Maxi’s approach to Climate Change

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To mark Scotland’s Climate Week we’re highlighting how, at Maxi Construction, we’ve been making climate change a priority over recent months by rolling out initiatives including:

Training

We understand that employee engagement is critical to the success of our carbon reduction and sustainability plans. Our Framework Manager and Environmental Champion, Tom Gray, recently completed the Climate Change: Transforming your Organisation for Sustainability course through the Open University. Senior Site Management have completed Passivhaus in Practice training and all of our employees have completed Environmental Awareness training. In addition to this, we recently issued a ‘Let’s be Sustainable’ guide to our employees to share hints and tips on how to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

SME Climate Hub

We recently registered with the SME Climate Hub which is a global initiative that empowers small to medium sized companies to take climate action and build more resilient businesses. Through the SME Climate Hub we commit to lowering our impact on the environment through authentic action, halving our emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2045. In making this commitment we have joined the United Nations Race to Zero campaign.

Monitoring and Measuring

We calculated our own greenhouse gas emissions to better understand our impact on the climate and are making the necessary changes to reduce our emissions through:

  • Transport – Our switch to hybrid management vehicles is underway on a life-cycle replacement basis and our aim is to completely transition our fleet to electric and hybrid vehicles by 2027. To support that transition we have installed ev charging points at our head office for staff and visitors to use. Where suitable meetings now take place via online conferencing to reduce unnecessary travel.
  • Energy Use – We have recently replaced our Head Office gas boiler with a modern high efficiency condensing boiler with longer term plans to retrofit the building on a fabric first basis and to replace the gas boiler with an Air Source Heat Pump on a lifecycle basis in due course.  Our welfare units contain energy-efficient appliances and light fittings upgraded to LED with PIR sensors. Consideration is being given to the installation of solar panels.
  • Waste – we ensure that we reduce, reuse, repair and recycle as much as possible.
  • Supply Chain – we encourage our suppliers to make changes to the ways they operate and have offered free Environmental Awareness to selected supply chain members. We use local suppliers and sub contractors where possible. We use recycled aggregates and procure all of our timber from sustainable sources.

We hope to encourage everyone to talk more about the impact of climate change and what each of us plan to do to tackle it.