Sustainability

As a successful applicant to the Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency Hoe ki angitu Innovation Fund, Higgins is exploring the wider use of biogenic (plant-based) bitumen for building asphalt and chip seal pavements.

Adding plant-based biogenic components to binders used in bitumen can help decarbonize road construction by capturing an increasing amount of carbon in road surfaces or other asphalt-based products as they are recycled and reused over time.

Higgins is hopeful of a successful development in this area, which will extend our contribution towards the Fletcher Construction roadmap for a 30% reduction in carbon emissions and a sustainable future "for generations to come".

Higgins has released an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for Higgins’ asphalt products – a first in the New Zealand roading industry. An EPD tells the environmental story of a product over its life cycle, is science-based and independently verified. The EPD covers 99.5% of Higgins asphalt products produced at their permanent plants in New Zealand, covering the life cycle stages of sourcing and transporting raw materials, product manufacture, and end-of-life options.

To get the EPD, Higgins had to provide energy, waste, water and material data covering production for one year.

Sustainability and Environmental Manager Orla Gallagher says the information is increasingly being requested by customers, who need to work out how using the products affects their own impact on the environment. “EPDs are an internationally-recognised format that customers know they can trust. It’s also a useful tool for us, as it gives us a baseline to work from as we improve our own environmental performance.”

Sitting alongside the EPD, Higgins has a carbon calculator tool to provide customers with a total embodied carbon amount for asphalt mixes covered in the EPD.

Click here to view the EPD.

The team working on Ara Tūhono – Pūhoi to Warkworth has received a huge environmental accolade, with their project receiving the highest sustainability rating in the world with the Greenroads Sustainable Transport Council!

It’s also only the third certified Greenroads Project outside of North America since the inception of the Project Rating Program in 2010.

Fletcher Construction Major Projects delivered the project alongside Acciona, for our clients NX2 Northern Express Group and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. The project’s  environmental team has been hard at work to receive the Greenroads certification since 2016.

Environmental Manager Karsten Stevenson says "to achieve an internationally recognised sustainability rating like this cannot be understated, however to be advised that the project has achieved the highest global rating ever issued by the Sustainable Transport Council is truly an outstanding achievement”.

The Greenroads Sustainable Transport Council is an independent non-profit corporation which advances sustainability education and initiatives for transportation infrastructure. As the developer of the Greenroads Rating System®, the Council manages the certification process for sustainable transportation development projects in the U.S. and internationally. Initial engagement began during concept planning through the Waka Kotahi International Pilot Program. As a result of early engagement, the team was able to make a clear commitment for the ambitious target of achieving a Silver Rating and include it in the technical contract as part of the sustainability management strategy. We have now officially achieved that rating.

In late June, the Sustainable Transport Council’s Governing Board officially awarded Ara Tūhono - Pūhoi to Warkworth the Greenroads Silver Certification.

Some of the key features that gained us this rating include a focus on environmental protections and enhancements, such as:

• Protection of the local ecology including careful design to minimise impact on Kauri and other native forests.
• Significant sediment and erosion controls during earthwork operations were put in place to protect the Mahurangi and Pūhoi Rivers, with the project winning the IECA-Autralasian Award for Environmental Protection.
• Over 150 hectares of native revegetation was undertaken across forests, wetlands, alongside streams, on fill sites, and on newly landscaped areas.
• Relocation of threatened native flora and fauna into suitable habitats.

Additionally, the project excelled in health and safety outcomes for both construction and motorway users, including:

• Ongoing road safety audits before, during and after construction.
• Design for high safety performance and risk management using New Zealand’s KiwiRAP road safety rating programme.

Finally, the project earned extra credit points for innovation in the following areas:

• Proposing comparable referenced standards to those cited in the Rating System for pavement roughness.
• Significant engagement during the design and construction phases with iwi through partnership and collaboration.
• Outstanding performance in construction environmental management and site health and safety management.

When we build new roads, we’re focused on more than just laying some asphalt. A huge amount of effort goes into protecting and improving the local environment too, and leaving the space in a much better shape for generations to come.

