Sustainable development

Showcasing striking sustainable design, Vulcan House stands as the second highest BREAM scoring building in the UKAt Mott MacDonald, balancing global human and economic needs while safeguarding the environment for future generations is central to our role as a responsible practice leader in sustainable development.

Achieving a beneficial impact on people’s lives through the projects we deliver and how we behave is fundamental to everything we do. We are committed to integrating the key aspects of sustainable development into all aspects of our services, operational practices and culture. We seek to be proactive, by considering sustainability issues in our projects and business activities, and by providing our customers a source of extensive knowledge on sustainability.

As a multi-disciplinary group we offer a comprehensive range of sustainability services in all sectors – from buildings, climate change and renewable energy, to environment, construction economics and social development, to transport, waste and water resource management. On all continents, we provide our clients regulatory and strategic advice on developing and improving their sustainable thinking. Our approach is backed by our integrated quality, environment and safety systems plus our robust approach to identifying and managing risk.

We now have more than 200 professionals working specifically on sustainability-related projects, many of whom are considered to be world authorities in their fields. For example, our health and education specialists are helping reform and develop services in many low and middle-income countries by building partnerships at all levels of government and society, while our transport experts look at new models for achieving sustainable highway maintenance services.

Through our work we have established close working relationships with many of the other groups involved in leading sustainable development, including the World Bank, IFC, Development Banks, Multilateral Agencies, and UN Organisations.

Demonstrating success in sustainable development, a number of projects we have helped deliver have been awarded for sustainability. For example, the UK Border Agency’s new, purpose built headquarters – Vulcan House – won the Home Office’s Supplier Value Award & Best Contribution to Sustainability Award, as well as the Sustainability Award at the inaugural Celebrating Construction in Sheffield (CCIS) Awards ceremony. As the second highest BREAM scoring building in the UK, Vulcan House was highly commended at the Building Services Awards 2008.

Elsewhere, St George’s Park in Great Yarmouth was presented with the 2008 Green Flag Award by Civic Trust, and Manchester Civil Justice Centre was triumphant as Green Construction’s Major Project of the Year in 2007.