Sustainable products

We embed sustainability throughout our business and are focused on delivering consistently high quality products and services to our customers. It's also crucial that we provide clear and reliable advice and information to our customers to help them pick the right product for their project. We like to get it right first time and address sustainability challenges head on.

Thinking about sustainable products and services at Tarmac is about taking a whole-life approach which means looking at:

• Reducing carbon emissions from the manufacturing process
• Promoting our products' carbon efficiency to product durability
• Minimising water use in the manufacturing process
• Using recycled materials
• Minimising waste
• Responsible sourcing of materials

It also encompasses environmental and social impacts, safety, price for customers, minimising transport, and, of course, product quality.

So why does sustainability in our product performance matter to Tarmac?

Essentially, the materials we produce and the services we offer serve our collective economic and social needs to have things such as roads, schools, hospitals, homes as well as food, clean water and pharmaceuticals that are all important to our day-to-day lives. As the UK's number one producer of materials such as readymix concrete, asphalt, aggregates, cement and lime as well as the largest road contracting and highways maintenance company, we have a responsibility to make sure we make products and provide our services in the most sustainable way we can.

What is Tarmac doing to make our products more sustainable?

We ensure that our products are ethically and responsibly sourced and produced.  This starts from raw materials, to the way they're made, the welfare and training of the people who make them, to delivery at a customers' site, and the actual use of the product and its potential re-use, product recycling and the final disposal at the end of its life.

How can we help you choose the right products?

Operational sustainability

We take a whole-life approach to sustainable products. This means looking at every detail of what we do, from quarrying materials to manufacture, delivery, installation and in-use performance. From a product development perspective, we focus on a range of factors, from reducing carbon footprint during manufacture, to maximising in-use carbon performance through thermal mass, minimising waste (both for us and our customers) and optimising the use of recycled materials.

In-use sustainability

We also provide customers with information, advice and expertise to help them to select the right products to improve their own sustainability performance, while meeting their expectations of high quality products and great service.

From porous roads, ultra-durable and recycled asphalt, high strength concrete to low carbon products, we have sustainable products covered.

Responsible Sourcing

Making and supplying ethically and responsibly sourced products is a key focus for Tarmac. It's a central part of our sustainable products strategy.

Responsible sourcing means that we manage the environmental, social and economic impacts of our business and supply chain in a responsible way. It includes the purchase of materials from a responsible and ethical supply chain, our operations, the way we produce materials, health and safety, the way we treat and train our people and how we transport products to customers.

Through independent verification Tarmac has been certified to two major independent responsible sourcing certification schemes in the UK: BES 6001 and Achilles Building Confidence.

BES 6001 is BRE's responsible sourcing certification scheme - the most widely used and recognised in our industry. Tarmac now has BES 6001 at a VERY GOOD rating across its complete product range. This covers aggregates, asphalt, readymix concrete, lime and cement products supplied from all of our UK sites.

Customers can be assured that they are using responsibly sourced products. In addition the use of products certified to BES 6001 can help customers maximise the credits available on construction projects assessed under the BREEAM or CEEQUAL Schemes.

Achilles Building Confidence is an independent accreditation scheme which validates corporate health and safety and environmental claims. The certification provides verification of the strength of our robust quality management systems and our commitment to providing greater supply chain transparency.

Product quality management

We are committed to delivering quality products by operating high standards throughout our business, understanding our customers' needs and using best practice quality management systems.

We have shared objectives across our business, and comply with BS EN ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems.  See Quality policy in Tarmac policies.

Tarmac has a long established reputation for high quality products and we place special emphasis on maintaining quality assurance. We operate ISO 9001 quality management systems and all of our production sites have third party registration, these are regularly audited by BSi.

We are able to CE mark Tarmac’s aggregates processed at our quarries, slag works and wharves. On 1 January 2008 we became the first company in the UK entitled to CE mark our asphalt by successfully obtaining a certificate of Factory Production Control (FPC) from our notified body BSi.

In addition to the above, Tarmac concrete is kitemarked through the renowned BSi Kitemark scheme. In order to achieve this seal of approval the products have met rigorous quality processes and production criteria to demonstrate that they do what we claim and are safe.