With over twenty years’ experience in regenerating large and often complex development sites, Harworth has an established track record in managing the environmental impact of its operations. This includes: recycling materials from demolition and land remediation; tackling the environmental legacy of previous industrial site uses; and encouraging staff to take personal responsibility for reducing harmful emissions from our activities.

Managing our Environmental Impact

We continue to apply five key principles in reducing our environmental impact across our estate.

Remediation and Restoration

We work with trusted contractors to clean and remediate land and remove dangerous underground structures at a range of brownfield sites, preparing that land for redevelopment.

Re-Using Public Assets

We believe that former industrial assets should be retained to support future development uses where practicable and Harworth has followed this principle across a number of its brownfield sites. Assets reconditioned and reused for new purposes include railheads, substations, access roads and enhanced public open spaces that surround our sites. At our Kellingley site in North Yorkshire, we were able to export over 500k tonnes of former colliery discard via rail for re-use at the Port of Hull.

Demolition

We are experts in project managing complex demolition works in a safe and efficient manner. Over the past year we have successfully completed demolitions of the former Thoresby and Kellingley collieries in preparation for redevelopment, including the removal of pithead structures.

Material Recovery

Whether it is coal slurry, metals, concrete or fill material, we have the capability to extract the maximum value from derelict land and property, raising revenue that can ultimately be put to preparing land for eventual redevelopment whilst also being environmentally responsible. The team has been able to extract and sell coal slurry to power station operators to produce electricity between 2011 and 2018 – a material previously considered as waste.

Minimising Public Impact

The team has been able to achieve all of this whilst minimising disruption to residents, businesses and other groups that are close to the sites we are working on. We pride ourselves in maintaining clear communication and professionalism through all stages of the development process, building on our track record as a responsible land and property regeneration company.

We continue to operate a Safety, Health and Environmental Management Policy (“SHEMS”) to ensure the effective control of environmental risk and operate a management system to ensure environmental issues are considered at all levels. The policy advocates the promotion of sustainable and environmental opportunities by active resource management and waste minimisation, in line with our vision of becoming the leading regeneration company in the North of England and Midlands.

Greater emphasis on smart working

A range of smart working initiatives were instigated by Harworth in 2018 principally to reduce the number of journeys our staff make. These have included:

• accommodating requests from staff to work from home or regional offices that are closer to their home;
• introducing new technology to reduce the need for face-to-face meetings, including video conferencing facilities at our head office; and
• improving the quality of our vehicle fleet, with our leased vans now more fuel efficient than their predecessors.

This has meant that even though we have had an increase in staff numbers, emissions from fuel use has decreased to 241 tonnes of CO₂e (2017: 254 tonnes of CO₂e).

Improved asset management

Active management of our Business Space assets has also improved in 2018, resulting in another reduction in emissions from electricity usage on those sites. Proactive management has included isolating the electricity supply to buildings which are unoccupied, to ensure lighting or heating cannot be left on accidentally, and working with tenants to minimise electricity usage out of working hours. Emissions from electricity use decreased to 404 tonnes of CO₂e (2017: 632 tonnes of CO₂e).

Managing fuel efficient working on-site

Our Operations staff continue to minimise the use of yellow plant and other fuel intensive machinery where possible. Emissions from the operation of yellow plant increased during the year, attributable in large part to Harworth taking back control of the remediation of, and extraction of coal fines from, the former Prince of Wales spoil heap (previously operated by Hargreaves under licence), with a large proportion of coal fines sold in year being generated from Prince of Wales operations. Emissions from gas oil from plant increased to 3,371 tonnes of CO₂e (2017: 1,848 tonnes of CO₂e). This will need additional focus from management in 2019.

Our greenhouse gas emission

This statement outlines the greenhouse gas emissions arising from Harworth’s activities during the financial year ended 31 December 2018. It follows the Environmental Reporting Guidelines set by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Emissions are reported in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (“CO₂e”) and refer to three areas:

Scope 1 Fuel use in vehicles for staff in pursuance of their duties

Scope 2 Gas oil used in plant at operational sites

Scope 3 Electricity (non-rechargeable) usage on Harworth sites

1 Average employee numbers (2018: 58, 2017: 53).
2 Number of sites where gas oil is used in plant (2018: 7, 2017: 6).
3 Number of business parks that we operate (2018: 18, 2017: 17).

Improving our performance in 2019

Whilst our business continues to grow, typified by an increased number of staff and Major Developments, we remain committed to improving our environmental performance on a per head and per site basis, taking forward the following principal actions across our portfolio.

Smart working to reduce staff energy consumption per head

We will continue to implement the smart working programme where staff plan efficiently to reduce their business miles. We will encourage employees to use the video conferencing facilities now installed at our head office and will maintain our commitment to flexible working across each of our regional offices.

Effective asset management

Our existing and future sites will continue to be managed actively to mitigate the environmental impact of our activities. In particular, we will continue (working with tenants) to seek to identify means of reducing electricity consumption on our business park sites. 

Managing our own on-site operations effectively

We will continue to use well maintained yellow plant and periodically review operational techniques to reduce fuel consumption. In addition – and whilst out of the scope of our direct fuel usage – we will continue to promote the movement of discarded materials via any on-site rail connections rather than add vehicle movements to local road networks.