As Australia’s leading construction contractor, CIMIC Group company CPB Contractors is in a unique position to trial new solutions, technology and processes that can positively impact Australia’s future, particularly in relation to waste, decarbonisation and emissions reduction.
To help achieve this, CPB Contractors has launched its Sustainable Construction Playbook, sharing learnings and examples of innovation, with a particular focus on encouraging its hundreds of suppliers, subcontractors and partners to unite to achieve ambitious sustainability targets that benefit the industry, communities and the environment.
CPB Contractors Group Manager Sustainability David Fox said: “CPB Contractors has been building critical city- and region-shaping infrastructure for almost 100 years. With up to 50 projects in delivery at any one time, located in a variety of regions and landscapes, our projects provide an incredible opportunity for us to trial new innovations, encourage greener technology and solutions, and drive better environmental outcomes through collaboration with our suppliers, subcontractors and partners. With a growing pipeline of renewables infrastructure in regional locations, sustainable construction couldn’t be more important as we strive to expertly deliver these projects with minimal or no impact on the surrounding landscape, wildlife and communities.”
CPB Contractors’ has delivered several wins in driving greater sustainability across its projects that can be adopted industry wide. Following the successful launch of construction’s first 100% self-sufficient mobile site facility – the ECOPRO Site Facility – CPB Contractors launched a new ECOPRO Solar Hybrid Battery power solution to replace diesel-powered generators on project sites across the country.
Designed with a modular formation for easy and efficient transportation and on-site set-up, the ECOPRO Solar Hybrid Energy Supply power solution features 66kWp solar panels, a 60kW battery inverter and 123kWh of battery storage, and has the potential to provide zero-emission power to any project site.* Deployed on the Sydney Metro — Western Sydney Airport Surface and Civil Alignment Works (SCAW) project, results show a 99% reduction in diesel usage and CO2 emissions, in addition to a 99.2% reduction in generator run time, reducing emissions as well as noise pollution, maintenance and hire costs.
Furthering the SCAW project’s ambition to set a new benchmark in sustainable construction, the team is powering all plant and equipment with a biodiesel blend – the first of its kind for a construction project in Australia. The project has already reduced its carbon emissions by 200 tCO2e – the equivalent of taking 70 cars off the road per year.
CPB Contractors is focused on influencing and encouraging its network of suppliers and subcontractors to unite to achieve strong outcomes for the environment. Through supplier education and by mandating the use of biodiesel across the project, supply chain partner Kennards – a major national asset supplier – is now supporting the switch to B5 or B20 biodiesel across its business. Biodiesel is an industry waste by-product sourced from either waste cooking oil or ‘tallow’ from abattoirs, and its utilisation supports CPB Contractors’ circular economy approach.
Mr Fox adds: “At CPB Contractors, we recognise that we need to shift to greener technologies such as electric plant powered by renewable energy. We are also transitioning away from fossil fuels and moving towards cleaner sources like HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) and biodiesel. Through influencing and collaborating with our partners, we are proud to support the supply chain’s transition to low carbon solutions and encourage the utilisation of waste feedstock or raw material.
“Collaboration and alignment with our suppliers and contractors is critical as our industry works to deliver on our country’s ambitious decarbonisation targets, and we hope that sharing our own learnings through the Sustainable Construction Playbook will encourage other contractors to do the same.”
CPB Contractors is a company of firsts:
2012 – Industry-first use of warm mix asphalt on a major roads project in Western Australia. Manufactured at a lower temperature, the process significantly reduced carbon emissions, requiring less fuel to process and was found to improve the safety and technical performance of the asphalt.
2014 – CPB Contractors replaced 20% of diesel with biodiesel and waste bio-product (tallow) blend to power generators as part of an off-grid energy solution on projects in Victoria.
2014 – Developed in-house, CPB Contractors’ Remote Area Power Solution combined battery energy storage, solar energy and a generator, reducing the use of diesel to power site sheds on projects.
2016 – CPB Contractors developed a new low-carbon noise wall solution by replacing precast concrete panels with Autoclaved Aerated Concrete panels (Hebel panels), meeting noise attenuation requirements while significantly reducing embodied carbon on the M4 Widening project in Sydney.
