Environmental Management in Construction: An Overview

It is overwhelmingly evident that many organisations in virtually all industrial sectors throughout Europe are incorporating a formal environmental policy as part of their corporate responsibility, indeed some have taken the unprecedented step toward environmental auditing. Notwithstanding, environmental awareness remains at a disturbingly low level within the construction industry. The construction industry has been slow to respond to environmental issues compared with other major industries, both across Europe and particularly in the UK. This seems to demonstrate a somewhat short-term perspective, perhaps waiting for market forces and legislation to determine its interest. With the rapid emergence of increasingly stringent environmental legislation both in the EC and the UK, organisations will find that they simply have to react to changing circumstance. Companies which demonstrate vision and anticipate future environmental demands will be in a position of competitive advantage, able to respond to changing environmental circumstances with greater success.