CONSTRUCTION giant Balfour Beatty has been pioneering an innovative packaging solution at its project to build a new facility for Fife College at Dunfermline Learning Campus.
The contractor has teamed up with Whitecroft Lighting to implement a system that has dramatically reduced packaging waste on site and led to a number of other efficiency and productivity benefits.
The campus has highly ambitious energy targets, which led Balfour Beatty to engage with its supply chain partners at the outset to brainstorm ways of making the project as sustainable as possible.
An event was held at Carnegie Conference Centre in Dunfermline where one of the ideas to emerge came from Whitecroft Lighting, a manufacturer of low-carbon educational lighting. The firm proposed using Geopak, a reusable packaging system it had been developing with the University of Cardiff and consultancy PDR.
Geopak is a modular system comprising inner and outer polypropylene packaging that can be reused multiple times. The system allows for the packaging of mixed types of lighting products and space optimisation. Geopak also comes with GPS tagging, so products can be tracked digitally following delivery to enhance efficiency and reduce the risk of items being lost. Once used, the packaging is collapsible and returned to Whitecroft for re-use.
Balfour Beatty and Whitecroft were able to map out and ‘reverse engineer’ the whole process, from design, production, ordering, packaging and delivery of products, through to installation. The solution eliminated single-use plastic and cardboard packaging.
It is estimated that Geopak will remove two tonnes of packaging waste over the duration of the project.
The initiative ties in perfectly with Balfour Beatty’s Building New Futures sustainability strategy, which is about protecting and enhancing the environment, as well as leaving a positive legacy in the communities in which it operates.
Jim Brannan, head of supply chain development at Balfour Beatty, told Project Scotland the system is a ‘huge step forward’ for the construction sector.
“Whitecroft seemed very energised by the challenge (to reduce single-use packaging),” Jim explained, “They needed our help to bring it to life. I and one of my colleagues from procurement were invited to Whitecroft’s factory in Manchester, to let us see some of the challenges in the manufacturing process and putting these products into packaging.
“It wasn’t just a challenge of all this waste coming to site. You’ve got (to consider) how you deal with that waste when it comes onto site. It’s a health and safety issue because it becomes a trip hazard and fire hazard. It becomes a biohazard. So, you look at all the different challenges that single-use packaging brings with it.”
As plans gathered pace, a series of workshops were held with the aim of looking at what might be possible.
“We had three workshops where we looked at each stage of what we could do, who were the key stakeholders we needed to involve, and what other considerations we needed to look at,” Jim added. “Is there a tracker with software out there that’s off-the-shelf that we could use? Is there a material we could use that could give us these properties of being able to reuse and recycle? And then could it be robust enough to protect the product from a quality point of view?
“It took us nearly two years of ideas sharing, collaborating, coming up with prototypes, getting the other stakeholders involved, and getting the software.”
After a couple of ‘misfires’, the design was perfected.
“Putting it onto the containers worked,” Jim revealed. “We order it by specific area. It was packed in the factory as we need it, in terms of not just lighting but the component parts needed as part of the overall solution. It’s state-of-the-art stuff. It’s making sure that once it leaves their factory, it arrives at our site exactly as it left. We did a number of trials to make sure that from a transportation and handling point of view, it all worked.”
The first volume deliveries were recently distributed successfully. The process has been such a huge hit onsite that Jim revealed one of Balfour Beaty’s main sub-contractors is now pushing this out to its own supply chain. Jim is now keen to share the findings with the wider industry to help construction’s ongoing journey towards a more sustainable future.
“One of the things we did with Whitecroft was we said we don’t want any IP on this,” Jim added. “We said we’d help design it and bring it to market, but this is a solution for the construction industry, not just for Whitecroft and Balfour Beatty at Fife College. If anybody else wants to look at the design and how we did it, we’re more than happy to share it.”