2019 – First commercial use of French asphalt, Enrobes a Module Eleve Class 2 (EME2) on a project in Queensland. This innovative product reduces the base layer’s thickness, thereby reducing the need for virgin materials, haulage distance and carbon emissions.
2019 – CPB Contractors combined grading and compactor technology in civil earthworks, using two forms of 3D technology to improve the safety, construction efficiency and environmental footprint of soil compaction on the Western Sydney Airport Early Earth Works project.
2019 – Trial of Dry-Flo conducted in place of wet testing for fire deluge systems on a major Sydney tunnelling project. Not only saving 11,000kL of potable water, the use of air flow instead of high-pressure water also improved the tunnelling program, reducing the size of exclusion zones.
2019 – First contractor to win the Infrastructure Sustainability Council ‘Organisational Leadership in Infrastructure Sustainability Award’ for outstanding contribution resulting in positive sustainability impacts at an organizational, system and/or sector-wide level.
2019 – Recognised by the Roads and Maritime Innovation Network for our use of ‘Rubbelisation,’ an innovative concrete pavement fracturing technology, which allows concrete pavement crushing and relaying of carriageway profile. This eliminates offsite transportation of materials for re-processing, avoiding fuel-associated emissions and incorporating 85,000m3 of the original carriageway, while delivering faster and quitter construction.
2020 – Delivered Australia’s largest grass track to replace traditional concrete or ballasted track for a light rail project in Parramatta. The grass track absorbs heat, reduces air temperature, minimises noise and glare, filters and helps retain stormwater, reduces flooding and encourages biodiversity.
2023 – CPB Contractors completed a world-first pilot of Toyota’s prototype HiAce powered by a hydrogen-fuelled internal combustion engine. The contract went on to purchase two Toyota hydrogen-powered vehicles for its fleet.
2024 – CPB Contractors achieved an impressive 35.5% reduction in Portland cement usage across precast and in situ concrete. This was achieved through substituting with waste materials such as fly ash and slag, to result in a significant reduction in carbon emissions.
2024 – First contractor to use the battery-powered emission free, low-noise LR 1250.1 unplugged 250 tonne Crawler Crane on an infrastructure project.
2024 – CPB Contractors designed and built the first-in-market 100% self-sufficient mobile site shed – EcoPro Site Facility. Powered by renewables and purposefully designed for project sites where utility connections aren’t feasible, the eco-friendly site shed doesn’t require back up fossil fuel energy sources, producing and storing its own sustainable power and capturing and storing filtered potable water. The prototype was deployed to one of CPB Contractors’ major infrastructure project in Sydney, where it was successfully mobolised at different sites across the project. Providing the project significant benefits through cost savings and by reducing CO2 emissions, CPB Contractors is now building six new 20-foot EcoPro Site Facility units to be distributed nationally for deployment on their project sites. The team is also receiving enquiries from some government clients about their potential use on remote operations hub sites.
2024 – CPB Contractors also designed and built a new EcoPro Power System to replace diesel-powered generators on project sites across the country. Designed with a modular formation for easy and efficient transportation and onsite set-up, the solar hybrid power solution features 66kWp solar panels, a 60kW battery inverter and 123kWh of battery storage, and has the potential to provide zero-emission power to any project site.* The Solar Hybrid Power System has the ability to be scaled up and tailored to any project site and size, and, following its successful deployment to one of the satellite sites at a major Western-Sydney infrastructure project, will be further rolled out across other CPB Contractors projects in the coming months, including a major renewables project in regional NSW. Solutions like this one present a major step forward in reducing carbon emissions for CPB Contractors’ projects, clients and the construction industry, providing cost-effective, clean energy power.
2024 – CPB Contractors received a ‘Leading’ achievement for the Design Rating by the Infrastructure Sustainability Council for designing and delivering one of Australia’s most sustainable rail maintenance facilities in Dubbo NSW. Constructed using sustainable construction methods, the Mindyarra Maintenance Facility is set to support the new NSW regional rail fleet and can achieve close to net zero electricity during operations. With a total of 3,243 solar panels and a bio-mode diesel-electric hybrid system, the trains can run on overhead power when operating on the electrified section of the track, while the facility is meeting 100% of all non-potable water demand through a rainwater capture and reuse system with bore water and a train wash and reuse system.
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