Pentre Awel wins Construction Sustainability Award

Pentre Awel Zone 1, the prestigious and innovative multi-million-pound development at Delta Lakes in Llanelli, has won a sustainability award for its work to reduce carbon, save energy and reduce waste across the project.

As part of its strategy to reduce carbon emissions and waste across its sites in the UK, lead contractor Bouygues UK held its annual Sustainability Awards, to highlight all the work being done across its sites to decarbonise. Pentre Awel, which is still only in the early stages of construction, came out on top.

Pentre Awel is being delivered by Carmarthenshire County Council and is the largest regeneration scheme in South West Wales. The entire development will bring together life science and business innovation, community healthcare and modern leisure facilities within 83-acres of land on the Llanelli coastline.

The Pentre Awel Bouygues UK team has been working tirelessly to put carbon reduction at the heart of this development, engaging with staff and its supply chain to be as sustainable as possible during the build and it has targeted 24 specific initiatives to help reduce carbon emissions, waste and energy for the duration of the project.

One great success so far has been the installation of solar panel powered site offices and cabins. When not powered by the sun, they convert to a hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) powered generator – this alone has reduced the carbon footprint of this part of the project by 76% in around 15 weeks on site. It has also converted all of its onsite CCTV systems to solar powered.

In fact, the Pentre Awel project site has fully converted to HVO fuel. Working with contractor Alun Griffiths, it has sourced a local HVO fuel provider, and although HVO is more expensive than white diesel, it can reduce carbon emissions by up to 90%, and has therefore been 100% adopted for Pentre Awel.

Also, excavated material and soil from the surface of the site has been taken to a local recycling facility where the material can be segregated, treated and reused, reducing the amount of waste going to landfill.

The Pentre Awel team has worked closely with stakeholders, including Carmarthenshire County Council’s ecology officers and Natural Resources Wales to ensure the development would not impact on the ecology and waterbodies that surround the site. Following pre-construction ecology surveys, Bouygues UK has put measures in place to safeguard reptiles, water vole, otter, nesting birds and bats during the works.

The project is still in the early stages of construction and the team has set out its plans in place for the duration of the build. This includes installing EV charging points, scoping out the possibilities of using a completely electric plant fleet on site.

Peter Sharpe, Bouygues UK Project Director at Pentre Awel, said: “It was great to be recognised by our peers for the work the team has done on sustainability and decarbonisation here at Pentre Awel. This project is all about health and wellbeing, so looking after our environment and taking that into the build is integral to its success.

“Being able to implement such innovative energy savings initiatives so successfully has been down to early stakeholder engagement with the clients and our supply chain. Collaboration, transparency and a willingness to all work together for this joint aim has been key in allowing us to save so much carbon already. Even at this early stage of the project this is something we will only build on as the scheme progresses.”

Cllr. Gareth John, Carmarthenshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Leisure, Culture and Tourism said: “Becoming a net zero carbon authority is an aspiration that Carmarthenshire County Council is striving to achieve. It is excellent, therefore, that Pentre Awel, as a key strategic regeneration project for the Council and central to the delivery of our Economic Recovery Plan, will set such high standards in reducing carbon emissions.

“I am looking forward to seeing the truly innovative technology and science that the Pentre Awel project will deploy in saving energy and reducing waste and carbon emissions as every aspect of the Council’s work must play its part in achieving net zero carbon.”

Pentre Awel is a truly collaborative scheme is being delivered for the local community by Carmarthenshire County Council in partnership with Hywel Dda University Health Board, Universities and colleges and is part-funded by the Swansea Bay City Deal (£40million). It aims to create around 1,800 jobs over 15 years and boost the local economy by more than £450m.