PS1: Social and Environmental Assessment and Management System
Environmental and Social Assessment
At the macro level, the planning process considers all facets of a community; appropriate public and private transport infrastructure, public services including those related to health, safety waste management and emergency preparedness, provision of infant, junior, senior and further educational facilities, and commercial and retail activities. All of these elements are of great importance and contribute significantly to an overall project’s livability and sustainability. An example of the overall approach to development that Urbi takes, that promotes environmental and social considerations in the planning process, is the San Pedro development in the Valle Las Palmas in Tijuana, Baja California. Urbi’s San Pedro development is certified as an Urban Integral and Sustainable Developments (DUIS) project, the first of its kind and a cornerstone of the overall sustainable strategy of Mexico’s National Housing Program. The DUIS process results in urban centers that are, or will be, well integrated into a preexisting city or development master plan, have minimal or minimized environmental effects, and contain enough diversity in their supply in terms of transportation, land uses, public spaces, densities, and building typologies. Urbi have chosen to follow DUIS standards as they focus on urban projects and encourage the development of integrated economic, social and environment elements to develop sustainable cities. As an example of its commitment to the process, Urbi is currently providing input to the National Housing Program, as that entity contemplates the next iteration of DUIS, incorporating lessons learned during the first application and certification process. In addition, Urbi not only pursues DUIS for its own developments but sells land areas within its own developments that will themselves be developed by other companies according to DUIS principles.
In order to assess, and ultimately manage, the specific environmental, social and health and safety risks and impacts of design, development and construction of houses within Urbi’s housing developments, the company commissions and submits to the relevant authorities environmental and social assessments. These regulatory-required documents describe the impacts of new projects and provide management measures to be implemented to avoid, manage or mitigate expected impacts. Urbi, its contractors (and in turn their sub-contractors) who carry out the construction activity, then comply with environmental and social requirements stemming from the environmental and social assessment, as well as other national and local permitting requirements, including those at the municipal level that are related to planning. Urbi representatives participate in the development of the local housing development plans and systematically engage with such local communities regarding environmental, health and safety performance, and any corporate social responsibility efforts as appropriate.
Management Program, Organization and Training
As is noted above, risks and impacts associated with large scale housing projects are potentially broad in both number and type. Urbi utilizes a management system (certified ISO 9001:2000) to manage this wide variety of requirements which include environmental and social aspects as appropriate. The system, managed by the corporate ISO department, receives input from the Technical and Engineering Department and from those in the Sustainability Department as well as incorporating requirements originating from stakeholders such as the housing agencies Infonavit and Fosssiste and the environmental and social requirements of the GoM. The management system is used to generate and distribute plans, procedures and work instructions that ensure work is carried out according to whatever specific requirements are applicable to the development being considered or constructed.
Development and planning at the corporate level is supplemented by field staff within the Administration of Construction function (based at the regional, city and individual construction-site levels) who interface with authorities, ensure the intent of corporate policies are met, implement instructions, and audit and enforce specific conditions applicable to Urbi’s developments (such as permit requirements, contractual requirements, regulations regarding OH&S, payment of contractors, etc.). Urbi auditors or inspectors are employed at each construction site to enforce requirements; they are required to have the requisite educational backgrounds supplemented by experience, e.g. those working on site are civil engineers with appropriate college degrees, training etc. required of their duties. These same individuals monitor contractors and report on them to the corporate office; the corporate function then tracks compliance with all requirements including those related to environmental and OH&S performance such as impact assessment-related permit requirements and contractor accident and incident rates.
PS2: Labor and Working Conditions
Human Resources Policy and Management
Urbi has a human resource manual that contains various policies and procedures with respect to personnel management. For example, details are provided therein on working conditions (including descriptions of schedules, overtime, benefits, working age, etc.) Many further details are included in the Working Regulations Agreement (Reglamento Interior de Trabajo). Procedures and practices are in place to ensure non discrimination in the recruitment process and managing existing workers. The company has a code of ethics and procedures to manage complaints or grievances in the workplace related to a perceived or real breach of ethics; access to the mechanism is advertised and is via a dedicated internal and external phone line and email address. An ethics committee operates that reviews grievances received from individuals within the organization.
The majority of Urbi employees have management and administration roles and are not unionized. Only a small proportion have ‘blue collar’ jobs (e.g. cleaning and security personnel) that typically join a union. The company provides freedom of association and, whilst it lets employees know the benefits of collective bargaining, it exerts no pressure to join any particular union. The vast majority of construction workers are unionized. Urbi requires these sub-contractors to follow the law (Ley Federal del Trabajo) in relation to labor and working conditions, and indeed freedom of association. However, labor relations are strictly between the sub-contractor and its employees, and Urbi has no direct influence.
The above practices and arrangements are in accordance with the requirements of this performance standard.
Occupational Health and Safety
Specific requirements designed to protect the health and promote safety of contract and sub-contract workers employed on housing construction are included in the contractual arrangements Urbi has with its contractors. The requirements, based upon corporate policy and national health and safety regulations, are enforced by Urbi field personnel working within the aforementioned Administration of Construction function. These requirements are deemed to be in compliance with the requirements of PS 2.
