Building & Construction  

We help you address the key sustainability challenges in your supply chain.

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Selected Building
& Construction References

Building and construction companies rank among the largest consumers of energy, water and a plethora of raw materials. The industry is a major source of pollution and waste and accounts for an estimated 40% of the annual global carbon footprint. Regulators,  acutely aware of these impacts, are increasingly tightening their rules on energy performance, emissions and circularity.

IntegrityNext helps you manage the key sustainability risks and opportunities in your supply chain with minimal effort. Our solutions cover the topics most material to your industry and allow you to meet due diligence requirements and boost your sustainability performance:  

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Carbon footprint

Monitor supplier emissions,
reduction efforts and
SBTi engagement targets

Energy management

Monitor efforts aimed at
reducing energy consumption

Environmental protection

Ensure environmentally responsible operations in your supply chain

Occupational health and safety

Monitor efforts to manage health
and safety risks

Human and
labour rights

Ensure compliance with
international standards

Risks and Opportunities

The spectrum of raw materials used by the industry is extensive and runs the gamut from metals to minerals, natural materials and chemicals. Social and environmental risks pertaining to the extraction, processing and/or manufacturing of these resources take centre stage in the industry’s supply chains and need to be addressed accordingly.

The most widely utilised building material is concrete. The production of its key ingredient, cement, requires significant volumes of minerals and is estimated to account for 8% of global GHG emissions. Decarbonisation levers with a direct bearing on sourcing activities include the shift to less carbon-intensive fuels, clinker substitutes and alternative building materials or the application of carbon capture technology. When considering the entire upstream value chain, cement production has been linked to habitat encroachment and degradation, pollution and detrimental water impacts. Land use conflicts and the displacement of local communities, SOx, NOx and particulate matter emissions and related public health hazards have also been documented. These risks, and those arising from alternative pathways, must be managed in close collaboration with supply chain partners.  

The same holds true for other common building materials such as steel, wood, stone or brick. Companies can mitigate many of the risks and adverse impacts by reducing the level of embodied emissions and resources in their projects. Circular design is the order of the day and can go a long way in easing pressures on the environment.

Importantly, the industry is also rife with health and safety hazards. While many processes are inherently prone to occupational accidents, others such as metals production resort to toxic substances. Since the use of contract workers is common practice, building and construction companies need to ensure their suppliers uphold high occupational health and safety standards and comply with internationally recognised labour rights.

In the light of unabated global population growth, it has been argued that the lion’s share of the urban infrastructure that is expected to exist in 2050 has yet to be built. Innovative business models, novel partnerships and a shift to more sustainable building materials or methods can result in significant opportunities and usher in a new era of resource-efficient and low-carbon construction. This may require a fundamental reorientation of supply chains, but ultimately allows companies to avoid many of the pitfalls they are exposed to today.

Industry risks
and opportunities

Major ecological impacts from resource extraction, processing and manufacturing

Highly carbon-intensive production of building materials

Significant health and safety hazards for workers and the public

Supply chain as a key decarbonisation lever

Great potential for more sustainable business models

White Paper
Download

The Building and Construction Industry – Driving supply chain sustainability

Complex and highly fragmented supply chains are responsible for many of the industry’s environmental impacts. Learn how ESG regulations are increasingly shaping the sector and what levers can help companies address the key challenge of decarbonization.

How IntegrityNext
can help

IntegrityNext provides a platform for comprehensive ESG supply chain risk management that allows you to meet due diligence requirements and improve your sustainability performance:  

  1. Carry out a carbon footprint assessment and benefit from enhanced visibility into your suppliers’ emissions, reduction efforts and targets.  
  2. Analyse the most relevant environmental, social and governance risks as part of a five-step risk management process.

It includes an abstract country and industry risk analysis to deliver initial insights into your supply chain’s risk exposure. Based on more detailed pre-built assessments, which draw on authoritative international standards and conventions, you can monitor your suppliers with respect to the main ESG risks:

  • Carbon footprint: collection of emissions data, monitoring of reduction efforts and SBTi engagement targets (Science Based Targets initiative)

  • Energy management

  • Environmental protection

  • Occupational health and safety

  • Adherence to universally accepted human and labour rights

  • Compliance with the European RoHS directive on hazardous substances and REACH

  • Compliance with the PBT regulation of the United States Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)

  • Use of 3TG, based on the RMI’s Conflict Minerals Reporting Template

We help you identify suppliers with the most severe impacts so that you can develop a coherent strategy and target your preventive and remedial measures accordingly. The results gleaned from the assessments are synthesised in a GRI-certified report that can be readily used for your disclosures.