The Ara Tūhono – Puhoi to Warkworth motorway is a great example. It was built by Fletcher Construction and Acciona along with a team of subcontractors for clients NX2 and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. Along the way, we’ve looked after the surrounding area so it not only looks beautiful, it’s actually improved biodiversity.

When you do 10 million cubic metres of earthworks, you need to be careful about where all that soil ends up. That’s the challenge the team working on Ara Tūhono - Puhoi to Warkworth motorway were up against.

The Fletcher Construction team has been working on the project alongside partners Acciona for clients NX2 and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. With the volume of earthworks they undertook, and the fragility of local waterways, they had to be especially careful to manage erosion and prevent sediment loss.

Motorists travelling the Ara Tūhono - Puhoi to Warkworth motorway will not only enjoy a great piece of infrastructure – they’ll get a glimpse of what it looks like when you plant a million new natives along an 18km stretch of road.

When we build a major new motorway, it’s no secret that there’s disruption to the local environment. But when our teams constructed Puhoi to WW alongside our partners Acciona, for clients NX2 and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, a huge amount of work went into developing the area so we’re actually improving local habitats for flora and fauna.

We’re using a remote control roller in our work to repair one of the major slips in Coromandel (McBeth-Opoutere). We’ve built a retaining wall to support the road above, backfilled it, and the roller has just finished levelling.

The remote control roller is used in areas where we need to flatten ground near any steep drop-offs. This means if something did go wrong and the roller tipped off the edge, none of our people would be hurt in the process.

Brian Perry Civil’s South Paray wharf team in Vanuatu is delivering big environmental benefits by reusing significant amounts of concrete and steel waste.

Construction Manager Daniel Hautler says a previous project on the site had been abandoned, leaving 500T of unused steel. “We changed  our temporary works design to be able to use it for fabricating staging crossheads and beams on site, eliminating the need to ship around 250T of structural steel to Vanuatu and upskilling local people in fabricating heavy temporary works.”

With no local concrete recycling facility, the team deconstructed the existing wharf and incorporated the reinforced concrete components into onsite temporary works and offsite reuse.

“We connected with a local enterprise establishing a concrete plant and they’re using nearly 600T of precast elements salvaged from the wharf to create the split-level site they need,” he said. “Some 400T of concrete elements have been reused in our temporary works, and they’ll be reused again by the concrete plant.”

A recent initiative by Brian Perry Civil’s Snells Beach drainage team has increased their skills, reduced costs, and improved environmental outcomes.

Drainage Superintendent Paul McMullan says the switch to using PKS pipes came from wanting to reduce the team’s carbon footprint. “PKS pipes are still made using polyethylene, but with hollow wall construction they are lighter and easier to handle. Each line is set a distance from the centre of each manhole so no pipe cutting needs to take place, it is all done at manufacture.”

The team received training from manufacturer Hynds to learn to weld the pipes themselves, cutting costs by not needing to rely on outside subbies to come to site.

“Training took five hours with four of our guys, who all passed with flying colours,” Paul says. He praised the team for their great ‘can do’ attitude and always being up for a challenge.

Drainage team members who undertook the training were Peter Yardley, Matala Ugapo, James Mohetuki, and Joseph Fanamanu

When houses are removed to make way for major infrastructure projects, they’re usually sent to landfill. Carpet, floorboards, plants and corrugated iron all go to the same place.

The Eastern Busway Alliance, formed by Auckland Transport with Fletcher Construction, Acciona, AECOM and Jacobs, knows there’s a much better way to approach demolition.

About 100 houses are being relocated, de-constructed or demolished to create space for the Eastern Busway project, which is improving transport links for the people of East Auckland. The alliance was determined to divert as much as possible from landfill. Their targets include relocating 5% of houses, diverting 80% of materials from landfill, and reusing 3% of material. 

Native timber flooring, joists, carpet and underlay will be reused.  Other housing materials have gone to Onehunga Community Recycling Centre and to Ara Skills where they’re being used by students learning carpentry skills.

Members of the local community have requested material from houses being removed and the alliance has provided it where possible. This has been a positive, meaningful way to support the community.

An office veggie garden started as a creative idea to hide some water downpipes, but is helping to feed a community too.

