Galliford Try switches to HVO across piling rigs to reduce carbon by 90%

Topic Carbon, Sustainability

Date 15 Feb 2022

Galliford Try’s piling arm, Rock & Alluvium, has converted its piling rigs to use HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil), as part of the Group’s commitment to achieving net zero carbon across its activities by 2030.

A total of 12 piling rigs have been converted to use HVO, resulting in an anticipated saving of up to 90% in carbon emissions compared with diesel-operated rigs. This amounts to an expected reduction in carbon emissions across the rigs from 5.5 tCO2e per £100,000 of turnover per year to 0.5 tCO2e.

HVO is a cleaner, more sustainable, fossil-free alternative to diesel produced from 100% renewable sources, and, in this instance, waste vegetable oil which is no longer fit for human consumption. It is an advanced biofuel that is processed using a specialist hydro-treatment, which means it is typically more sustainable than ‘first generation’ biofuels. Added benefits include improving local air quality by reducing particulate emissions, such as hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides by a total of circa 30%.

Machinery performance is at least on par with diesel, with cleaner combustion and better start-up in colder weather.

Darren Brockett, Managing Director of Rock & Alluvium, said: “We all have a part to play in decarbonising the environment and we are delighted to be one of the first UK businesses to switch to solely HVO-fuel for our piling rigs. We are anticipating a significant drop in our carbon emissions through their use and, as a key contributor to the Group’s carbon emissions, this is an excellent step in Galliford Try’s journey to net zero, as part its Sustainable Growth Strategy.”

Last year, the Group announced that it was moving to an all-electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles for its company car fleet. The business is already well advanced on its carbon reduction journey, having reduced carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (Scope 1, 2 and operational Scope 3) by 62% from 2012 to 2020. In the car fleet alone, emissions have decreased to an average of 77g/km from 133g/km over the same period.