“Excellent” metro project in Stockholm
Implenia is building the “Londonviadukten” work tunnel for Stockholm’s local transit authority. The company had the construction project certified under the independent CEEQUAL sustainability rating system, and integrated the assessment criteria into its project management right from the start.
CEEQUAL stands for “Civil Engineering Environmental Quality Assessment and Award Scheme”. It is an international sustainability certification system used to evaluate and improve sustainability in infrastructure projects (see text box). In the meantime, the label has been renamed “BREEAM Infrastructure”.
The relevant sustainability topics were discussed in regular meetings with the client, which led to extremely close and effective cooperation. “This was our first CEEQUAL project. The structured way of working challenged us and helped us to improve our performance continuously,” explains Therese Rönnkvist-Mickelson, Sustainability Manager at Implenia Sweden.
The hope was that all three phases of the project – planning, design and execution – would achieve at least the “very good” grade (60 percent). So it was all the more gratifying when the final CEEQUAL overall rating came in at 83.3 percent, pushing the project into the “excellent” category. Production Manager Niklas Hallström and Environmental Coordinator Helena Andell are understandably proud of the result: "Working to the CEEQUAL method exceeded all our expectations.”
Certifications like this are becoming increasingly important for Implenia Sweden. The company is currently working on the certification of two further projects: the Hagalund work tunnel and the Sofia project.
THE CEEQUAL SUSTAINABILITY CERTIFICATION SYSTEM
CEEQUAL, a British system that was rolled out internationally in 2011, is a tool for assessing how well construction projects handle sustainability issues. Its aim is to create a systematic approach to sustainability that gives customers greater weight and makes sustainability work more visible. The CEEQUAL certification encourages clients, designers and contractors to exceed the legal requirements for sustainability and thus increase the project’s sustainability performance. CEEQUAL is a relatively new certification system on the Swedish market. The CEEQUAL handbook consists of 9 chapters with a total of around 200 criteria in the areas of planning, design and production.