The Brian Perry Civil team at the Snells Beach wastewater treatment plant got together to plant the veggie patches alongside their small site office a few months ago.

“It was a nice way to make the sub floor pipe work attached to the office less visible,” says office manager Lynne Phillips.

“We could have planted anything, but we thought a vegetable garden would mean we could feed our families too,” she says.

It’s now a thriving garden bed that’s been producing cabbages, broccoli and spinach.

The team is focusing on higher-yielding crops such as tomatoes and snow peas, which means there’s more to share.

Staff often pick from the patch for a work-day snack, and take produce home to their families.

Leftover green goods get delivered to the local Snells Beach community share cupboard by the library.

The garden is looked after with pride by the office team of five who take turns to water it. For some, they’ve learnt more about growing their own vegetables and have been inspired to do the same at home.

“We love it, and everyone that comes on site really appreciates it too,” Lynne says.

It’s expected the garden will continue for the next few years while the wastewater plant project continues.

A few years ago, talking construction workers into hybrids was a tough sell. Now, we can’t order them fast enough! 

We are smashing through our annual targets for replacing our fully petrol and diesel cars, with a final goal of having 100% of our light fleet hybrid or electric by 2026. The only thing holding us back is delays getting them into the country. Hitting our hybrid goals is all part of our overall aim of a 30% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.

Higgins National Bitumen Operations Manager Sean Bearsley recently traded his 2.2L diesel for a Hybrid Rav 4 and says the two cars are practically identical. “There’s nothing I can’t do in the new car that I could do in my diesel," he says. It’s taken a bit to get used to the quieter motor though. "A few times I’ve forgotten to turn it off when I get out because it’s so quiet!”

Sean says there used to be a stigma about the hybrid options, but he’s noticed that’s changed significantly in the past few years.

Operation BatBNB – mission accomplished!

Fifteen students aged 5-14 helped us by putting a creative and fun twist on bat roosts for the mammals living near the Ara Tūhono - the Pūhoi to Warkworth motorway.

The activity was organised as part of the environmental teams goal of minimising the environmental impact of the project during construction. This included looking after the bats in the area and ensuring they had safe and warm places to roost during the day.

Check out the student’s amazing artwork, from their Māori-inspired to ‘party-riffic’ designs on the pre-made roosting boxes.

Higgins Christchurch has rolled out their FUSO eCanter electric truck as part of the City Council’s initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Christchurch City Council Resource Efficiency Manager Kevin Crutchley says that with transport making up the majority of the district’s emissions, it was critical to find a path towards zero-exhaust emission trucks, in addition to battery electric passenger cars.

Sean Dowling, Higgins Southern Area Manager, says it's been a privilege to learn about the team's initiative and to discuss it with other companies too. “It’s great to see our business playing our part with our partners TR and FUSO trucks.”

An environmentally-friendly cardboard guide wall pilot has proved successful at BPC’s Taranaki Street Pump Station project in central Wellington.

Project Manager Jasper Snyder says the team was required to shoot piles to a depth of 17m below ground, so a guide wall was needed to provide the interlocked structure.

Polystyrene former blocks would normally be used, but Engineering Services Manager Brendan Attewell came up with the more sustainable alternative of using huge cardboard tubes, traditionally only used for casting above-ground piles.

Jasper thinks this is the first time the Sonoco tubes have been used for guide walls. “They were more challenging to manage than polystyrene, but well worth using,” he says. “The result was excellent, and they’re an environmentally-friendly and cost-effective option. I can see us using this method on other projects.”

A ‘bubble curtain’ is being used by Brian Perry Civil to protect marine life around the Seaview Energy Resilience Project being delivered for CentrePort Ltd.

With environmental protection always a priority for BPC’s teams, the bubble curtain is a way of using technology to maximise protection for marine life in Wellington Harbour.

The bubbles act as an acoustic screen, reducing the transmission of underwater noise generated by the piling works and protecting whales and dolphins from distress and hearing damage. On-site monitoring has shown that the use of the bubble curtain reduces the area of influence from piling noise from over 2km down to less than 10m.