, carbon neutral and sustainable.
Follow our eco-social journey on Linkedin here.