To become a truly sustainable business, we need to find new ways of doing things that improve the social and environmental impacts of our products and services while continuing to satisfy the needs of our customers for quality. We recognise the important role our products play in creating the built environment and aim to help customers and clients to build in the most sustainable way by innovating new sustainable products, services and solutions. By doing this we not only help customers meet their sustainability goals but also create value for our business.

We are committed to exploring how new construction methods and materials can be developed to perform in a more sustainable way throughout their life cycle. To do this we must gain a better understanding of how materials can perform in the built environment of the future, and how these properties can be used for the best outcomes.

We have a network of Centres of Research Excellence with partners such as the University of Nottingham, University of Hertfordshire, University of Birmingham, Loughborough University and Heriot Watt University. Research projects focusing on disruptive technologies, 3D printing and carbon capture technology continued throughout 2016.

Our work with the Centre for Sustainable Communities (CSC) at the University of Hertfordshire, for instance, is focused on learning how buildings can be designed to be resilient to climate change and no longer dependent on fossil fuel, while still providing places where people want to live, work and play. In 2016 we commenced a three year PhD study to understand the decision making process in the sustainable materials supply chain namely, the interplay between a range of possible factors that are brought to bear on decision-making processes relating to purchasing practices in the construction industry. These include legal and regulatory constraints, finance, conventions and cultural practices Learn more on uh-sustainable.co.uk

We have continued to provide new solutions to help our customers and in 2016 we launched a number of new products. Our new 12.5kg Mastercrete mix for example aims to make life easier for our construction customers and those in the DIY market. In addition to our standard 25kg pre-packed cement range, the product develop team at Tarmac, working closely with construction professional developed a small 12.5kg bag. The bag size is ideal for a 4:1 sand/cement mix, in that one mixer bag is used with two bags of building sand to create the perfect mix – saving customers time and money as there is no wastage.

Read our case study: Mastercrete innovation aims to cut waste – New 12.kgs bags

TopFlow Screed C Belitex. This new innovation is a cement based, free flowing screed that can be laid quickly, trafficked after just 24-48 hours and dry within 14-21 days. Topflow Screed C Belitex is a solution that provides users flexibility in installation and overall build programme.

Read our case study: Belitex

Alongside sustainable construction projects and products, we are continually investigating new services that can enhance our offer to our customers, particularly using information technology to make processes more sustainable. For example, in 2016 we piloted the use of an electronic proof of delivery system to reduce paperwork and save time (ePOD).

Read our case study: Making gains through electronic deliveries

Carbon capture is a key technology for tackling climate change. Although it is likely to be quite some years before it can be applied technically or economically to our cement or lime manufacturing processes, we are supporting the development of carbon capture research projects.

During 2016, we continued to support a European consortium of organisations from industry, technology providers and academia that successfully secured €12 million of direct funding from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research fund to construct and test a pilot carbon capture plant. Supported by a further investment of €8 million from the project partners, including Tarmac, the pilot plant will be constructed at a cement plant in Belgium and tested and monitored over the next five years.

We also began to support research carried out by the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre and became a member of the Industrial Advisory Board for a consortium of UK universities that manage the Carbon Capture and Storage and Cleaner Fossil Energy Centre for Doctoral Training.

We are supporting the UK Government’s development of a 2050 Decarbonisation roadmap for the cement sector, and in 2016 worked with various government departments to develop a joint action plan to deliver on the roadmap. This collaborative work will continue into 2017 and beyond.

We operate quality management systems certified to ISO 9001 across our business, allowing customers to be confident that our products and services are of the highest standard.

This extends to the support we provide to customers, and we are committed to ensuring, through staff training and professional development programmes, that our employees always understand the technical performance of our products and the technical challenges our customers face.

By the end of 2016 all of our relevant operations were certified to ISO 9001.

If we do experience complaints from customers, we seek to improve our performance and aim to resolve the issues quickly and satisfactorily, including through a documented corrective action system.

We have once again been accredited to the Achilles Building Confidence scheme after completing a pre-qualification questionnaire and passing a rigorous onsite audit. This delivers reassurance to customers about the quality of our products, services and solutions.