Tayside Contracts aims to develop and adapt to our customer’s needs, and the organisational and environmental challenges we face. This will enable us to provide, maintain, and continually improve the sustainability of our products and services.
Tayside Contracts aims to develop and adapt to our customer’s needs, and the organisational and environmental challenges we face. This will enable us to provide, maintain, and continually improve the sustainability of our products and services.
We care for and protect the environment in which we operate by preserving biodiversity, preventing pollution, and minimising ecological disturbance within our operations whilst maximising positive effects whenever possible.
We engage with the local community to support employability and develop apprentices. By working with local suppliers, we will also further reduce our emissions from transport.
We ensure effective and sustainable waste management by striving to improve resource consumption efficiency, minimising waste generation in our operations, and adherence to the established hierarchy of waste.
We reduce greenhouse gas emissions through improving the efficiency of our transport network, investing in fully electric vehicles, and improving the energy use in our buildings.
We are committed to electrifying our fleet, as well as improving the infrastructure for electric vehicle charging at our main depots.
Given the nature of our operations, our reliance on diesel-powered vehicles is unlikely to change as soon as we would like. To reduce the impact of our diesel-powered vehicles, we ensure that all vehicles are maintained to a high standard.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic we have introduced hybrid working. Greatly reducing the amount of transport undertaken by office-based staff, as well as improving the flexibility of work.
We are committed to improving and facilitating active travel by ensuring that showers are available at all our main facilities, as well as promoting our cycle-to-work scheme.
Tay Cuisine significantly reduces the amount of energy used in food production by preparing all meals in a central production unit. This also reduces the number of food miles travelled and decreases our reliance on heavy vehicles. On top of this, where possible, we use locally sourced products to help reduce our transport related emissions from the 5 million meals we produce each year.
School meals are pre-ordered to reduce food waste at the point of production. Our central production unit is then able to calculate production requirements for each point of service and prepare all dishes according to standardised recipes with specified yields. This further reduces food production and packaging waste.
We aim to reduce the impact of single use packaging and products. This includes:
Our street lighting team has successfully installed over 48,000 LED lights so far and are constantly working to further improve the efficiency and lifespan of lighting systems across Tayside.
We are committed to improving whole building insulation at our depots and offices, as well as improving inefficient heating and hot water systems. In addition to procuring green energy, we are committed to increasing use of renewable energy generating technologies, such as solar panels, heat pumps, and biomass.
We recognise that the materials we use in our operations can carry a high carbon footprint. Ensuring that our waste is dealt with in the best way possible is a top priority.
95% of the construction materials we excavate is recycled into aggregates for reuse. Which saves energy, reduces emissions, and relieves pressure on virgin materials.
Quarry by-products are re-used within some of our bituminous mixes, all fine dust is reclaimed to replace limestone filler and quarry dust can be used instead of sand. Quarry dust is also sold to local farmers to spread on their land, this adds minerals to the soil enhancing crop growth – similar to taking a multivitamin tablet. We are involved in an Enhanced Rock Weathering project where crushed basalt rock (Collace quarry dust) reacts with rainwater, permanently locking away CO₂ from the atmosphere.
Our VIBES award winning reedbed ecological treatment systems treat the wastewater removed from gullies across Tayside, removing contamination to acceptable levels and preventing unnecessary transport of waste materials for processing.
As our ecological system is natural, comprising of select plant life designed for this application, it’s a perfect habitat for wildlife.