Aggregate Industries hit key sustainability vision milestones

AI make tangible strides in sustainable future as business advances into year two of ambitious sustainability strategy 

AGGREGATE Industries have published the first of their annual sustainability reports to follow the company’s ambitious eight-year sustainability strategy, ‘Building Progress for a Sustainable Future,’ which was launched in April 2022.

The report highlights significant progress across all five pillars outlined in AI’s strategy (climate; people and communities; nature and environment; circular economy; and sustainable solutions), with each having been developed specifically to facilitate the business’s transition to a net zero and circular economy and a nature-positive future.

With innovation and sustainability at its core, the strategy has already yielded remarkable achievements within its inaugural year and further solidified Aggregate Industries’ commitment to driving positive change.

Under climate, the company decreased Scope 1 and carbon emissions by over 5% to 557.7kg/T of cementitious, whilst Scopes 1 and 2 carbon intensity CO2 emissions reduced by almost 29%. 

In nature and environment, AI announced implementation of biodiversity management plans for 100% of their quarries, as well as initiatives to reduce freshwater withdrawal intensity across the business, and a robust nature strategy to support ongoing nature-positive endeavours, with a ‘Place for Nature’ introduced to five sites. 

Under circular economy, the business made notable progress in maximizing reuse and recycling, with year-on-year landfill avoidance improvement from 90.2% to 93.6%, whilst 994,000 tonnes of recycled asphalt planings (RAP) were delivered. 

Total revenue from sustainable products grew to 31.4% for the company. Aggregate Industries also launched multiple sustainable, low-carbon products, including ECOPact Prime AS, Aggneo, Foamix and SuperLow-Carbon. Furthermore, the business introduced ‘Your Carbon Report’, an industry first, providing customers with accurate embodied carbon data from across the company’s product range.

Elsewhere in the organization, a total of 38 new apprentices joined the business in a variety of operational and non-operational roles, as well as year-on-year increases seen across female representation and leadership.

Kirstin McCarthy, sustainability director for Aggregate Industries, commented: ‘Through our sustainability strategy, we set out to become the UK leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions. We’re proud to be able to report some important milestones in just the first 12 months – and there will be no slowing down. 

‘Having recently published our net-zero strategy, we have a clear roadmap to decarbonize our operations across the business at pace and to achieve net zero before 2050. With incredible innovations coming out of our team, I’m personally excited for the remainder of 2023.’

Reflecting on the achievements of the past year, Dragan Maksimovic, chief executive officer of Aggregate Industries, said: ‘Building progress is as much about today as it is about the future. That’s why we are thrilled to celebrate the progress we have made within the first year of our sustainability strategy. 

‘Our commitment to our five pillars is unwavering and the achievements we have seen across each of them are a testament to the remarkable work and dedication of our employees. We will continue to forge ahead to hit our 2025 goals and we remain resolute in our pursuit of embedding sustainability within construction.’