Responsible Project Delivery
Aecon helps our clients meet high sustainability standards by executing every project responsibly, not just following the rules but actively seeking ways to reduce waste, mitigate harm to local ecosystems and respond to community priorities and concerns. Making a meaningful commitment to the principles of sustainability not only aligns with our values, it reduces costs, builds public support for projects, and helps our clients achieve their own goals in areas such as waste and emissions reduction.
Acting on the Evidence
Our GHG inventories affirmed that over 90% of our Scope 1 and 2 emissions result from construction activities. Within that category, diesel-powered construction equipment and fleet vehicles are collectively the largest emitters. Many initiatives described in this report, such as fleet-usage optimization and the pilot-testing of electric, solar and biodiesel-fuelled construction equipment, focus on these key opportunities to improve our performance as we work to meet our newly adopted targets. Next year we aim to further expand and refine our measurement practices, for example by deepening our understanding of Scope 3 emissions across our supply chain and by more precisely quantifying the performance improvements we’re achieving through our fleet telematics program.
On the way to #30by30
In 2021, Aecon saw a 6.7% reduction in year-over-year greenhouse gas emissions across our operations notwithstanding an 8% increase in revenue, resulting in a 14.5% reduction in GHG intensity by revenue. The main driver for achieving these reductions was a 16% decrease in diesel consumption, largely tied to the different mix of work in 2021 as compared to 2020. That is consistent with our understanding of Aecon’s emissions profile, which is that our Scope 1 emissions are a function of several variables, including type of work, phase of project, equipment used, type of fuel consumed and proportion subcontracted, all of which will fluctuate in the normal course from one year to the next. While those variables may see emissions rise in some years and fall in others, in the long run we plan to see a trend emerge consistent with our target to achieve a 30% reduction by 2030.