Amey

Amey is one of the UK’s leading public service providers, employing around 11,000 people across 200 locations.

In Scotland Amey employs around 2,000 people in 13 contracts in road, rail, education, aviation and the company’s civil engineering consultancy.

Already accustomed to success with multiple Keep Scotland Beautiful awards, Amey was awarded a commendation by the VIBES judges for their sustainable manner and low carbon approach to their everyday management of the Scottish Trunk Roads Unit (STRU) contract, which manages and maintains about 1000 km of motorway and other roads and river crossings in Scotland.

The panel was particularly impressed by their work with Transport Scotland to gain support for the reuse of road planning’s in situ, enabling one road surface renewal project to reuse 2708 tonnes of waste, eliminate 26,200 miles of transporting waste for disposal and to save £458,000 in landfill charges.

STRU’s focus on sustainability has also resulted in:

• saving over £23,000 in the first two months of using video conferencing technology and 40,000 kg carbon in the first year of using it;
• over 27 tonnes of carbon, 18,000 vehicle miles and £10,500 of direct fuel savings through use of an innovative ‘hybrid’ road sweeper;
• savings of £84 a week through the use of solar-powered traffic signals;
• STRU’s incident support service is delivering £6m in congestion savings and associated carbon reductions;
• up to 7% fuel reduction and improved safety through driver training;
• elimination of 20 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions using innovative in- situ recycling.

In the STRU contract Amey has also improved ecological habitats by providing bat boxes, log piles, fish passes and mammal tunnels, and has reduced noise and emissions through the use of solar-powered traffic signals.

All staff (including managers) undertake an environmental induction programme, and training on sustainability by their in-house specialists, which promote waste minimization, enhancement and creation of ecological habitats pollution prevention and community engagement.  This is also provided to Transport Scotland and other clients.  Staff also participate in Amey’s ‘Go Green’ campaign, which challenges employees to protect the environment. They have embraced local initiatives, including:

• a biodiversity week with posters, wildlife photography competitions and nature walks;
• a green fleet day to showcase their eco-friendly company cars to encourage conversion to vehicles with low CO₂ emissions;
• a paid day off for every employee to volunteer in their community;
• a generous incentive scheme to encourage and reward suggestions from staff.

In the STRU contract Amey monitors and reports on its electricity, gas and water consumption, and waste management to promote environmental and financial performance.

Within all their individual schemes, Amey  uses a ‘Red, Amber, Green’ management system, which the VIBES judges found to be an excellent tool to ensure all environmental aspects of planning are completed before a project is started and to identify any problems very quickly. Most importantly, no project is able to go ahead unless the initial environmental assessment is completed satisfactorily.

Overall, the VIBES judges found Amey to have a genuine commitment to finding solutions to improve their environmental and financial performance.