Environment

Barnstone Plant

Sustainability and carbon reduction

Sustainability is at the core of Tarmac’s business and is deeply embedded in our culture. Our sustainability strategy plays a central role in our vision to become our customers’ preferred choice for sustainable construction solutions.

We have set ambitious commitments and targets based around four key themes - people, performance, planet and solutions.

The cement made at Barnstone and the range of construction materials produced by Tarmac’s business, play a vital role in the construction industry.

The UK Government has set targets around carbon reduction and sustainability, which will change the built environment. As a leader in the UK construction sector, Tarmac is set to play its part.

Restoration

The site has a Biodiversity Management Plan, which simply means we have a plan on how we intend to look after our wildlife on site! This plan outlines how often we should maintain our trees, what species of flora and fauna are on site, and considerations before projects are undertaken.

In order to promote wildlife habitats on site, varieties of Old English fruit trees have been planted, along with allowing various shrubs to grow unhindered. The range of wildlife identified included Peregrine Falcons and Brown Hares at one end of the spectrum to House Martins, Swallows and Red Admiral Butterfliesat the other.

Elsewhere at the site, we have also removed redundant buildings in order to minimise the visual impact of the Plant. We have removed old drilling sheds and laboratories that were not pleasing to the eye. We built new footpaths surrounded by evergreen hedgerows to both reduce the risk to local people who use the bridleway at the front of the Plant and again, to reduce the visual impact of the Plant from this bridleway.

Finally, as well as footpaths, we have built other hard surfaces to improve safety at the site. This has improved safety because this new hard surface means that lorries are able to be parked here rather than being close to the public access point.

Regulation and Governance

We have certificates for:

ISO14001:2015 Environmental Management
ISO50001:2011
ISO9001:2008
OHSAS18001:2007
BES:6001

Our operation is strictly regulated by Rushcliffe Council.

Environment FAQs

Have you got a question on how the operation at Barnstone affects the environment? We have some helpful answers for you below.

If your question isn't here, contact us directly on [email protected]

Our Environmental Management System (EMS) sets out procedures to ensure we can comply with our limits and our operators and managers work very hard to ensure we do not go over the limits. However, if we do, then this is reported to the regulator in line with our permit and EMS. Investigations are carried out to understand why we went over the limit and corrective actions put in place to prevent this from happening again.

Our Plant Permit gives the Plant operating parameters that the site must adhere to at all times. The site has a well-established EMS system and has recently been certified for ISO14001:2015 (the new standard). Our teams strive to ensure our operations do not impact on our neighbours. Our teams will follow procedures and ensure the plant is maintained to the highest standard to avoid breakdowns. We have mini teams who have a responsibility under certain environmental ‘impacts’, we have a team dedicated to inspecting our filter plants, a team who manages waste levels, a team who monitor water usage etc.

From time to time you may see our Environmental Coordinator Josie Morrissey out and about in the community or in the farmer's field with gizmos and gadgets! Every four years we undertake noise surveys to ensure our plant isn’t noisy or dusty in a way that could impact on our neighbours. Josie and a team of experts will set up noise monitoring and dust monitoring devices to monitor the local surroundings.

“Sometimes the most challenging part of this particular job is asking the sheep to leave our equipment alone!” says Josie. ”If our local neighbours need to talk to us, we have an ‘open door’ policy at the site, and we would always encourage our neighbours to come and talk to us.”