PS3: Pollution Prevention and Abatement
Master planning, and its implications for the sustainability of projects, varies from development to development according to the role and capacity of the municipality. By positively impacting the process, however, Urbi is promoting more efficient practices and as a result a reduction in natural resource consumption in the short, medium and long term. For example, as noted above, road layouts that promote access to and ease of use of public transportation, the relative location of schools and universities to dwellings, demarcation of concentrated areas of commerce that can serve specific communities, the development of homes with integrated ‘flexible spaces’ that allows for individual small scale retail and commerce that directly serves residential areas, preservation of existing agricultural land that can supply new communities with locally-grown food and adherence to an overall sustainable strategy (such as that embodied in the DUIS program) as evidenced at San Pedro can all contribute to lessoning a project’s impacts. Recognizing this, Urbi has evolved its role with respect to master planning of developments and now promotes and/or encourages better land use practices for all aspects of its developments, privately or publicly owned, than those evident in projects conceived and constructed as few as 5 to 10 years ago (as were observed during appraisal in older large scale Urbi developments in the Tijuana region). This emphasis on better planning is many faceted; for example, developments are now designed with greater emphasis on drinking water and waste water networks. Discharges into natural bodies of water are subject to prior treatment by the municipality. Whereas such water networks and facilities will be built, owned and operated by municipalities, cooperation at the initial planning stage will lead to a minimization of energy requirements through thoughtful placement of facilities, use of gravity flows to minimize energy consumption and possibility allowing for the reuse of grey water. For example, the first module of the new municipally-owned waste water treatment system in the San Pedro development allows for reuse of water in public services in compliance with the Mexican norm NOM-003-SEMARNAT-1997. Additional initiatives and pilot projects involving forestation, reforestation, and provision of facilities to allow for composting of organic wastes and the use of wetlands to treat effluents are now being featured in other Urbi projects.
On an individual scale, the types of materials and goods Urbi requires in the construction of the homes themselves becomes of paramount importance given that their impacts will be multiplied thousands of times over. The specification of the concrete, the insulation used in the homes, and which electrical appliances and fixtures are to be used in the houses (lighting, water fixtures, durable consumer goods, etc.) are all subject to review by the company. In this instance, Urbi stipulates the environmental specifications and performance goals to be met by these products and supplies, working with suppliers (such as Cemex) to reduce energy used and pollution generated during both their manufacture and construction (such as that of using innovative concrete molding) and also that generated during their use by home owners. With regards to construction activity itself, the company has identified and manages issues with dust and noise arising from construction activities carried out by contractors. In addition, the need for erosion and sediment control as well as the need to practice safe storage, handling and application of hazardous materials and disposal of hazardous wastes (including spill prevention and emergency procedures should spills occur) is stipulated in contracts and audited by Urbi staff to ensure good practices prevail in operations. Final waste disposal is regulated and records of contractors removing waste from site are maintained.
The company has also invested in developments in other parts of Mexico that promote energy efficiency measures or pursue alternative means to generate power for use in homes. For example, the UrbiVilla del Rey project in Cancun, a pilot 15 unit vertical development, is energy self-sufficient by means of a solar panel farm and other eco-technologies (such as use of thermal enveloping, efficient lighting, bio-climate architecture, high efficiency appliances, water saving fixtures, etc) which has combined to reduce CO2 emissions from the building by 30 tons a year against equivalent structures (exceeding requirements under the Mexican standard NMX-C-460-ONNCCE-2009). At the corporate level, the company continues to develop an energy efficiency program begun in 2010 that targets energy use at its Mexicali head offices.
At a programmatic level, Urbi maintains membership in various entities that have a sustainability agenda, such as the Mexican Green Building Council, the Mexican Chapter of the Association of Energy Savings in Building and they contribute to national technical committees concerned with product development, product specification and energy efficiency related to housing and materials used in housing. Urbi has also aligned itself since 2010 with the Green Mortgage Scheme offered by Infonavit that promotes opportunities for buyers to purchase more energy efficient homes and appliances within those homes.
Related to this, IFC is currently working with Urbi on a number of initiatives related to energy efficiency in low income housing. Specifically Urbi has agreed to adopt IFC''s Green Buildings Standard (i.e., 20 percent less energy consumption compared to an equivalent benchmark) across all their new housing projects. Having piloted the use of roof-top solar photovoltaics to supply electricity for homes in Cancun, Urbi is keen to roll this practice out across their portfolio of projects; IFC is working with the company on how to mainstream this practice. Urbi is also willing to participate in the development of the IFC''s new design-cum-estimation tool that reviews the “greenness” of a building design and suggests improvements and amendments to design before anything is actually built. Lastly, Urbi has stated a keen interest in applying for and receiving IFC’s future "IFC green label" if and when this is created by the corporation.
With regards to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Urbi is working on developing an inventory of both direct and indirect GHG following the approach found in ISO 14064. This inventory will be extended to include on-site contractor activity in 2013 which will coincide with the development of targets for reduction of GHG depending on the results obtained. IFC estimates that GHG resulting from clearing the approximately 5,500 ha of land and fueling earth moving construction equipment to do so, is estimated by IFC at about 13,000 tCO2 equivalent per year.
PS4: Community Health, Safety and Security
Urbi gives due consideration to the environmental and social impacts of design, construction and maintenance activities, including (where appropriate) life and fire safety in design of any building destined for public use. Specific construction and maintenance activities, including controlling access to, and movement of vehicles within, areas under construction, operation of construction equipment itself including those delivering materials to and removing waste from a project site, containment or suppression of dust, noise and other nuisance factors, control of public access to construction sites and emergency preparedness and response are provided for and managed and audited. The San Pedro development includes provision for emergency services (manifested as demarcating land for temporary police and fire stations) which had been established at an early stage in the projects so as to provide emergency coverage for those moving into completed homes while the development is still under construction in other areas.
