Murphy Ireland - Climate Action

As part of our Murphy @75 strategy we have committed to a sustainability strategy – including social value and climate action. We are committed to playing our part in protecting the planet for future generations through climate action.

In recent years Murphy Ireland has been leading the field in the Irish construction industry. From our electric vehicle fleet, wide range of emission-free and low-emission construction equipment and compact machines, to the repurposing of old slings, and the recycling of aggregates.

HOW HAVE WE DONE IT?

Over the last decade, we have consistently worked to decrease carbon emissions associated with fuel and electricity by:

  • Upgrading plant and equipment to be greener and more efficient.
  • Monitoring and adapting vehicle usage – fitting all commercial vehicles with trackers, new vehicles with speed restrictors and investing in more efficient vehicles.
  • Investing in bespoke energy efficient eco-cabins for site accommodation.
  • Undertaking major refurbishments in our offices.
GREEN PLANT AND VEHICLES

We introduced our first electric vehicles in 2019 and installed electric charging points at our Newbridge office and selected projects to encourage more employees to drive electric vehicles.

We have also purchased a number of Hybrid Excavators, which can reduce carbon footprint and fuel consumption by 30% and replaced our entire HGV Fleet with Euro 6 Engines, including our first Mitsubishi Eco Hybrid Pick-up Truck last year.

All Murphy Ireland’s 250 CFM Compressors are now Stage 5 and all Generators are Stage 3A low emissions super silent generators, while the company awaits Tier 5 models to be released.

​​​​​PROJECT INNOVATION: WASTE TO WEALTH
  • On our recent R445 Newbridge Orbital Relief Road project for Kildare County Council and LIDL Ireland, we used several innovative and green methods. During excavation of the existing R445 carriageway, large quantities of aggregates were excavated. These aggregates were recycled, tested and reused on site as class 600 material. Careful programme management ensured that there was no resulting programme clash, demonstrating how environmental concerns can be successfully addressed without losing valuable time on projects. All other excavated materials were reused on site to form embankments and berms, this saved many hundreds of vehicle movements to and from the project.
  • In July 2020 the client requested us to carry out repair works on Sequence Batch Reactors in Skerries. Murphy Ireland used a new mobile separator which had come on the market for wastewater, to separate the water from the waste and reduce the quantity of waste being sent from site. Using this process instead of the old method, reduced our waste from the job from 400t to 19.5t. Other advantages were: less vehicle movements and lower carbon footprint.
  • At our site in Ballough we are diverting 100% of our waste away from landfill.
  • In 2020, we partnered with Lynn Haughton of the Upcycle Movement to repurpose old industrial slings into furniture for our Newbridge offices
BIODIVERSITY

We are also committed to protecting Biodiversity and striving for net positive impact on Biodiversity across all company activities. We are a supporter of the All Ireland Pollinator Plan and have recently become a founding member of the Irish Business Biodiversity Platform.

We employ a range of measures to enhance biodiversity including initiatives such as installing wildlife corridors/buffer strips, planting wildflower areas for bees and insects, protecting streams and aquatic life during works, safeguarding trees and hedgerows from design to works, and enhancing reinstated areas with native plant and sapling mixes.

Biodiversity is also being championed by our employees -  some of whom did a beekeeping course to tend to our beehives in Newbridge. More hives are also being installed on a number of our projects.

One small, but powerful change we have made as a Group is to support reforestation and conservation around the world, has been to change our default search engine on all internet browsers to ‘Ecosia’. Each time a search is made using the Ecosia search engine, money is donated to reforestation and conservation, resulting in approximately 45,000 trees planted each year.