Laying the foundations for a green future

London (CNN) -- Mike Putnam seems right at home in front of the "Green Wall" in Skanska's London headquarters.

As UK CEO, Putnam explains the wall, and its grading from light to deep green, to employees and clients alike.

Along the wall are various projects in which construction giant Skanska is the builder or developer and show how "green" each project is according to current building industry standards.

"The journey is to "Deep Green", and that is how we describe it internally and externally," Putnam said.

"But when we look at our business plan to 2015, we say we want a certain percentage of our projects to be (carbon neutral). But we expect a big chunk of them to be somewhere in the middle, but moving in the right direction."

Skanska is behind some of the more well known buildings developed of late --the 'Gherkin' in London and the New Meadowlands Stadium outside New York City are two well known ones.

If you want to be a green company, then you have to live those values, and you have to be in a green building

Maybe not so well known, but key to Skanska's aim to be the most green construction firm in the world, are a new "green" McDonald's in North Carolina and a new civic center being built right now next to Wembley Stadium in north London.

The McDonald's met the industry's gold standard in green construction (LEED Gold for Retail) and the civic center should be the first public building in the UK to receive the British equivalent -- the so-called BREEAM Outstanding.

"We have deliberately positioned ourselves to be a leader, or the leading contractor in this space, in this whole green space," says Putnam.

To back up its claims, Skanska points to winning The Sunday Times newspaper's "Greenest Construction Firm" award in 2010.

Constructing "green" buildings is clearly a major step to cutting carbon emissions for companies. But these days its not just about more efficient light bulbs, rainwater capture, solar panels and green roofs.

Its about the "greening" the whole construction supply chain; its about clearing the site and reusing the rubble and waste in the new build; its about well placed stairways so employees walk more, its about being close to public transport.

For the civic center at Wembley, it's about using vegetable oil as the fuel to generate heat in the building.

Skanska runs seminars for its suppliers to help them become more green. Its also initiated a four-year plan in the UK to switch some 2,000 company cars over to hybrids - 65% now are.

"Yes, it costs us money," says Putnam when talking about the company's entire green push.

"We've had a pretty significant investment in the UK, I would say, in recent years. Here in the UK, we spend £1 to 2 million ($1.6 to 3.2 million) per annum, but its starting to give us rewards. Our clients tell us, it differentiates us in the market."

In fact, Skanska says this past year the investment has increased to £4 million ($6.4 million).

Now Skanska is moving into a newer market -- retrofitting older buildings to be more green. Here the Swedish firm is joining with Arup and GE in a joint venture to supply companies with the tools to even make one floor of an older building more green - and to run tests to make sure the floor or building is ever closer to carbon neutral.

"Its very much in its infancy at the moment, so its only really the enlightened clients, the enlightened tenants, and enlightened developers that are taking that leap of faith... but we are convinced that in coming years its going to be big business," says Putnam.

And Putnam sets down a marker to any company in any field that calls itself green. "If you want to be a green company, then you have to live those values, and you have to be in a green building."

奠定基礎的綠色未來
倫敦（CNN）的邁克 - 普特南似乎就在家裡前面的“綠色長城”在斯堪的倫敦總部。
正如英國首席執行官，普特南解釋了壁，其評級從淺到深綠色，對員工和客戶的一致好評。
沿城牆有各種項目，其中建築業巨頭斯堪斯卡建築商或開發商的，並展示如何“綠色”每個項目都是根據目前的建築行業標準。
“這次旅行是”深綠“，這是我們如何描述它在內部和外部，”帕特南說。
“但是，當我們看看我們的業務計劃，2015年，我們說，我們希望我們的項目一定比例的是（碳中立）。但我們預計一大塊地方，他們將在中間，但朝著正確的方向“。
斯堪的背後是一些比較知名的建築發展晚 - 在'小黃瓜在倫敦和新梅多蘭茲體育場紐約市外有兩個眾所周知的。
如果你想成為一個綠色公司，那麼你就住這些值，你必須要在綠色建築

也許不是那麼廣為人知，但關鍵斯堪的目標是成為最綠色建築公司，在世界上是一個新的“綠色”麥當勞在北卡羅萊納州和一個新的公民中心正在興建，現在旁邊的溫布利大球場在倫敦北部。
麥當勞符合行業的黃金標準的綠色建築（LEED金牌零售）和文娛中心應該是第一個公共建築，在英國接受英國等效 - 所謂的BREEAM優秀。
“我們特意定位自己是一個領袖，或者在這個領域領先的承包商，​​在整個城市綠地，說：”帕特。
為了支持自己提出的主張，斯堪斯卡分贏得星期日泰晤士報的“最環保的建築公司獎”在2010年。
構建“綠色”建築顯然是一個重要步驟削減二氧化碳排放量的公司。但這些天它不只是更多的節能燈泡，雨水收集，太陽能電池板和屋頂綠化。
其對“綠化”整個建築供應鏈，其關於清理現場和廢墟和廢物再利用，在新的版本，它的關於有條件走樓梯，以便員工多，其對靠近公共交通工具。

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