Major contractors back diesel-free sites plan

Government and industry have launched a plan to eliminate 78% of diesel machinery from UK construction sites by 2035.

The Zero Diesel Sites Route Map has been developed by the Construction Leadership Council’s s CO2nstruct Zero programme that aims to decarbonise the industry and support the government’s net-zero targets.

A total of 30 organisations were involved in the plan’s zero diesel sites working group. They included contractors Sir Robert McAlpine, Kier and Laing O’Rourke, as well as plant hire companies, academia, central government, manufacturers and representative bodies.

In 2020, the UK construction sector used 2.5 million tonnes of oil equivalent of diesel on sites, emitting huge volumes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), which includes CO2 and other greenhouse gases found in machine emissions.

The route map identifies alternative technologies and fuels to diesel, including the use of liquefied petroleum gas and hydrogen.

However, the working group noted that the route map is technology ‘agnostic’ and does not seek to identify a ‘silver bullet’ approach or technology that will fully address the industry’s diesel use.

Instead, the authors said the document is designed to support the industry by identifying the best approaches for each business and use cases and by providing clarity on how best to invest, and to drive scale in demand to reduce the cost of new technology roll outs.

Paul Reeve, director of CSR at engineering services body ECA, one of the organisations involved in the drafting of the route map, said the health and safety implications of implementing diesel alternatives on sites should always be considered.

“When we are looking at alternatives to using diesel on site, they all have safety implications of their own,” Reeve told CM. “It’s very important that before people look at these alternatives, they understand what they have to do to control the safety impact of the alternative technologies and fuels.”

During the routemap’s launch at the HS2 site in Old Oak Common, West London, minister for industry and economic security, Nusrat Ghani, said the document “is a key step” in the transition towards UK construction “becoming the greenest and most sustainable construction sector in Europe”.

“The zero diesel roadmap sets a cross-industry commitment from manufacturers and plant hire companies to contractors and how the sector can reduce and eventually eliminate the use of diesel in UK construction sites,” she said.

Almost all the plant hire at the Old Oak Common site is already diesel-free and major contractors in the sector are following HS2’s example, Ghani claimed.

Construction of the HS2 Old Oak Common station began in 2017 and completion is expected by the early 2030s. The new transport super-hub is set to be the best-connected and lar largest new railway station ever built in the UK, according to HS2.