ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE PRECAST

As an ISO:9001-accredited supplier, SVC Product’s focus is to continue the delivery of high-quality products and services while getting closer to its ultimate goal of carbon neutrality. Through the launch of its inaugural Sustainability Charter, the company has defined its short and long-term objectives and implemented various sustainable initiatives, while also putting the necessary processes in place to monitor and measure the impact of current and planned activities.

To date, the company has already achieved some success. SVC are currently Australia’s first precast concrete manufacturer to utilise 100 percent carbon-neutral concrete in the production of one of its key product lines - standard stormwater pits for civil infrastructure. In 2021, SVC saved 80.3 tonnes of CO₂ from its usage of carbon-neutral concrete. With average production figures of 8,500 stormwater pits per year, this will equate to a significant carbon reduction.

Another SVC initiative to minimise carbon emissions is its adoption of renewable resources, to reduce consumption of fossil fuels and finite natural resources. An extensive installation of solar panels at its main headquarters in Mordialloc has enabled the transition of all factory and office buildings to be powered by solar energy, with excess energy regularly being diverted back into the power grid. The company has also installed high-volume rainwater tanks at all factories, capturing and harvesting rainwater for production activities instead of using potable water.

The sourcing of raw materials for manufacture is another area where SVC has been able to make some environmentally beneficial changes. Due to the high number of carbon emissions associated with cement production, SVC has adopted alternative concrete mixes that use reduced amounts of cement, using supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as fly ash and slag instead. The majority of concrete products produced at SVC now contain a percentage of SCMs, ranging from 15-35 percent cement reduction.

4 million pieces of soft plastic are collected in Australia every day. To counter the issue of soft plastic waste, SVC has invested in Polyrok – a lightweight aggregate material made from processing consumer-grade soft plastic waste into functional pellets that can be used in concrete. Polyrok offers a solution to reduce the amount of soft plastic sitting in landfill, while also providing an alternative for natural stone aggregates, lessening the demand on finite mineral resources.

SVC has registered as a trade exhibitor at the upcoming Greener Infrastructures Conference on 6-7 September, an inaugural event which will bring together key stakeholders from Victorian government and industry to share knowledge, discuss sustainability trends and explore innovations in infrastructure.

More information about the conference is available at https://bigbuild.vic.gov.au/about/ecologiq/ecoloqiq-conference.

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