Limiting impact on the local natural environment

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2017 was successful also because of numerous initiated or planned contracts. From the business point of view, more projects mean higher profits, which also involves greater responsibility for minimising the impact of these investments on social and natural environment. The contracts we carried out in 2017, such as: airport terminals, bridges, motorways and expressways, ring roads, railway line sections, involved disturbing the environment. In 2017, especially important investments included, i.a., Ostróda ring road, Olsztyn ring road or the construction of DN1000 ZZU Czeszów – Kiełczów high-pressure pipeline. These are large investments, and we are aware that construction can significantly affect the natural environment and local communities in direct vicinity of performed works because of disturbing the functioning of the biosphere. The impact of every investment involves many factors, leads to irreversible changes in the landscape and concerns multiple parties, including the inhabitants or environmental organisations.

It is worth noting that apart from typical infrastructure investments we also perform eco-investments, designed to limit the negative environmental impact of existing constructions, e.g. projects involving decarbonisation or flue gas desulphurisation. We are also testing the implementation of environmental innovations, and in 2017 we implemented projects exploring technological innovations involving recycled materials. Such a road construction design with the use of bitumen mix with and granulated bitumen was implemented by the consortium of the Research Institute of Roads and Bridges, Warsaw University of Technology, and Budimex SA with financial support of the National Centre for Research and Development. Budimex’s research and development budget for 2017 in comparison with the previous year was increased by 205%, to 3.5 million PLN.

Depending on the location and size of the investment, there is a different scale of potential impact of construction activity on natural environment. For example, road investments display a significantly larger impact when they are carried out in the vicinity of ecologically fragile areas, while the impact of investments carried out in urbanised areas, such as construction of residential blocks, is less severe.

In order to properly manage environmental protection and minimise the negative impact, Budimex Group introduced “Environmental Protection Policy” and implemented certified systems of environmental and energy management. The Policy requires that all companies within the Group comply with national and international environmental regulations and cooperate with supervisory authorities. Additionally, as part of the Integrated Management System used by Budimex and Mostostal Kraków, appropriate certificates and norms were implemented, confirming the currently employed procedures of these companies regarding environmental management, most importantly PN-EN ISO 14001 norm. Each construction process is a complex project, which involves multiple entities. Environmental procedures for specific investments are regulated within homogeneous procedures “Environmental management on contract sites” and “Organisation and management of OHS and environmental protection in a contract”. Their goal is to minimise the negative impact of performed works on the natural environment regarding, e.g., the critical identified risk areas. Elimination and minimisation of negative impact on natural environment is carried out through cooperation with stakeholders, training and competence improvement, ecological efficiency, climate change prevention and biodiversity management.

Certain buildings and constructions built by the Budimex Group have so called green certificates, which confirm their ecological efficiency during their construction, materials used in their construction and the possibility of their future management. In 2017, 3 buildings received LEED certificates, while further construction projects have been started, which are expected to receive two LEED and five BREEAM certificates.

The Budimex Group, in order to protect the natural environment, often goes beyond minimum legal requirements. For that purpose we have set our own environmental protection management standards:

• designing technological roads in a way that uses terrain economically and through only slight modification of its surface,
• reclamation of the terrain to the pre-construction state,
• limiting tree removal to a minimum, relocating plants elsewhere and replanting,
• protection of trees in the vicinity of construction sites from damage,
• construction facilities, (depots, warehouses and transportation bases) are mainly localised in already developed and transformed areas, if possible, far from residential buildings, but also far from naturally valuable areas,
• the occupancy of land in the forests or wetland areas is reduced to the necessary minimum,
• transportation of materials necessary for the construction takes place primarily within the designated road,
• solutions for protection against pollution with chemical substances coming from the construction sites are implemented on sections where earthworks and construction works are conducted near water reservoirs,
• devoting special attention to environmental protection against oil derivatives from cars and construction machinery,
• relocation of fauna and flora, the habitats of which collide with the construction, to new areas.
• monitoring of the construction site by naturalists, e.g., ornithologists, ichthyologists, herpetologists, entomologists, botanists, chiropterologists in accordance to the specifics of the construction and the identified protected species.
• stopping construction when animals enter the construction site,
• the schedule and cycle of works are closely correlated with the cycle of nature,
• construction works in the vicinity of noise-protected areas are carried out only during the day,
• material and waste management in compliance with 3R principle – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,
• reducing to minimum of idle operation times of construction machinery and vehicles,
• limiting drive speed within the construction site and its vicinity,
• preparation of construction sites for unexpected situations and providing them with equipment necessary in case of contamination.

As part of implementation of the Environmental Protection Policy and prevention of risks and malfunctions, we use MARS tool (Environmental Risk Analysis Module). In 2017, the tool was already implemented in 90%, while during the previous year, effective preventive measures were provided at 96% success rate.