Sustainability report 2009

Balfour Beatty aims to be a leader in sustainability and play a significant role in helping our customers make sustainable choices. We also recognise that the impacts of climate change, resource depletion and the expectations of our customers, investors, employees and society will continue to intensify. During 2009 we critically evaluated our sustainability vision and roadmap, outlining where we wish to be in 2020.

The 2020 vision and roadmap was the culmination of extensive deliberation which included wide consultation within and outside the Company. We are particularly thankful for feedback and improvements suggested by National Grid, Network Rail, Schroders, Hermes, the UK Green Building Council and Business in the Community. Their feedback resulted in modifications to the vision and the addition of diversity, leadership and talent to the roadmap.

The details of the vision were shared publicly at an external launch in November 2009 to coincide with a conference organised by the UK Green Building Council.

We also developed a user guide to ensure that the strategy is consistently implemented in all our businesses.

The roadmap aims to ensure that by 2020, no matter where we are operating in the world, sustainability will be embedded into everything we do. Sustainability is a collective responsibility and the entire Balfour Beatty Group is focused on this challenge.

The roadmap addresses 31 key issues grouped into 10 focus areas, and sets three critical milestones for each:

• Minimum expectations by 2012 - mandatory first steps for all our businesses
• Excellence for 2012 - the goal for those pursuing best practice standards
• The aspirational goal for 2020 - providing a clear direction for businesses’ thinking and practices

A renewed focus on sustainability, facilitated by the vision, positions us better to manage non-financial risk, to exploit opportunities for increasing efficiency and entering new markets, and to enhance our reputation as a leader in infrastructure development and management.

In addition to a launch event to key external stakeholders, including the media, the vision and roadmap has now been launched in all businesses through a series of roadshows, presentations and Q&A sessions. 21 sessions with management teams have been held (November 2009 to February 2010) in the UK, US, Italy, Germany, Dubai and Hong Kong. Feedback from these sessions has been encouraging and although our businesses have recognised the goals set are challenging, they see sustainability as a way of differentiating themselves in the marketplace and to win new work.

Our roadmap comprises a comprehensive mix of management and performance based targets across the Group for the first time. The key performance targets for 2012 are summarised below.

Issue	2012 Performance Target
Our People	Involve at least 90% of staff employees in annual appraisals of their performance Conduct exit interviews for at least 90% of leavers
Zero Harm	Zero deaths, zero injuries to members of the public and zero permanently disabling injuries, accident frequency rate of 0.1 while aiming for zero
Energy and carbon	Reduce our direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions by 10% per £m revenue against a 2010 baseline
Waste	Reduce our disposal of waste to landfill by 50% per £m revenue against a 2010 baseline Achieve a minimum 25% recycled content of major materials (by value)
Materials	Procure at least 25% (by value) of major materials from recognised responsible sourcing schemes Procure 100% of timber/timber products from recognised responsible sourcing schemes
Water	Reduce our direct use of water by 10% per £m revenue against a 2010 baseline.

We will summarise progress against these targets in future reports.

The next step is for our businesses to create action plans detailing how to achieve the mandatory minimum expectations for 2012. It will be up to each of our operating companies to determine how these targets will be applied to their business. Action plans will be evaluated by the sustainability working group comprising representatives from our businesses worldwide, which helps to strengthen collaborative working across the Group. It is committed to providing feedback and sharing plans across the business, and will also ensure consistency with journey plans submitted for our Zero Harm safety vision.

We will launch the vision and roadmap in Parsons Brinckerhoff during 2010 and review their action plan later in the year.

The roadmap itself will be periodically reviewed and updated over time introducing new milestones between 2012 and 2020. These new milestones will reflect external developments and emerging best practice within and outside our business. What is identified as excellence in 2012 could well become the minimum expectations for all operating companies worldwide in 2015 as we continue on our journey for a truly sustainable business by 2020.