All construction businesses should focus a significant amount of management time on ‘going green’ as it will give them a competitive advantage.

That’s the advice from expert Simon de Grey of leading environmental and health and safety training company Pivotal Performance.

He was reacting to research by the Environment Agency which revealed that UK businesses are losing interest in reducing the impact of their business on the environment.

When did the well known motorway refrain "Mmm; smell that fresh country air!" become "It stinks around here; who do we complain to?"

When segregated from the air pollution sector, odour control as an industry is driven by public perception and legislation. Although it is an environmental industry, the emphasis is not on protecting the natural environment but more protecting our enjoyment of the environment we live in. We often like to think of the environmental sector as being required for the 'greater good'; however, there is an inherently selfish motivation for looking after the environment we reside in. This is seen by looking back at the definition of pollution.

As time has gone by water use in British bathrooms has changed considerably. When water had to be hand drawn from a well or pump the amount used would be limited by what could be carried. For bathing a metal tub would be placed in front of the open fire and kettles of water heated and used to fill the bath.

As buildings were plumbed and running water became the norm people started to use more water. Baths as permanent fixtures became established and WCs replaced the soil privies at the bottom of gardens.

The land remediation market in the UK has matured over the past decade. There has been no overnight change, with dozens of new players and the adoption of brand new approaches to cleaning up contaminated land – rather the steady growth of an experienced and professional base of remediation practitioners, applying and adapting established remediation techniques to suit the UK situation.

Since land remediation emerged as a distinct area of activity, UK practice has been dominated by civil engineering approaches, principally a reliance on readily available and low-cost landfill disposal. The UK had been seen as lagging well behind its counterparts elsewhere in Europe and in North America in terms of developing and employing more innovative approaches to dealing with the legacy of land affected by contamination. But things have changed and continue to change.