Costain PPE update: inclusivity and sustainability implications for site teams
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on New Civil Engineer
30 Second Briefing
Costain has expanded its PPE and workwear range to include more inclusive sizing and fit options, aiming to better accommodate a diverse site workforce while maintaining compliance with existing safety standards. The updated offering also incorporates more sustainable materials and supply-chain practices, targeting reduced environmental impact across high-volume items such as helmets, hi-vis garments and safety footwear. For contractors and designers working with Costain, the move may influence project PPE specifications, procurement frameworks and site induction requirements.
Technical Brief
- PPE selection remains tied to existing UK and client safety standards, avoiding any relaxation of performance criteria.
- Procurement is being centralised through Costain frameworks, tightening control over product certification, traceability and batch quality.
- Standardised ranges simplify site audits, making non-compliant or ad‑hoc PPE easier to identify and remove.
- Inclusive sizing is being embedded into framework specifications, reducing informal “workarounds” that can compromise protective coverage or visibility.
- Sustainability criteria are now part of supplier pre‑qualification, influencing helmet, hi‑vis and footwear manufacturers bidding to supply Costain.
- For joint ventures, Costain’s catalogue is likely to become the default PPE baseline, overriding disparate partner standards.
- Similar tier‑one updates can drive convergence of PPE expectations across UK infrastructure sites, easing cross‑project workforce mobilisation.
Our Take
Costain’s move to update PPE for inclusivity and sustainability sits alongside its recent use of low‑carbon 3D‑printed concrete sleepers on the East Coast Cluster CO₂ network, signalling that the contractor is pushing low‑carbon and worker‑centred design into both site equipment and core construction methods.
Within our 834 Infrastructure stories and 1237 tag‑matched pieces, Costain appears frequently in safety‑ and sustainability‑tagged items, suggesting that a more progressive PPE offer could strengthen its positioning in competitive frameworks such as National Grid’s major civils workstream and the Port of Dover upgrade lot.
For large, multi‑stakeholder projects where Costain is active—such as the East Coast Cluster carbon capture scheme and the Marram Energy Storage Hub—more inclusive PPE is likely to be scrutinised by clients and regulators as part of social value and workforce wellbeing metrics, not just as a health and safety line item.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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