Impressive environmental management has propelled BAM Construct UK to achieve gold in Business in the Community's (BITC) 2011 Corporate Responsibility Index (CRI), the UK's leading voluntary benchmark of corporate responsibility.

Besides being one of the UK's largest school and hospital builders, the contractor, which has its regional HQ in Coventry, is behind local developments for the University of Coventry and the University of Warwick, as well as the Aston University Student Village complex in Birmingham and the new Interchange in Wolverhampton.

The Index provides a systematic approach to managing, measuring and reporting on business impacts in society and on the environment. BAM's ranking shows that the company is able to demonstrate openness and transparency through effective public reporting of its material environmental and social issues, programmes and performance.

Graham Cash, BAM's Chief Executive, said,

'At BAM, we have not hidden ourselves from external scrutiny. Our approach has been to benchmark our progress by looking inside and outside the construction sector. We've always said that for us, great people make great buildings. Carefully planned, responsibly built, sustainable buildings and services create value at every stage of a project for our clients and society. This achievement shows those who deal with us can have confidence that we practice what we preach.'

There were 13 sector comparator companies in the CRI whose scores ranged from 53% to 92.95%. BAM scored 92%. The company achieved high environmental rankings. For climate change, the company scored 94% - against an average of 75% for the sector and 83% for the Index. And for waste and resource management, BAM's 96% far outstripped the 79% and 77% averages achieved by the sector and the Index.

Graham Cash added,

'We introduced innovative environmental management software in 2010, to help us better manage our impacts on site, and can demonstrate that we are reducing our waste and climate change impacts year-on-year. The CRI also shows that our people are at the top of our business agenda. This is backed up by being the highest placed contractor in the UK's Best Companies to Work For. That's an incredible achievement by our teams across the UK and reflects a fantastic amount of effort and personal investment.'

Stephen Howard, Chief Executive, Business in the Community said:

'I congratulate BAM on achieving gold in the 2011 BITC Corporate Responsibility Index. It is a challenging time, but the results of this year's Index demonstrate that companies are still focused on transforming their businesses in order to have a positive impact on society. All the companies who participated this year are at different stages in their responsible business journey, but they are all taking these issues seriously and are prepared to lead by example.'

The full results of the 2011 CRI, including commentary and analysis, are published in the Financial Times Responsible Business supplement today (8 June 2011).