Bovis builds a sustainable future

The building on the right is the Central Saint Giles office development in
central London being built by Bovis Lend Lease on behalf of Legal & General
and Mitsubishi Estate Company. And every piece of timber used in the
development came from sustainable sources.

Bovis has achieved full Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) project chain
of custody certification – a first for the company since it set itself the
target in 2009 for all projects to achieve the certification.

“Full certification gives us independent verification that all the
timber used in the commercial and private residential parts of the project
is from credibly certified or well-managed forests,” said Adam Ajzensztejn,
Bovis Lend Lease’s sustainability manager.

“Our trade contractors and their suppliers should be congratulated too;
it has been a great team effort.”

The recently completed, Renzo Piano-designed, £200M project is an
office-led mixed-use development with nine new restaurants and private and
affordable residential around London’s newest piazza.

Bovis achieved three separate certifications for the scheme:

The project used around 1,600m3 of timber and 92.8% of that was
certified as FSC or recycled. The remaining timber used was from well-
managed sources.

“This is a real achievement for Legal & General Property and Mitsubishi
Estate Company and our partners on this project,” said Simon Wilkes head of
development at Legal & General Property. “We have almost 700,000 square
feet of development at Central Saint Giles and to deliver that with full
FSC certification is no mean feat.

“All the stakeholders involved with the project had to work extremely
hard to gain the certification and this gives an indication of the strength
of the partnership and our commitment to sustainability.”

Steve Fennel, project director for Bovis Lend Lease added: “We have
already achieved partial FSC project certification for our One Wood Street
and One Southampton Row projects in London and we set out to obtain full
certification for Central Saint Giles from the start.

“Both Legal & General Property and Mitsubishi Estate Company were
extremely supportive of our aim. With the help and endorsement of
development managers, Stanhope, they reviewed the design specifications
from architect, Renzo Piano, and made alterations where needed.

“This meant we were able to move forward and with the help of all trade
contractors manage the procurement and delivery of timber to the site as
required by the FSC Standard.”

The project was audited regularly by BM TRADA – an FSC-accredited
certification body – to verify that all timber used was compliant and that
the Bovis Lend Lease procedures were being effectively managed.

Bovis Lend Lease has an established reputation for responsible timber
procurement in the UK and has been an active member of the World Wide Fund
for Nature – Global Forest Trade Network (WWF-GFTN) since 2000,
consistently improving its procurement of timber to credibly certified
sources during this time.

It is also targeting FSC certification on a number of other projects
under construction.

bovislendlease.com