Galliford Try’s One in a Million carbon initiative smashes expectations

Galliford Try’s One in a Million initiative to save a minimum of one tonne of carbon (tCO2e) per £1m spent in 2024, has smashed through its target over the course of the past 12 months.

Launched in January last year, the initiative challenged Galliford Try’s business units and project teams to find innovative ways of reducing carbon and reporting back on their achievements to share best practice and aid others around the Group through a central portal.

Over the course of 2024, 49 projects from 11 business units across Galliford Try saved a remarkable 7,225tCO2e or 4tCO2e/£m for the business.

This is the equivalent to:

• 361,250 mature trees growing for one year.
• Annual electricity use of 10,840 UK homes.
• 23.8 million miles driven in a mid-size car.

Savings came from a range of initiatives, project types and stages, from championing the reuse of existing structures to fuel saved through use of hybrid generators.

Over 4,800tCO2e were saved through procurement of low carbon Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) steel products across several projects. EAF steel in particular shows the importance of engaging with the supply chain as early as possible and capturing actual information, instead of relying on industry average data.

The One in a Million challenge will continue into 2025 with a focus on increasing the number of participating projects across the business.

The initiative is part of Galliford Try’s commitment to its recently published Net Zero Route Map, which points the way for the business to reach its SBTi (Science Based Targets initiative) validated target of achieving net zero across its own operations (Scope 1 and 2) by 2030 and then net zero across all activities (Scope 1, 2 and 3) by 2045.

Poppy Parsons, Head of Low Carbon Construction for Galliford Try, commented: “These savings are a testament to the ingenuity and drive of Galliford Try’s project teams to look for carbon saving opportunities and do the right thing, and demonstrates the size of the impact we as individuals in the construction industry can make.”

The news comes on the back of confirmation that Galliford Try achieved PAS 2080:2023 (Designer/Constructor) for the construction businesses, becoming one of the first organisations in the building sector to achieve this leading standard for carbon management in the built environment.