The five new towers, ranging in height from 8 to 18 floors, will provide over 800 affordable student bedrooms and space at ground level for new Students’ Union and fitness facilities.

The development is being built by Bouygues on the site of the university’s car park and is due to be ready for students starting courses this September.

As part of its environmental consciousness pledge, the University asked the company to also ensure it reduced its carbon emissions and improved the local air quality in the built-up area around the construction site.

Cole selected GreenD+, a high performance low emission HVO fuel supplied by Green Biofuels Ltd, in order to achieve the goals set by Brighton University, without incurring any additional capital expenditure to deliver the project in line with its sustainability goals. The alternative fuel is ready to use in any existing diesel engines without any prepatory mechanical enhancements.

Cole monitored the CO2 emissions from the site and calculated the fuel economy during the works.  The company has reported a 90% reduction in green house gas (GHG) emissions, a NOx reduction by approximately 30% and a particulates reduction by 70%. In total Cole has saved 3,614 kg of CO2 over the course of the construction project.

The partnership between Green Biofuels and Cole will extend beyond the Brighton University project, and see the company use approximately nearly 2 million litres of Green D+  in the next 5 years, saving an equivalent 5,640,000 kg of Co2e in the process.

Clayton Parsons, Site Manager, Bouygues UK, said: “Bouygues UK is conscious of our environmental impact as a result of our core activities in construction and are constantly adapting in an effort to reduce this impact.

“We are proud to partner with Cole Groundworks to advance initiatives which will reduce our carbon footprint. We welcome the use of Green D+ fuels on our project here in Brighton and congratulate our supply chain partners for their efforts in this regard and encourage any others which are willing to take part too.”

Conor Cole, Managing Director, Cole Groundwork Contracts, said: “We are delighted to be the first Irish company to be using this advanced HVO fuel in all our sites across the UK, we plan to introduce this to all our sites now in Ireland also.

“We are passionate about being the ‘best’ in our field; and know that Green D+ is allowing us to help our customers hit their sustainability goals, and more importantly all our staff have noticed improved efficiency with Plant, better air quality on site, and no heavy diesel plumes from cold plant. This is what we believe is a true revolution for air quality in our area of expertise, and an innovation that will help the entire Construction Industry.” 

William  Tebbit, CEO, Green Biofuels, added:  “It is great news when the supply chain leads the charge to reduce carbon in construction, driven by a passion for innovation, and a drive to efficiency.  Cole’s have a GBF smart tank on site, that allows them to monitor fuel efficiency, energy used by plant, and report their CO2e reductions.  We can deliver fuel in the confidence that it is needed and there are no wasted delivery miles.”